Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Winds of change
I feel the 'wind of change' blowing hard all around me.
And somehow, putting aside my natural fears --and the fact that I am deeply 'branded' because of all my terrible experiences in Communist Cuba when I was barely an adolescent --I am happy the world is changing for the better.
We have a black President, which would have been something unimaginable just a few years ago, now a Latina woman who grew up poor in a project in the Bronx and went to Princeton and Harvard might be a member of the Supreme Court ---and in certain issues the bull is being held by the horns, as things that need to be solved and we had come to believe they could never change (such as Health Care) are tackled ---and at least there will be the hope to improve things.
It is curious, that the social and political 'Revolution' Fidel Castro promised, and became a bloody and cruel disaster, destroying an advanced country like Cuba on the way, seems to be happening in the USA. But this time as a consequence of Democracy, without blood, within 'capitalism', which to me is the essence of personal freedoms, with a plan, and the ability to choose. And it feels amazing and incredible!
I have always been a great believer of the words ·"Yes we can" in my personal life. And never, for one single moment, I have thought that there is something that we cannot change and improve if we want to. To me it is very difficult to take 'no' for an answer --and I love to change things that are not right. And this is why I suddenly like to feel 'change' around me. A certain boldness. A desire to shake things up a little. And please notice that I say 'a little', because radical and sudden changes are not my thing either.
But when I came to the USA one of the things that have always bothered me is hearing the words "it´s supposed to be like that"....and it has always bothered me very much to 'accept' that wrongs had to stay being wrong.
"You cant fight City Hall" is another phrase that always made me feel so rebellious!
Why not?...Why cant we fight City Hall? That was always my reaction. And now, maybe because of the new government and the bold steps I see around, it makes me look at things twice -- and hope a little more.
One the other hand I cant give myself 100% to these feelings. There is always some mistrust lurking from inside me. The fact that in Cuba the supposed Democratic Revolution betrayed all of us has played a decisive role in my life. So, I can trust maybe 75%...or maybe even less...but I do hope that things that needed change and fixing will be fixed --and the United States will shine even more as a beacon of the power of freedom and democracy and an example for all the world.
Note: The black and white photo is Havana's Capitol building (inspired in the Capitol in Washington DC) --where choices and changes have not been possible for the last 50 years.