Consider facts on Cuba relations

My wife and I visited Cuba during the 2012-2013 holiday season. It was an eye-opening and heart-opening trip. And consequently, it is frustrating to me that few, if any, critics of President Obama's recent U.S.-Cuba initiatives are people who've ever seen Cuba first hand.

Here are a few facts:

The many Cubans we met were very friendly to us Americans. Everybody is poor in Cuba; there is no 1 percent who are extraordinarily wealthy. The mansions in Havana once owned by the wealthy now house foreign embassies.

The streets in Havana are very dark at night, yet safe. All the money generated by the economy goes to education and health care. The Cubans are very literate, and health care is easily accessible.

But the infrastructure is crumbling; once-proud structures are now covered by rust and plagued by leaky roofs. And ironically, the same Cuban-Americans from Florida who elect pro-embargo politicians like Marco Rubio are also are frequent visitors to Cuba and bring much-needed cash and household items to their friends and families.

One more fact. The Cubans are not our enemies. So let's stop treating them as such.

And I would encourage those "armchair quarterbacks" who are opposed to opening up U.S.-Cuban relations and ending the embargo to consider an eye-opening and heart-opening trip to Cuba in your future travel plans.

George Peternel

Arlington Heights