Obama lauded for end-of-the-year moves
It was a good and momentous week for President Barack Obama, a lot of action occurring before his year-end news conference which precedes a well-deserved Hawaiian vacation.
The president’s bold and unexpected move to reopen relations with Cuba is just what he needed amidst claims by many that he is a lame duck who will be unable to accomplish anything, particularly given the advent of a Republican Congress and his sinking popularity.
The American people largely support the president’s rapprochement with Cuba, and for good reason. The strategy of isolation and sanctions which we have used for the past 53 years, during which Fidel and Raul Castro have outlived six of the nine American presidents under whom it continued, has done absolutely nothing to foment change. All it has done has been to solidify the poverty and isolation of the innocent Cuban citizens, and to keep its citizens ignorant of America, her culture and her people.
I was surprised to see the president weigh in on the Sony/North Korean hacking/terrorist threat fiasco, but he came down on the right side, expressing his disappointment that Sony capitulated to the vague and unsubstantiated threat to create a September 11, 2001-type massacre if theaters were to show “The Interview”, which lampoons North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un in telling the comedic story of an assassination plot against him.
I am not a fan of today’s movies nor in favor of films which portray assassination attempts of any world leader. I did not like it when such a film was produced with George W. Bush being the target and I would not like it if something similar were to occur with Barack Obama being the focus. I do, however, believe in free expression and freedom of thought, and find outrageous that as President Obama said, “some dictator somewhere” could engage in censorship, causing a film to be scrapped by threatening to unleash wide-scale violence.
The head of Sony attempted to defend the indefensible, asserting that the company has met the North Korean challenge head on, that it has not backed down. The opposite is true, and it is a sad day for our nation. We can expect a new wave of intimidation in an effort to squelch speech that some do not like.
I thank the president for his leadership. May it continue throughout his final two years in office.
Oren M. Spiegler
Upper St. Clair