Berlin Wall

I have to admit, that until I was watching the late news last night, I had NO idea that it was the 20th anniversary of the falling of the, Berlin Wall!

I was 30 years old, my daughter was just less than a year old, and her mother and I were both, "wage slaves" for the, Utah Department of Corrections.

I spent my youth as a kid with a father who was a rocket scientist for, Hercules out near, Magna. Does anyone remember, Hercules? We transferred out here from West Virginia in 1963 when the company moved all it's, Naval Operations to a desert! Makes perfect sense, doesn't it? Design missiles that will be launched from Submarines, in a place with no water deeper than a few feet? The Military was brilliant back then!

I'm grateful. It got me out of West Virginia.

So as a kid, I knew what, "Throw Weight", and, "MAD" (Mutually Assured Destruction, which really WAS, Madness!) meant when none of my friends did. My dad got copy's of, "Ordinance" Magazine. I knew about all the new tank models that would be on hobby shop shelves MONTHS before my friends did.

I remember asking my dad, one time, "Can those, stupid, Russians launch missiles that can EVEN hit us?" And he said, "I can drop one of mine within 50 yards of the, Kremlin Dinning Room in a half an hour. And those guys aren't stupid. We have to assume they can do the same." That was the first time I realized, at about 8 year's old, that all the talk, wasn't just talk. This shit was serious.

I asked him, "Once they launch the missiles, how long before they hit us?" And he said, "How long do we have to live? About a half an hour." No talk about shelters, no talk about running to the mountains, no, "survival" stuff. Just, "How long do we have to live? About a half an hour." Real matter of fact. So I started to pay attention to politics then.

When we had, "Civil Defense" classes in 8th Grade Science, they brought the, "biscuits" out of the basement of the Jr. High for us to taste, and told us to listen for the sirens. A three blast in, Murray was for the Volunteer Fire Department. A long one, was missile attack! Get underground!

I never raced. I listened to, Dad. You'd be better off dead.

Then, in college, the proposal for the MX Missile, which would have been built by, Hercules came around. I was all for it! My dad was paying my tuition! But my friends hated the idea! I couldn't believe that. Jobs at home, they were hating?

I was wrong. With the steel mill, the Air Force Base, and the Nerve Gas Storage in, Tooele, we really, didn't need ANOTHER reason to be a target.

But then, things started to change in the 80's. And I'm not talking that, assclown, Regan. He was full of bluster, and lots of, "R's" like to think he won the cold war, but he didn't. My DAD and his buddies did, because they needed to. But they really weren't the ones, either.

Satellite TV, MTV, Levi's, and, Van Halen records, won the cold war! And, Radio Free Europe! By the time, "Ronnie Ray-Gun" mumbled, "Mr. Gorbachev? Bring down this wall!" it was toppling over from the weight of the American Jeans that were being tossed over it!

The weapons kept both sides at bay. The consumer products won the war.

You want to end the last, bastion of Communism in the world? And no, I'm not talking, China. They are driving, Audi's and snorting cocaine off hooker asses just like Las Vegas.

Viet Nam? Please. Totally gone legit.

I'm talking, Cuba! The last bastion of dumb, American political thinking in the world. End the embargo, let us all spend our money there, and the, "Commie's" are gone in six months. Tops.

Fidel is 200 years old! His brother is waiting for a reason to get rich. We Americans consume, according to, Cigar Aficionado, a TOTALLY RIGHT WING publication, about $100M in cigars ever year. They estimate that if we open trade with, Cuba, it would be $300M each year! And good for, Cuba! They could throw the bums out, and start over.

My wife and I went there (legally, Cultural Exchange Trip with KUER, the local NPR station) in 2003. And it didn't take a rocket scientist, to see that weapons were not the weapon of choice to win THIS battle. Money. American, Money! Would turn, Cuba. Jobs, tourism, can win the battle.

I could take my American money and buy ANYTHING I wanted in the local, Mercado. Bikes, toys, basketballs, rum. But I never saw a Cuban kid with a toy. They played, "basketball" with empty soda cans.

So, lets take a lesson from 20 years ago. End the Embargo (The locals call it, "The Blockade") and normalize relations with Cuba. It's been a 50 year pissing match that no one has one. And they buy cars, and wheat and everything else from us, and we buy rum and cigars and coffee from them. That sounds like, "free trade" to me? On the 20th anniversary of the falling of the, Berlin Wall, lets bust down the, "Cigar Wall"!

Just a thought.