By Dr. Patrick A. ODougherty, Minnesota Cuba Committee

 

     Now We Have A Patria, Nosotros! Say with Conviction, Cuba! La Luce Sigue!

Nosotros take Christ into your arms and bless this day December 17th the anniversary of renewed diplomatic relations with Cuba! Like the children of the Peter Pan boats go in peace. The promise has been renewed; I have seen in my own lifetime a new salvation which Companeros you have set forth in the light of all peoples for the glory of the God of Cuba.  I Am Born again in the 14,000 children who left Cuba in Operation Peter Pan, the child who never grows up. Their traumatic rupture raises up the glories of the Cuban peoples! What message in this children's story of traumatic rupture and renewal will lead you to a new positive commitment to justice and peace and literacy work. Children were sent away as part of a psychological  warfare. They are refugees in the heart and context of America. Bring them into the light like lost coins. Like false rumors and destabilized relations warm them in the songs of your heart! These children are lights revealed to you! Enjoy! Recite! Sing! Restore! Place their words in your mouth! Guide your feet and theirs in the pathways of God! Bring your flute and drum and come to Havana in the names of the Peter Pan children! Mañana!

 

Isaiah 62: 1-5

"For Zion's[Cuba's] Sake I will not be silent...until her vindication shines forth like the dawn and her victory like a burning torch."