NOT THAT YOU ASKED
It's customary in the last column of the year for people like me to point out all of the mistakes I've made during the year, but since I haven't made any, I won't be doing that. To be honest, I'm not claiming to be perfect, it's just that I don't save these columns after I write them so I can't go back and fact check them at the end of the year.
One thing I can claim is that I have never intentionally lied to you. You may not always agree with me but you can be sure that I'm writing the truth. I have never lied in my attempts to persuade you to agree with me, and I never will. I guess that's why I would never be successful as a politician.
There was one place where I was wrong this year; at least as far as most of you were concerned. That was in the voting booth. The only vote I cast that was a winner was for the tougher ethics rule for our elected officials. I really don't feel too bad about that because, as I wrote after the election, it won't be too long before a lot of you that voted for people like Tom Cotton and Leslie Rutledge will be feeling voter's remorse.
What I'd like to point out to you this week is that President Obama, that so many of you love to hate, gave Arkansas an early Christmas gift when he decided to normalize relations with Cuba, and hopefully end our embargo against that country. That's because the Cuban people are heavy consumers of rice and chicken, and Arkansas is the number one rice producer in the U.S. and the home of Tyson Foods. In fact, for years the Arkansas Legislature has passed resolutions calling for an end to the embargo.
It's way past time we ended the embargo. It hasn't worked, and Castro has always blamed it for the poor conditions in Cuba. Once the embargo is gone, the Cuban people will know that it was Castro, not the embargo that has kept them down. Besides, the embargo never hurt the person we wanted it to--Castro, it only hurt the Cuban people and we have no reason or right to let that happen.
We also have been only too happy to do business with Russia and China for years. They are not only Communist regimes, but have been a greater threat to us than Cuba ever has. We also did business with the old Shah of Iran, who wasn't a Communist, but his regime was every bit as repressive and evil as Russia's or China's. He even had a secret police force called SAVAK, that made the KGB look like Boy Scouts.
Today we are strong allies with Saudi Arabia, even though 19 of the 20 highjackers on 9-11 were from that country. It also is run under Islamic law where a woman can be put to death for the "crime" of being raped. They don't do that in Cuba.
Aside from the economic benefits from lifting the embargo, we've always known that one of the best ways to turn people under Communism against the system is to introduce them to the freedom and benefits we enjoy. There's no doubt in my mind that introducing the Russian people to the seemingly silly things like McDonald's helped lead to the fall of Communism there.
Any way you look at it, ending the embargo is the right thing to do. It only still exists because of politics. The main opposition to ending the embargo is in Florida, which just happens to be an important state in Presidential politics. It's time that the state of Florida stop being allowed to block something that would benefit the people of Arkansas and Cuba.
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