It must be apparent that after 50 years of the embargo that the United States has only succeeded in inflicting poverty and pain on several generations of the poor people of Cuba.

In all of the to-do the brothers Castro have never missed a meal, and yet, the vengeful attitude generated by the failure of the Bay of Pigs continues to be the core philosophy behind our economic embargo. This only punishes people born long after 1958 and the fall of the very corrupt Batista regime. Representatives Ros-Lehtnen and the Balart brothers have labored to inflict these policies, not with any real hope of bringing down the Castros, but rather due to a refusal to recognizethat it is over.

Cuba would be a happier place, all eleven million of its citizens, if this policy of revenge and punishment were abandoned. The irrepressible, bouncy, spirit of the Cuban people, the"snap" remains, despite the grinding poverty and the difficulty of the day- to- day life. The music in the Cuban soul, the warmth of the Cuban smile is still very present in today's Havana. (I can travel there with my Irish passport.)

Meanwhile, the Cuban-American has embraced American citizenship and participated in this country's society for 50 years and prospered. Some years ago a friend of mine had a young man of Cuban descent, who had never been to Cuba-- but shared the poison of the émigrés--discuss with him his family's house in the Miramar district of Havana. He said he would hope to live there one day. and when he was asked what about the people who had lived there since his family left in 1960? His answer was "They can go back to being servants like they used to be."

If this is the purpose of the embargo, to turn back the clocks to the Batista era, where the exploitation of the poor was customary and accepted, then it is time to recognize that it is over, that time has long passed.

For better or worse, Cuba is a different place, populated by poor but proud people who accept their hardship, who still can smile and sing and dance. They deserve better. It is now their Cuba.

The Cuban-American is a hyphenated American like so many of the rest of us. My Cuban-American friends, You should stop punishing the people of a country which you left years ago. You may share a language, customs and even a history, but the reality is Cuban-Americans are now Americans, and no longer Cuban. Old animosities should not be visited on the next and succeeding generations.

The United States has closed the book on it's loses in Korea and Vietnam. The veterans of those eras accept the fact that the world changes and old animosities must eventually be put in the past and relegated to Sylvester Stallone movies. We build bridges and build new understanding. We now have both diplomatic relations and normalized trade with both of those countries. It is time for the Cuban-American community to come to the same realization and stop punishing the children and grandchildren of those who remained, when you left . It is their Cuba, they have paid for it with 50 years of suffering and hardship. The Castros will soon begone and you should ask for forgiveness from those innocents that you have inflicted such cruelty upon for so many years.

End the embargo.

Publius