Among the wider public, it’s the same. Approach a citizen about whether it’s time to lift the embargo and more than 60% will agree that it’s time. But then you get a shrug of the shoulders and a “Why worry about Cuba when there’s unemployment, a housing crisis, rip-off investment banks, oil spills, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran and a host of other challenges that are more important?”

At the end of the day, these Americans will not put the sort of pressure on their senators or representatives that, say, hard line Cuban exiles in Florida will, let alone donate money to the cause of changing U.S. Cuba policy.

Just as it is eminently understandable why the member of Congress does what he or she does, so it is equally explicable why the average American citizen feels the way I’ve described.

So, what to do?

Hammer away at the failed policy until its rotten and decaying edifice finally tumbles.

Talk to every congressman and woman, every Senator, every House and Senate staff member who will listen.

Take congressional delegations to Cuba to see firsthand the counter-productive nature of our policy.

Rally the interest groups who favor change, from agriculture to human rights, from port authorities to cattle ranchers.

Enlist every possible reputable ally, foreign and domestic.

Help the Cubans themselves to advocate for change - Cubans such as Yoani Sanchez. (But don’t help them to hurt them; instead be wise about how assistance is given. And the first pillar of wisdom here is do nothing that violates the sovereignty of Cuba—a concept, incidentally, that our Founding Fathers would recognize and applaud.)

Encourage the Cuban leadership to open up, particularly economically. Raising standards of living is the first step to a better life for the overwhelming majority of Cuba’s eleven million citizens.

Render genuine assistance to the Cuban people—disaster relief after devastating hurricanes for example (and the season starts on June 1st)—and not the covert and subversive ingredients of regime change.

Work to expose the corruption and pollution of U.S. foreign and security policy by small special interest groups more concerned with their own pocketbooks and power than the freedom of Cubans in Cuba.

Talk to Americans across the country about not simply our failed Cuba policy but our utter lack of a policy, other than drugs and counter terrorism, with regard to all of Latin America.

Emphasize the reality that a better relationship with Cuba could begin to turn that situation around. Emphasize the reality also that countries such as Brazil and Argentina are on the rise and increasingly consider the U.S. a country to be avoided not courted.

And, lastly, hit the White House and the Congress with a barrage of calls, cards, letters, e-mails and faxes that insist on a new Cuba policy.

As when water flows relentlessly over granite, a crevice will develop. Down that crevice, in turn, will flow the realization that half a century of failure is enough. Then down that ever-deepening crevice will flow the change we are all looking for.

To the fire hoses!!