Sooner or later, US policymakers will have to dismantle this last relic of the Cold War, our flawed and futile isolation from Cuba, and think and act anew.  The following reflection, by a young bartender living in Washington, is a reminder of how personally destructive the old policy is and how modern presidential campaigns are more than TV ads but also the sum of personal encounters that can take place in unexpected ways.

My girlfriend is Cuban-American, and much of her family remains on the island, so what happens on U.S. policy toward Cuba, especially whether Cubans here can travel there to visit their families, is quite more than an abstraction to me.

She and many like her feel cut off from the lives of blood relatives and it is an enduring ache for them all. I watch her suffer on a daily basis. I lived with her family for six months while studying in Havana, care for them deeply and I feel cut off from them as well.

Cuba, surprisingly, has poked its head into the middle of the U.S. presidential campaign, and a little piece of the campaign poked its head into Washington the other day at the restaurant on Capitol Hill where I happened to be tending bar.

Senator Obama dropped in and had dinner with a group of key supporters from New England that had come down to see him. Drying glasses and pouring drinks from a discrete distance, I still could hear his remarks to the group and was heartened by what I heard.

Among other things, he once again mentioned how Latin America has been neglected and it will not continue to be neglected if he is elected president. He said he has an upcoming article in NY Times Magazine that will continue his work to outline his foreign policy for the campaign.

Obama, bucking conventional wisdom, had earlier traveled to Miami, the heart of support for tight sanctions on Cuba, to argue for loosened restrictions on families with relatives in Cuba, a position which earned him a special place in our hearts at home.

He concluded his remarks this night by saying that he is very positive about the campaign and they are focusing on winning Iowa, where his internal polls show that he and Hillary are tied.

Anyways; at the end of the dinner I waited among the 17 supporters who, I am sure, paid a lot of money to fly down from Boston and attend this special dinner.

Entonces [and then], I scribbled on a napkin, "As an American with close ties to family in Cuba I am very excited about your support for family travel. I urge you to take it to the next step and vow to allow all Americans to travel to Cuba. The Cuban American community supports you!"

As he left he shook my hand and I asked him if I could give him the note. He said "please." As I handed him the note I told him that what he has done in regards to Cuba is great and that he should take it farther and propose ending the embargo. As he walked away he read my note and thanked me for my support.

It was pretty neat. I am not saying that he is going to base his foreign policy on advice from a random bartender, but he is a people person and maybe it will make him think a little bit. I signed the note with my first name only, and maybe if he reads this post he will remember me, and my reasons for caring, and learn my last name.

--Sarah Stephens