The rage here about your trip is totally ignorant. The more we keep up the visiting
and exchange of ideas the more Cuba will get better for the people. They don't even have
a proper internet at all. And the people want the country to be opened to investment and
visitors.
I am not a socialist but we could learn from everything. Cuba's medical service is among
the best in the world. We can help the growing and freedom in the country if they
have visitors and investments from our country and others.

This kind of anger here is what has got us into problems and wars. I read the other day
that the US has been at war 80% of the time since our country was started. For the people
of Cuba we should support visiting and creating a better economy and political's for the
country.

Your trip to Cuba is being attacked by some right-wing proto fascists on this board, many of whom have served in the armed forces. When the president loses the next election and refuses to leave the White House, he will have the support of the military and the U.S.A. as we knew it will be kaput. I have toured Iran and never have I encountered such hospitable people. On the street they heard me and my companions talking in English, asked where we were from and when we told them, they came close to hugging us. The Revolutionary Guard and the religious fanatics are a very small part of Iran. I also toured Burma for three weeks, driven over 3,000 miles by a former taxi driver. We stayed at hotels not owned by the government and ate in small local restaurants. And Burma was ruled by the military, but the people benefited from whatever we spent locally. I live in an area that is so provincial that people find daunting the thought of traveling to NYC.

This always seems to breakdown to political beliefs. Right-wing Trumpers seem to always know what is right and wrong. Usually, I disagree. Opening Cuba was a hot-potato issue when it happened. I was unsure what to think. Eventually, I determined that Japan and Germany and Italy, even Great Britain had done things I found unconscionable. Yet, we have normalized our relations with them. I bet those against dealing in and with Cuba are just fine with how Donald has toadied up to Putin. If they could only see the hypocrisy in this.
Cuba, like it or not, is a country that needs to learn about how freedom and Democracy work in most countries of the world (ours being given and taken away under the current regime). They need to talk to our citizens and need to know more about the traditional values we espouse. As they learn about our values and do more trade w/us, the Government will lose some grip and hold on the people. This is why they call it cultural exchange. This pulls their country more into our orbit! Of course, maybe you guys prefer to hear about the “love letters” our leader and N Koreas’ leader have been “supposedly” sending back and forth. Your leader says it’s a good thing! Of course, that is ok, but Cuba is not. Which country is the most horrible in regards to human rights? How about what this country is doing to immigrant children. Donald says we kill people ourselves. So, give it a break. This guy is helping build relations; a positive thing in todays’ world.
I could go into a bunch of other things you guys should worry about more than this. Our totally corrupt and developing Oligarchy. The obvious crimes we excuse daily for our leaders. The voter suppression issues, the election interference by Russia, the lies we are told about the Mueller report, the investigation into the investigation, the endless foreign policy decisions hurting us around the globe, the more than 10,000 lies we have heard and been told in the last couple years, the discrimination against people whose sexual orientation may not be the same as ours...heck, I could go on for hours about how the attacks on the press, free speech, etc. are affecting our democratic and free way of life, but no one like you bothers to be open-minded or to listen. Travel outside the country, talk to others who differ from you, try to listen, not just hear. I, like many others, chose to be nice and polite and not argue when ignorant things were being said the last few years. I, for one, am tired of being so accepting of ignorant and bigoted comments. It is time nice people “resisted” a bit and let others know we have strong feelings, too.
I am sure that it is the same people who write rude and insulting remarks to innocent questions by people seeking knowledge and assistance that now ignorantly condemn a guy who is trying to help people understand other people. He sought no political opinions, but you felt free to attack w/o understanding what he might be trying to accomplish. My Father was in WWll and saw many dead and dying people, he was there for the liberation of concentration camps. He taught me about freedom and the many who have fought and died for it, or who came back with limbs missing or psychological problems. You want to support freedom and the military write your Congressmen about the deplorable state of the VA hospitals. Blindly saying you support the military w/o knowing what the military is all about is, once again, hypocrisy. It is not about putting tanks in the parade, it is about the vital and dangerous work they do to protect freedom. Countries like Russia and N Korea parade their military to intimidate their own and other people. The brave men and women who fight and represent our country do not need to show off, they should be thanked for their sacrifices. Give them better equipment, better hospitals and care when they need it.
I have in the past opposed the ridiculing and mean-spirited comments some of you make. I have also opposed this forum being made into a political forum. That is not needed. A little compassion for those who ask for your help is a small thing. Even if you think a question is stupid, does it make you bigger to make them feel smaller? It is you who are the smaller person. I will wager that many mothers have told you if you have nothing nice to say, say nothing! Some of you should have listened a bit better. I know I will receive negative comments from some of you regarding this message. That’s ok. I never expected you would understand my point, anyway. I will make a deal w/you, however. You keep your politics to your selves and I will, too.
Oh, and by the way, I would be interested in traveling to Cuba. I would appreciate learning more about the proposed trip. Price is important, as always, but even more, the itinerary.
I thank those who may disagree w/me for, at least, reading my writing.

I believe Obama did all he could legally do, including visiting Cuba. I think it is up to congress to remove the remaining resrictions...

“Like so many people in both of our countries,” he said in his televised speech in Havana on March 22, 2016, “my lifetime has spanned a time of isolation between us. The Cuban Revolution took place the same year that my father came to the United States from Kenya. The Bay of Pigs took place the year that I was born. The next year, the entire world held its breath, watching our two countries, as humanity came as close as we ever have to the horror of nuclear war."

“As the decades rolled by, our governments settled into a seemingly endless confrontation, fighting battles through proxies. In a world that remade itself time and again, one constant was the conflict between the United States and Cuba.”

Differences remained, Obama cautioned, and the two countries continued to be divided on their systems of government, their economic models and their ideas about individual rights.

But “I have come here to bury the last remnant of the Cold War in the Americas,” he said. “I have come here to extend the hand of friendship to the Cuban people.”

I haven't heard of the money angle but why would the richest country on earth want or need money from one of the poorest? It's like saying the state of California shouldn't do anything for the homeless and poor because they don't spend money at Disneyland.