Stop the Terror!

 (blog by Kim)

What a surprise! The current administration has put the wheels in motion to place Cuba on the "state sponsors of terrorism" list. The only bigger surprise for me is why, in light of their consistently punitive and unjust policies, it has taken so long for them to do it. Sure, Cuba has long been a "terror" to the US, as leaders here have been terrified that an alternate system might prove to work, right in their back yard, and have done all in their power to ensure that it will not be successful. So now they want to isolate their neighbor even further, by putting them in the same boat as the three other global stooges on the State Department's list: Syria, Iran, and North Korea.

This latest piece of news reminds me of the character of Saruman in the end of the book The Return of the King, by JRR Tolkien. The defeated wizard Saruman was in the Shire, the home of the hobbits, doing as much damage as he could before Frodo and company returned. He boasts, “I have done much that you will find it hard to mend or undo in your lives. And it will be pleasant to think of that and set it against my injuries.” Frodo responds, “Well, if that is what you take pleasure in, then I pity you. It will be a pleasure of memory only, I fear. Go at once!" But, the hobbits want to kill Saruman for all the damage he has done. Frodo tells the hobbits, "I will not have him slain. It is useless to meet revenge with revenge:  it will heal nothing." As Saruman turns to go, he tries to stab and kill Frodo. But Frodo is well protected by his mithril coat and is not harmed. Sam draws his sword. Again, Frodo intervenes. “No, Sam! Do not kill him, even now. For he has not hurt me…We should not raise our hand against him…He is fallen, and his cure is beyond us, but I would still spare him in the hope that he may find it.”  

What a way to respond—to love his enemy.  I wish I could be like Frodo. Maybe that’s why I love this story so much. It calls me to live out what I believe. It also helps me find a way to deal with my outrage at the unjust policies of the US toward Cuba. Over these last four years, these policies have increased the stranglehold on a nation that is not a threat. The aggressive actions of the US are the results of a needless and cruel  grudge and expose a thirst for vengeance and punishment. The US policy makers don’t see the results in the faces of sick people, both young and old, who can’t get their medicine or have to put off urgent medical treatment because there are not enough resources, and in the faces of those who struggle to get enough to eat. 

It is absolutely insane to name Cuba a terrorist nation. Do they have a different political and economic system? Yes. Do they sometimes make mistakes in governance? Of course, what government doesn't? But which nation is really doing the terrorizing here, the US or Cuba? Which nation is inflicting suffering on the other? Psalm 2:1 says “Why do the governments make plans that are senseless?” That is my question for the US government, because our 60-year-old policy toward Cuba makes no sense. To those who are dead set against the Cuban government: as long as the US maintains its embargo, it gives the Cuban leadership a convenient excuse for whatever shortcomings it has in caring for its people. They can blame anything and everything on the US embargo. If the US would let it go, we could really see what the Cuban government would do, unhindered by a stranglehold of oppression. The Cuban people have struggled long enough against this unjustified and unjust cruelty. Their perseverance and faith are admirable beyond words, and Tolkien's hero is not the only person I seek to imitate these days. There are a lot of Frodos in Cuba.