Political pettiness prevents action

I couldn’t agree more with Wess Fallon’s letter on the way we treat Cuba and China differently (“Spreading democracy: Why treat Cuba, China differently?” May 28). The only difference is the political clout held by the Cuban exiles and their extended families in southern Florida. Neither political party wants to offend them and risk losing Florida to their opponents’ party. If we could just get past this pettiness, we could open markets and introduce a free market to Cuba the same as has been done in China.

Certainly, China has a much more repressive government (and I use the term government loosely) than does Cuba and we need not fear Communism from either of them. The world has seen the shortcomings and failures of that sort of regime from the decline of the Soviet Union.

We would be better served as a nation if we actually practiced what we preached to other countries, put aside petty differences and learned to live together in a true community of nations. But, we are much better at talking the talk instead of actually walking the walk.

Marysville