It’s more than just a saying that all politics are local. Not even five months ago Alan Gross was released from Cuba after years of protests, negotiations and pleadings to and from his family and the U.S. government. Just
a month later, Warren Weinstein was killed in a U.S. drone attack on al Queda targets in Pakistan after more than 3 years as their hostage. Unexpectedly, both these men became pawns in a never-ending international chess game, businessmen-soldiers in a world economy where the dangers of going to work may be far greater than bad drivers or airplane tragedies.
So, how is that local? The Gross family lives in Rockville, the Weinsteins as well. We likely shop in many of the same stores, go to the same movie theaters, and dealt with the very same Pepco power outages. While we are not friends, we are neighbors. Both men were doing their jobs when captured. Alan Gross was working on a USAID project expanding internet access in Cuba, contrary to the wishes of the regime. Warren Weinstein had been working for several years on economic development projects in Pakistani tribal areas. When these men took their jobs they were well into their careers. Whether the draw for the assignments was the challenge, the money, the exotic locale or a decision to try to make the world a better place, each left his family to do a job.
And their families are all too similar to mine. Elaine Weinstein and Judy Gross are both mothers of two daughters, like me. And they are both members of our local Hadassah chapter, just like me. And while Dan’s efforts to make our corner of the world a better place take him just around the Beltway, their husbands were drawn to projects around the globe where the American belief that access to information and education will improve society are not necessarily shared.
Tonight as we sit at our table celebrating the end of the work week and the special peace of the Sabbath, I will think of the Weinstein and Gross families. May they continue to receive the support they need to deal with their suffering and may they find a measure of peace.
by 
Sometimes global and/or tragic things don’t seem “real” to us until we have a local connection. Thinking of you, the Weinsten and Gross families, and all who have lost loved ones.
Thank you for your kind words.
“Alan Gross was working on a USAID project expanding internet access in Cuba, contrary to the wishes of the regime.” – No, he wasn’t. And it’s disingenuous of you to put it that way. If the Chinese government sent their agent to the USA with coded, untraceable satellite equipment for their spies to use when communicating with Beijing, how would that agent be treated if caught? There has never been anything innocent in the US government’s subversive plans in Cuba.
Cuba has developed its domestic computer training and networks to the best of its ability, given the telecommunications blockade and resource limits under the embargo. The Jewish community in Havana had perfectly fine internet access and communications before Gross came along. Heck, I had dial-up email access in my friend’s Havana apartment as far back as ’99, when I conducted a few months’ research for my MA thesis on Cuba’s computer network development. The work of the Joven Club de Computación y Electrónica (JCCE) was / is nothing less than outstanding.
Then again, I’m a Canadian academic. I’ve been able to freely travel to Cuba annually since 1994, without having to worry about the State Department or the Miami terrorists coming knocking at my door. I have always had freedom of movement and research, from the tip of Pinar del Río province all the way down to Santiago de Cuba.
Of course, I had no intention of helping a foreign government subvert the Cuban state. I didn’t have the burden of a half-century of anti-communist propaganda cluttering up my brain. The only good thing that will accompany the flood of impending “first visit to the forbidden island”-type of first-person accounts from US tourists, etc., who will now begin to visit the island (as if no-one else has ever set foot in the country *cough* 3-million non-US tourists per year), is that maybe, just maybe, US citizens will finally begin to understand that Cuba is not the tropical hell-hole as it has been portrayed.
Mark, I suspect you’d be surprised with the number of people I know that have visited Cuba over the last number of years. Even though we are Americans, we are far from ignorant. Your presumption about my world view or knowledge is equally baseless. To extrapolate from your friend’s internet access to the entire country is not valid. In the U.S., in Canada and in most of the world there are large areas without consistent internet access, much with no access at all.
But that wasn’t the point of this post. It is terrifying when individuals legally working for companies (which contractors are) operating on foreign soil are held hostage either for political and/or economic reasons. And it isn’t just that person who’s imprisoned. Their family’s lives are completely disrupted in ways that you and I are fortunate not to have experienced. And those lucky enough to be released, eventually, may suffer long-term physical and psychological problems. They cannot get the lost time back. And they and their families will never be the way they were before.
Step back a moment from your politics, go look at Alan Gross’ condition when he was released and then tell him and his family, in your own words: