Letters submitted by BDN readers are verified by BDN Opinion Page staff. Send your letters to letters@bangordailynews.com
My wife and I have visited Cuba three times in our 34-foot American-flagged sailboat. After spending time with local people, I wrote and published the book “Road to Havana.” Cuba has been under communist/socialist rule since Fidel Castro took power in 1959.
Recently, we were typically the only foreign boat at anchor in the shoreside communities we visited. We quickly became friends with the local people. They are resourceful and friendly but very poor: There is virtually no free enterprise, no private property rights and no freedom of speech in Cuba. The Cuban government owns and controls nearly everything, including what the people eat every day.
I can’t imagine Maine under a communist/socialist government.
Richard Vinal de Grasse
Islesboro