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“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”

George Orwell

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What a year it has been and since this is my last column for 2014 (no paper for the week of New Year’s) I might as well go out with a bang and mention President Obama’s sucker punch that no one saw coming. He wants to normalize relations with communist Cuba and what’s funny for me is that I am having a hard time deciding on what side of the political fence to jump to.

Then there’s the closing of Windham/Raymond schools for three days and of course a copycat has to come along and shut down the Saco schools Thursday of last week. There have also been robberies, home invasions and shooting as well. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.

When it comes to opening normal relations with Cuba, I have a mixed reaction, which is something I did not expect to have because my whole military career was during the Cold War, and communism was always the enemy. Having said that, I was surprised to learn that more than 600,000 Americans, mainly of Cuban descent, visited Cuba in the past year or so. Cuba is only 90 miles off of the coast of Florida, which has a large Cuban population for obvious reasons. Some Cuban Americans are outraged over the president’s actions and others praise it.

I don’t know, maybe it is a good thing so let me explain my dilemma. But what still remains after the president’s announcement is that only the U.S. Congress can lift the embargo of Cuba.

Cuba is on our list of nations supporting terrorism, as it should be. News reports stated they even supposedly supported Iranian spies going through Venezuela to get to the United States. Cuba is still governed by the communists, who are led by the Castros. Instead of Fidel, it’s his brother. There were no promises of change, which is one reason this new agreement seems to be a one-way street. But the Castros are old and probably won’t be around much longer. But it might be like waiting for a rich, old aunt to die and she out-survives everybody in the family.

On the other hand, maybe normalizing relations will allow the Cuban people to see freedom in a new light and begin the changes necessary to allow more freedoms in Cuba. Europeans already vacation there and many countries already have normal relations with Cuba.

Somehow I do find the president’s statement that this all happened because of Pope Francis a bit of a stretch. It seems the United States has talked to North Korea and Iran as well, which are also nations that are on the terrorist watch list.

Also sucker-punched were the citizens of South Windham who just a few short years ago fought successfully to prevent cluster subdivisions. Windham Town Councilors Gleason, Welch, Nadeau and Moore voted for cluster subdivisions in all residential areas while Councilor Muir voted against it. Councilor Chapman could not make the meeting. I believe it should have been a discussion with the Comprehensive Master Plan Committee when it meets sometime in the next decade.

I was also unpleasantly surprised when watching a national news station that their lead story said someone in the University of Maine system had banned Christmas decorations. I find this frustrating because I stayed in the military just so the opposite would be the law of the land. If I remember right, our nation was founded on the principles of freedom of speech and religion and now we have wingnuts opposed to it. Students can have lights and a tree but not together. Local news reported a Maine high school has banned Santa Claus.

I agree with Forrest Gump that we will never fix stupid.

Lane Hiltunen of Windham believes that government has become organized crime.