When your own is killed, you don't forget it.

I want to mention this about Cuba. About eight years ago, in one of my college courses, the instructor started talking about our relationship with Cuba. He was all for normalizing relations with them. I was the same. Not going into details but it was an overall good conversation. Great instructor. When I was done talking a student in the class stood up and started yelling at us about our ignorance. Her grandfather and one other member of her family were killed by government officials under Castro. She began crying and walked out.

Who was ignorant in this classroom situation doesn't really matter. Her position was real as was mine. What matters is what brings us to hold the positions we do. Sometimes what happens in peoples lives is so brutal that they cannot view that aspect except on the micro level. No macro thinking at all. We need to understand where they are coming from and respect them. People on this board fully grasp that our war on terror is creating more and more hate for the US. We understand that silently killing people from above more often than not will create a whole family and community that going forward will hate us even more. We need to be able to see that we are not the only ones out there that have done such things. We must apply our thinking equally.

If you see someone on this board who might not tow your line on this issue, try to be a little understanding. With the few number of people on this board it isn't all that likely to happen. That being said, it is probably more likely than a classroom with twenty people.

When governments kill people they create many enemies for life. Normalizing relations with Cuba is wonderful and not something I thought was going to happen in the near future. It is beyond good news for me. Not for any personal reason but because in the long run I think it will benefit millions. Don't gloss over the bad that has happened to so many people in Cuba. You wouldn't gloss over the bad of the US. You understand killing terrorists in the manner we have been just creates more. The same happens in other countries.

I want to mention this because I have seen some reactions today that remind me of the person in that class. By damn near every definition of the word the person in that class was a progressive. It is a visceral reaction. It is real. If nothing else, take away the fact that government killing anyone is rarely the answer to anything and has great consequences.