Make the Deal

Rabbi Arthur Schneier meets this month with Alan Gross, right, at the Cuban jail where Gross is being held. (Photo/forward.com)

Alan Gross, a man who worked for USAID,

Still sits in a Cuban jail (the Castros say that he

Tried to build a private network; therefore, he's a spy)

Five years later he's still there; we have to help the guy.

There are rumors Cuba wants to try and make a trade;

Swap him for the Cuban 5.  I hope the deal gets made.

True the Cuban 5 were spies, but I am pretty sure

Gross's actions inside Cuba weren't completely pure.

5 are down to 3 men who've served 16 years in jail.

Send them back and rescue Gross, who's looking very frail.

Whether he's a spy or not is not important now...

Only thing that matters is we bring him home somehow.

Close Guantanamo

There are several, empty, Super-Max prisons we could be using instead of the politically charged  one at Guantanamo Bay.  (Photo/JournalAdvocate.com)

Detainees who we are holding at Guantanamo -

There because, right now, there's no where else for them to go -

Have been on a hunger strike and some would now be dead

If there weren't orders they be medically force-fed.

That's another violation of their human rights

As they seek to bring the world's attention to their plights.

Hunger strike is spreading; there's one hundred on it now.

Have to find a way to solve the situation.  How?

Start by sending home the men who we've already cleared.

They are not the radicals that everybody feared...

Or, at least, they will not be 'cause, after what they've seen,

They have ample motive now to keep their noses clean.

Then we have to close Guantanamo - and, right away.

Something that the Congress should accomplish yesterday.

It's become a symbol; Abu Ghraib on Cuba's shore.

Since that doesn't make us any safer, what's it for?