{"id":13594,"date":"2016-03-20T19:35:21","date_gmt":"2016-03-20T19:35:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=13594"},"modified":"2016-03-20T19:35:21","modified_gmt":"2016-03-20T19:35:21","slug":"potus-should-meet-with-dissidents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=13594","title":{"rendered":"POTUS should meet with dissidents"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/90.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-13595\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-13595\" src=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/90-300x163.jpg\" alt=\"90\" width=\"300\" height=\"163\" srcset=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/90-300x163.jpg 300w, https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/90-768x416.jpg 768w, https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/90-1024x555.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/90.jpg 1160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s probably way too late to change the itinerary now, but President Obama might want to give it a shot when he lands in Cuba this week.<\/p>\n<p>He&#8217;ll be the first U.S. president since The Flood to visit the island nation.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve been supportive for years of efforts to renew relations with the communist dictatorship. To that end, I have applauded Obama for finally taking the step to reopen embassies in our two countries.<\/p>\n<p>I do wish, though, he would have insisted on meeting with Cuban dissidents while he&#8217;s on the island. It&#8217;s those dissidents who&#8217;ve been the subject of the opposition to U.S. efforts to do what should have happened at least two decades ago, when the Soviet Union disappeared from the planet.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.politico.com\/story\/2016\/03\/obamas-cuban-renaissance-220999\">None of us knows\u00a0<\/a>what the president will tell Cuban leader Raul Castro when the men meet in private. My hope is that he gives him a scolding as it relates to his government&#8217;s treatment of those who oppose it. If the Cuban commies are intent on restoring their nation&#8217;s status as a world player, they need to atone for their shameful treatment of political dissenters.<\/p>\n<p>Still, the visit is a welcome turn in U.S.-Cuba relations.<\/p>\n<p>If only the president could arrange to meet with those for whom he says he will fight.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s probably way too late to change the itinerary now, but President Obama might want to give it a shot when he lands in Cuba this week. He&#8217;ll be the first U.S. president since The Flood to visit the island nation. I&#8217;ve been supportive for years of efforts to renew relations with the communist dictatorship. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=13594\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">POTUS should meet with dissidents<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,13],"tags":[540,1200,3844,4343,5979],"class_list":["post-13594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-international-news","category-national-news","tag-barack-obama","tag-cuba","tag-raul-castro","tag-soviet-union","tag-us-cuba-relations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13594"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13596,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13594\/revisions\/13596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}