|
Wrong is wrong, and many in Miami’s Little Havana section are just that - wrong! Attempting to manipulate people, the government, and even the courts, is wrong, no matter how you slice it. As of right now, as I write this column around noon on April 14, 2000, the games continue - all in the name of
"Elian", a six-year-old boy who has become some kind of deity for thousands of protestors.
In their little religious/political gambit with the federal government, including the U.S. Department of Justice
(DoJ) and the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), these protestors, including a supposedly concerned aunt and uncle, are holding Elian captive, a prisoner, in a sense. The protestors, in supporting the child’s aunt and uncle in their tactics, which may be illegal, are enabling, and possibly provoking further resistance to cooperating with the federal government in returning the child to his father.
Little Elian Gonzalez was scooped from the chilly waters of the Atlantic last November by two fishermen. Elian was lucky. Unlucky for his father, who was still in Cuba, and unluckier, sadly enough, for his mother, who drowned in the Atlantic, attempting to flee Cuba for the promise of comfort, a better life, and freedom here in the United States. Anyone who disputes that allegation has a few loose screws. They should also argue their point with me, as why else would someone flee a country, on a small boat, risking life and limb, to come to the U.S.? The words to a Neil Diamond song, "Coming to America", made popular in the 1980s movie, "The Jazz Singer", come to mind.
Far
We’ve been traveling far
Without a home
But not without a star
Free
Only want to be free
We huddle close
Hang on to a dream
On the boats and on the planes
They’re coming to America
Never looking back again
They're coming to America
Home, don’t it seem so far away
Oh, we’re traveling light today
In the eye of the storm
In the eye of the storm
Home, to a new and a shiny place
Make our bed, and we'll say our grace
Freedom’s light burning warm
Freedom’s light burning warm
Do the lyrics to a song prove my point? Of course not, but in this case, the lyrics to that song seem rather
appropo. The words to that song sum up, for the most part, seem to sum up why Elain’s mother would have risked her life to come to America.
Since Thanksgiving, little Elian has been living with an aunt and uncle he had never met before being shipwrecked. The aunt and uncle, though family, were total strangers to this little boy. When he was scooped out of the Atlantic, I’m sure the boy was happy, ecstatic, in fact, to be alive. I’m sure he was also willing to stay with his aunt and uncle he had heard about from his mother, though they were total strangers, as well. Think about this: the kid didn’t know the aunt or uncle from Adam or Eve.
On April 13, the day the family was supposed to have surrendered custody of the boy to the father, they backed out of the deal. It was a deal made and agreed to during a face-to-face meeting with Janet Reno. They shook hands on the deal.
Sure, deals are broken every day in this country, as well as every country around the world. The point of the matter is when you fail to honor your word - the word you give - your pledge, you lose integrity. Your honor goes down the drain.
The wee hours of the morning brought Elian’s aunt and uncle more support from the Florida’s Cuban community as ABC News aired a videotape of Elian saying he didn’t want to return to Cuba. The boy also invited his father to stay in the U.S.
Sure, the tape is real. It was originally broadcast on the Spanish-language Univision network. Does that make the tape an actual representation of the little boy’s mindset? No. He could have been coaxed on his taped comments. But then again, the question that arises in my mind is what lies have the Miami part of Elian’s family fed to him, and how much emotional damage have they done, as well.
Gregory Craig, the attorney for Elian’s father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, said the Miami relatives’ actions Thursday had "emotionally damaged and exploited this most wonderful little boy." INS Commissioner Doris Meissner called the tape "deeply disturbing".
The aunt and uncle’s attorney, Spencer Eig, said the family releasing the tape, especially at that time, was an understandable response by an exhausted family. In other words, what Eig is saying, manipulating a six-year-old kid is just fine and dandy. Now that’s sick!
Protesters once again crowded the narrow streets around the neighbor where Elian’s uncle lives, holding out hope that their human chain would block federal agents from taking the boy. The joy they felt from the potentially interfering with U.S. law, as well as interfering with law enforcement officials spilled into the rest of the neighborhood as drivers clogged traffic with their vehicles, others loudly playing salsa music, and many waving Cuban flags into the night. The waving of the Cuban flags really confuses me. If these people are so anti-Castro, why would they wave the Cuban flag? They probably don’t have a clue, either.
Meissner said the INS was working on using some collective intelligence in attempting to deal with the potentially explosive situation. "We’ll take action in a way that’s appropriate to the situation when we're ready", she said on NBC’s "Today" show on April 13. "The family is not in compliance with the law".
The uncle’s attorney, Eig, said "If the INS wants to deport him, they will have to do it themselves", he said, also on NBC's "Today" show. "They (the INS and
DoJ) are free to come to the house. He will unlock his doors and he will not resist and he will stand by tearfully."
But some of the protestors have pledged not to let their guard down. Perhaps that’s just the action the uncle is counting on should federal marshals come to town for the boy.
"At every turn there’s been a betrayal. We can’t let our guard down," Carlos
Rivero, 34, a car salesman, told an Associated Press reporter outside the Elian prison. "We are better off than we were yesterday, but we are definitely not home free."
Rivero is right. There has been a betrayal at each turn and fork in the road, chiefly by the family. And the Cuban community has supported each of those betrayals. The part that really confuses me is when he said, "We are better off than we were yesterday, but we are definitely not home free." So, who is the "we" part of that statement? It’s six-year-old Elian and his father who are the victims in the unfolding drama. How does
Rivero, except for his voluntary participation in the game, believe he fits into the "we" category?
Eig, on behalf of Elian’s uncle, petitioned the courts on April 13, after purposely missing the deadline for surrendering
Elian, asking that a temporary restraining order be issued, allowing the boy to remain with the uncle. So the saga drags on.
Perhaps it’s time the INS begin deportation proceedings against
Elian. Because of his method of entry into the U.S., via a capsized boat, and then a rubber inner tube, then a fishing vessel, the boy is an illegal alien. He comes from another country that has its own rules. That country is free from U.S. rule. Just deport the boy and settle the matter. But the family has already shown it will go to any length to keep the boy in the U.S. - including violate U.S. law. That would probably include spitting on a deportation order, as well.
Is it time for federal marshals to retrieve the boy? Perhaps. But then again, the appearance of federal marshals might provoke the Cuban protestors to begin some kind of mob action to "protect" Elian from being returned to his father.
You know, this entire ordeal is senseless. It’s pointless, in fact. It has nothing, I repeat, nothing to do with politics. It has nothing to do with the U.S. courts. It has everything to do with family. The father is Cuban. Elian is Cuban. Elian’s mother was Cuban. Elian needs to go back home with his father, to Cuba, and finish growing up. Elian needs to with his father, not with a manipulative uncle and Cuban community in Miami.
|
"At
Issue: Is Elian American or Cuban"
