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Published April 15, 2016

CEO pay | April 10

Top Workplace, CEO lists out of synch

I compared two lists that appeared in Sunday's Tampa Bay Times. The first list appeared in the special section listing the 2016 Top Workplaces and the second list was found in the Business section in an article listing companies ranked by CEOs' pay at 14 Tampa Bay public corporations.

I found it interesting that none of the companies on the second list appeared in the first list!

Jane Jarlenski, St. Petersburg

Cuban course set | April 10

Discrimination on cruises to Cuba

This article about Tampa's potential as a port for cruises to Cuba mentions, as so many articles about the "normalization" of relations between Cuba and the U.S., the prevalence of Cuban descendants in Tampa. I wonder how many, as I was, were actually born in Cuba? We would not be permitted to board cruise ships going to Cuba. I quote from an article by Miami Herald reporter Fabiola Santiago, who had this statement read to her by an agent with Fathom cruise line, which is starting cruises from Miami next month: "Current Cuban law prohibits Cuban-born individuals from entering Cuba via ship or other sea vessel, regardless of U.S. citizenship status. For that reason, at the present time, Fathom cannot accommodate Cuban-born individuals."

You can read the article here: tiny.cc/cubacruises

As Santiago writes, would they ban Jews, blacks or any other class of citizen because the Cuban government said so?

Alicia B. Ellison, Tampa

Cuban course set | April 10

A policy set against American values

Your article highlights all the positive outcomes that the Tampa Bay area could derive from getting approval to launch a cruise ship or ferry service to Cuba.

Missing from the article is the other side of the story.

Not mentioned is the fact that although Carnival Corp. received approval recently to sail from Miami to the port of Havana starting May 1, the Cuban government restricted Cuban-born individuals from entering communist Cuba via ship or other sea vessel, regardless of their U.S. citizenship status.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2005 that the Americans with Disabilities Act did apply to cruise ships. Significantly, the justices wondered during their deliberation on the Spector vs. Norwegian Cruise Line Ltd. case whether one could assume that if cruise ships were allowed to discriminate against disabled persons, it would be permissible to discriminate against African-Americans. Of course, their response to both questions was a resounding "no!"

Just like it would have insulted our humanity, our laws and our American values to have allowed cruise ships to travel to South Africa during the apartheid era but with the caveat of not carrying African-Americans, it would be against our motto inscribed in our seal of E Pluribus Unum to allow any cruise ship to travel to communist Cuba with the caveat of not allowing Cuban-American passengers.

Jorge E. Ponce, Trinity