Letter to the President After His Withdrawal as Candidate

 

Sent to the White House, cc to Vice President

 

Dear Mr. President,

Thank you for the courage to make an extremely hard decision that will benefit our country, the world and the campaign to save us from Donald Trump.

Thank you also for your endorsement of Vice President Harris as the nominee of the Democratic Party.  I will do everything I can to support her election.

 You and I are the same age so I empathize with the existential difficulty of your choice.

 Your final months in office offer historic opportunities to deal freely with seemingly intractable international problems.  You can strengthen even more your legacy and clear the decks for President Harris to address the real challenges of our time.

 From my viewpoint three priorities are:

 1)  Enhancing the process that will help Ireland become a post-colonized united country.

 2)  Freezing all military aid to Israel until there is peace in Gaza.

 3)  Real reconciliation and full normalization with Cuba. 

 Most immediately that means ending its listing as a State Sponsor of Terrorism, restoring travel (cruises, hotels, independent people to people, performances), resuspending Title III of Helms-Burton and respecting the value of Cuban medical teams to countries in need.

 That can lead quickly to closing the Guantanamo prison and returning the territory in accord with US principles on unequal treaties and bases in foreign countries. 

 A bigger but not impossible lift is employing executive authority to end the universally condemned embargo. 

While establishing preconditions is counterproductive to sovereign sensibilities and plays into the hands of Cuban hardliners, I would expect that progressive changes in US policy will be reflected in due course in Havana by prisoner releases, economic reforms and even political liberalization.

Please also consider meeting the Pope in Cuba for the beatification of Father Felix Varela, advocate of the immigrant Irish in New York.    tinyurl.com/VarelaUS

With regard,

John McAuliff

Fund for Reconciliation and Development

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What Kamala Harris Thinks About Cuba

https://cubapeopletopeople.blogspot.com/2024/07/kamala-harris-on-cuba.html