This editorial appeared in the Friday, August 29, 1997, edition of the Daily News, Bowling Green, KY
Politics strangle human rights
For an example of how special interest politics can strangle individual rights, look no further than Bowling Green's Richard Simpson.
Simpson's hopes to restore his sight are being held hostage to an economic war the United States is waging on Cuba, a war encouraged by Cuban refugees who exercise political clout in the key state of Florida and in presidential elections.
Simpson is among one in 4,000 individuals who suffers retinosi pigmentaria, a hereditary disease that gradually steals sight. There is no known treatment in the United States, but Cuban physicians say they have come up with a promising new method that they are using on Cuban patients.
Simpson wants to go there and give it a try. But the United States government, intent on Castro's fall, bans trade with Cuba and most travel to Cuba.
However, Dr. Robert Marner of the Marner Medical Eye Center in Atlanta visited the Cuban clinic where the new treatment is used. He says it is for real.
Marner got into Cuba as a news consultant and had an opportunity to examine records of the Cuban clinic. He concluded that the Cuban procedure arrests progress of retinosi pigmentaria.
Simpson is willing to try almost anything to save his sight, but hesitates about sneaking into Cuba because Americans who do so can face prison sentences and stiff federal fines.
But it is unreasonable to prevent humanitarian visits by Americans to Cuba simply because refugees from there have achieved political muscle in this country.
The Clinton administration and Congress should honestly begin exploring ways to bring about an accommodation with Cuba so that humanitarian, educational, tourism, family and business contacts can resume. No matter how legitimate the claims to position and property of Cuban emigrants living here, they should not be allowed to dedicate American foreign policy.
In the meantime, were we in Simpson's position we would be tempted to catch the next plane for either Canada or Mexico, neither of which bans travel to Cuba, and hope from there to you-know-where.
A federal prosecutor willing to prosecute would be hard to find, and it would be harder to find a jury willing to say that any American national interest had been undermined.
Back to Main Page
Retinitis Pigmentosa Booklet
Newspaper Article
Other Links
RGS646@tcsx.net