When Steve Clemons and I visited Cuba in March of this year, one of the places we both were excited to see and tour was the home of Ernest Hemingway -- "La Finca Vigia" -- near Cojimar, Cuba. Hemingway lived there for longer sustained periods than anywhere else.

In my youth, I was such a fan of Ernest that I tried to emulate his writing style -- so aggressively, in fact, that I even did formal papers in college using his succinct, simple but often laden-with-irony methodology. I remember a sociology professor's writing on one of my papers something like "Wilkerson, Hemingway does not belong in our classroom". He gave me a "C" on the paper. I was incensed -- not by the "C" but by the implied disparagement of my artist hero. I loved Hemingway and had read everything he ever wrote that hit the public domain. I envisioned my self as a modern Robert Jordan (perhaps explaining my 31 years in the military later on) and, besides admiring Donne's poetry, never read his lines about "Ask not for whom the bell tolls" again without thinking of Hemingway who, by the way, wrote that book while at Finca Vigia.

Since my heady salad days, I've lost some of my ardor for the bullfight-loving big game hunter, but not enough to keep me from feeling a shiver of excitement as I stood and looked at the Pilar, his sea-going fishing boat, as it was being refurbished by the Cubans in charge of Finca Vigia. (I couldn't help but think of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall in Key Largo, because the boat looks a lot like the one in that superb movie, the boat in which the movie's denouement is worked out over blazing pistols). I felt similar excitement as we toured Hemingway's house and grounds as well. Seeing the items in the rooms, just as they may have been in Hemingway's own time, and hearing about who stayed in those rooms -- from Hemingway himself to people such as Errol Flynn and Ava Gardner -- was a stroll through the past I never thought I would make, and learning that he used to run in the streets of the village below and then come back to his swimming pool, shed his clothes entirely, and jump right in was an added insight into the life in Cuba of this ruggedly individualistic but nonetheless global citizen.

There is no question that Hemingway loved Cuba and its surrounding sea. Indeed, perhaps his best work -- The Old Man and the Sea -- derived its inspiration and probably its central character from the location. Equally, there is no question that Ernest Hemingway belongs to Cuba as well as to the United States and, more importantly, to the entire world, as do all great artists. So, imagine my surprise when I discovered how difficult the United States is making this restoration effort in Cuba. And why? You guessed it: because it is in Cuba and Cubans are responsible for it. After all, the thought among the hardcore Cuban-Americans who control U.S. Cuba policy, is that the Cubans may make some money from it.

U.S. policy wasn't always so ridiculous. In the past, the U.S. decided to help the Cubans in their efforts to preserve this very special place and legacy. But after George W. Bush was re-elected in 2004 and wanted to repay the hardcore Cuban-Americans in Florida and elsewhere for helping him get re-elected, all of this cooperation began to change. Now, listen to what sort of "help" occurs more recently:

As we toured the house, Steve Clemons asked what was being done to preserve the historic collection of books that are stored in the house -- on tables, in bookcases, and elsewhere Hemingway located them -- books that have Hemingway's own marginalia on many of their pages as he commented on what he was reading.

The answer we received would make a grown man cry.

It seems that the machine the Cubans needed most was a sort of digital copier that costs upwards of $30,000 (U.S.). With this machine, they could photocopy all of the books, complete with Hemingway's notations, and thus preserve them for posterity. In the humid, moist air of Cuba, even with some modern precautions, the books are rapidly decaying, so such action is imperative if this precious legacy is to be saved.

When Steve Clemons offered to orchestrate the purchase of such a machine and ship it to Cuba, the Cubans had to tell us such a move would be impossible because policies enacted by the Bush administration prohibited it. We then learned how draconian those policies truly are, even with regard to something such as the Hemingway legacy, a legacy of the entire world.

This situation is so absurd it borders on being pathetically laughable (and there is much more to add to the pathos and the laughter, including the fact that American citizens cannot travel to Cuba to see Finca Vigia -- or anything else in Cuba for that matter).

A few members of Congress (Democrat Jim McGovern of Massachusetts and Republican Jeff Flake of Arizona being prominent among them) are aware of this pathetic situation which makes the United States a laughing stock among its friends and allies. But so far, they have been unable to interest their colleagues in the Congress in taking corrective action.

Perhaps more cards and letters should be in the making?

--Lawrence Wilkerson, die-hard Hemingway fan