Ah so - the merits of the great America over the rights of a father? Does your zenophobia know no bounds, or have you never had a child of your own?
Who are you trying to kid??!!!
Having the INS forcibly entering the Gonzalez residence wielding submachine guns, tossing CS gas around, and yelling obsentities in a pre-dawn raid the day before Easter should be enough to make ANYONE SICK!!
The warrant for Elian's "arrest" clearly being illegal is one thing, but overriding state court jurisdiction in this custody issue was quite another. This action definitely placed Elian's life in danger, if only from a misfiring by one of those machinegun toting agents. Additionally, exactly what were these INS agents gonna do with those MP5's had the Gonzalez's mistaken the PRE-DAWN assault as Cuban government sponsored attack, and opted to defended themselves? Spray and pray, hoping that Elian was not caught in the crossfire?? Just friggin' ridiculous!!! I'm personally ashamed that some of these law enforcement agents who take on considerable risk due to their occupations, would be unwilling to question the tactics being utilized.
This was a clear case of contrived evidence based upon flimsy hearsay evidence that the Gonzalez's possessed arms, and a warrant being granted by magistrate completely unfamiliar with the actual case, "end running" the warrant around the presiding judge in the matter. It is a case of the current administration misusing Federal law enforcement officers to carry out a political agenda that is contrart to United States law.
What really sickens me is the manner in which the Clinton adminstration is cow-towing to the Castro regime, permitting a dozen of Elian's school mates to visit him here in the US, BUT REFUSING VISITATION RIGHTS TO THE VERY RELATIVES WHO HAVE CARED FOR HIM OVER THE PAST FIVE MONTHS!!!
I have little problem with putting the boy back into his father's custody ACCORDING TO PROPER DUE PROCESS OF THE LAW. I have no problem with an alternative guardianship being granted to a disinterested party and BOTH groups of relatives having extensive visitation rights.
But let's not forget that Elian's father divorced the boy's mother BEFORE Elian was even born. He had MONTHS to demand that he be permitted to travel to the US and make a personal claim for custody. But guess what? Castro obviously was unwilling to risk his defection to the US so prohibited a visa until he was able to establish an insurance policy in the form of holding Juan Miguel Gonzalez's family hostage in Cuba in a detention center.
This whole thing just stinks to high heaven, IMO!!! It completely ignores Elian's opinion as to what his desires are and where he would rather grow up and enter adulthood. He may be 6 years old, but it is pretty obvious that he has little desire to return to Cuba and be re-indoctrinated into being a subject of the Castro's communist cuba. WOULD YOU???!!
And one more issue. Elian's father may claim that his ex-wife did not have his permission to take Elian to the US, tantamount to claiming Elian was "kidnapped". But I can show you case after case where US children have been kidnapped by their foriegn fathers and smuggled to the middle east and their mother's fervent attempts to receive assistance were ignored by both the US and foreign governments. I certainly don't see too many folks protesting over such violations of a custodial parent's rights in those cases. Happens all the friggin' time.
I don't care about the politics being played here. I care only that the rule of law is accorded due process. Elian has rights. He could apply for a green card after 1 year of residence here in the US and request resident status, if he chose. Or he could request to be returned to Cuba to live with his father. Either way, I don't care. But it should be HIS CHOICE,, especially in light of the conditions he faces upon his return. And the Clinton administration should not make up his mind for him and limit his available options by denying his US relatives visitation rights.
I do not agree that being the boy's father overrides Elian's rights in this matter, especially when there is no clear evidence that his father is acting of his own free will. His father stands to be amply rewarded if he succeeds and obtaining Elian's return to Cuba and netting a victory to Castro. For all we know the father may merely a tool of Castro, rather than the caring father he claims to be (why else would he wait for months to travel to the US to claim his boy... Surely Fidel would NEVER stand in the way of reuniting a boy and his father).
There are too many unresolved issues here, especially with regard to safety of Elian under the Castro regime. What if Elian returns and refuses to denounce the US or his relatives here? Or if he refuses to play any part in being one of Castro's puppets?? What will happen if Elian refuses to permit himself to be "re-indoctrinated", having seen and experienced too much here in the US, to become a willing subject of Castro? Will he be punished? Kept from his father by a regime determined to scour any remaining contamination inflicted by Elian's stay here in the US?
There are simply TOO MANY UNKNOWNS for due process to be ignored in the interest of political convenience.
If I were Elian's father, trapped in a communist state as repressive as Castro's, I would be happy to see my child grow up in the arms of loving relatives, in a land where he would be granted the opportunity to realize his own dreams, as well as my own unrealized ones.
Regards,
Ron |
