Many
people whose intentions are totally honorable would like to see Elian Gonzalez
stay in this country. Certainly no American, given the choice, would
opt to live under a regime like that of Cuba. However, it is time
to put away emotionalism, which is always more acute when a child is involved,
and assess this situation for what it is.
I feel great sympathy for the anti-Castro Cuban Americans, who have spent more than two generations hoping to see the political situation in Cuba change. Elian Gonzalez, however, is not the type of catalyst to use for this purpose.
I have become more and more disgusted as I have watched this spectacle unfold. First we see little Elian being hustled through Disney World and every other possible consumer vehicle designed to “buy” a six-year-old child’s heart and soul. We see endless stunting before the cameras, by various relatives and politicos who make Soviet Union propaganda look amateurish
by comparison.
We are told several times that Elian’s American “mother figure” is hospitalized for stress (an attempt at eliciting our sympathy and/or eluding lawful behavior, but in reality making us wonder how unstable these “caregivers” really are). We are subjected to seeing blatant disregard of the laws of the land tolerated (Ask yourself, if I were holding a child from his parent, what would happen to me?).
We see thousands of people gathered to encourage further disregard of the law, under the dubious excuse that “We Cubans are passionate people.” Then we see little Elian himself, obviously having been well coached, on TV telling his father where to get off.
Nowhere do we see any well-intentioned behavior on the part of these people. If their intentions were good, they would at least have met with the father. The truth is that they don’t want this child to see his father. That could have a detrimental effect on the brainwashing that has been accomplished over the past six months. That is the reason that cults won’t allow contact with families or other outsiders once they have a person under their control.
The grandmothers were only allowed “supervised” visitation. The father, none at all. How well supervised has the relationship been with Elian’s “new American family’? What do you suppose that child has been told about his father? His homeland? His future if he returns? What promises have been made to him if he stays in this country?
Anyone who has watched a bitter custody fight knows to what depths some adults will stoop to avenge himself or herself on a former spouse, and how easy it is to convince a young child, whose imagination is quite vivid, of the terrors awaiting him at the hands of someone else. This is despicable behavior, but all too common.
Are we to allow this behavior when the party who has the child isn’t even a parent? When the agenda is so obviously political and has little or nothing to do with the welfare of the child? When the very foreign policy and treaties of this country are at risk?
I am rarely in agreement with Janet Reno, but in this case, she is the only person behaving well. If anything, she is being too cautious. Al Gore, is, as always, going for any vote he can get, whether or not he risks the country’s wellbeing. Clinton, as always, is passing the buck to someone else, Reno in this case. The courts, as usual, have a few judges who forget the law in favor of a personal or political agenda.
At the highest levels of law, the child will have to be returned to his father. Everyone knows this. Pulling and tugging this little boy through this mire of self-serving political intrigue will damage him for life. I am appalled at the Cuban American community, the relatives, the mayor of Miami, the Catholic nun who has perpetrated this farce, the various judges who continue to grant stays, the administration of this country (with the exception of Reno and the INS), and the members of the American public who are letting emotional politicalism overcome their rational thought processes. This boy is like the child in the
story of Solomon, who found the true mother by suggesting cutting the boy in half to divide between the claimants. Of course the woman who wouldn’t kill her child to win her point was the mother. Unfortunately, this child has no mother, only a motley crew of Americans who will cut him in half without a second thought.