Several years ago I had lunch with some business associates including a Cuban man who had come to the US when he was a child. At some point in the light hearted lunch conversation he mentioned something about when he lived in Cuba and someone else asked how old he had been when his family moved. He answered he had been 12 and the conversational topic turned to why is his family had moved and therefore, Castro. That sparked someone else to ask a question that still rings in my ears. He said, and I quote, "Was Castro really that bad?"

Continued...

I still remember the stunned silence around that table; the looks of serious discomfort as we wondered how those words had sounded to our Cuban tablemate. Lucky for us he was a very kind man who simply answered the question by giving a brief history of how his family had lost virtually everything when Castro took power and how his father went from his well earned professional status to a job cleaning public toilets. A job his son (the man sitting in an American restaurant with us) had to help his father do so they could make enough money to survive. He told us how his family had made their way to the US in stages, some not surviving the journey, those who did working so hard to be able to send for their wives and children. Was Castro really that bad?

I've never forgotten that lunch. How for a few minutes the oppression I had learned about in classrooms and newspapers was now sitting in front of me in the form of one of Castro's victims and I knew that his story was mild compared to the suffering of so many of his countrymen. I was shocked that one of my countrymen had so casually displayed his ignorance. He showed me that intelligent adults in the United States can choose to be blind to what is happening just 90 miles off the coast of Florida.

On the upside he was truly ignorant of the facts and once he was properly schooled at that lunch table I doubt he ever harbored any doubt again that Castro really was "that bad". But now years later, I'm reminded of that lunch by all the present-day doubters who somehow believe that the United States can reach out to the Castro regime and effect real change with nothing more than diplomatic efforts. It seems there are many people who still need to learn that Castro really is that bad.