"Live like kings"-- yow! what does that mean?
Isn't Juan going to have to work using his brains and brawn like the rest of us? Or do we get to support him to show just what a great decision he made? What kind of capitalism would that be? I read that the Miami group had told him that "if you come here, you'll be given all this money...you'll never have to work..."
That's not freedom for Juan and Elian--- that's just spitting in Castro's eye by the Miami Cubans.
Freedom is that we offer him the same opportunities others have, and if he wants them, he can stay and work like the rest of us.
What no one seems able to answer is how this action (taking a child from a father who wants him and has provided for him) an action which runs contrary to our basic belief in family and in international law, is justified. To say that the father-son bond can be severed at any time in Cuba, doesn't mean it will be, and it doesn't negate the existence of the relationship. What you are proposing for Elian is an even more drastic severing- a different country, a new language, a new family, a new life- and that's a certainty.
The concept of family is very strong among Cubans; Castro is shrewd as hell, and I bet he isn't about to risk the disapprobation of the entire world by doing anything stupid with Elian.
Taking Elian from his home and family when there are no reasons under American law to do so, makes me think of those medical thrillers where the brilliant doctor, believing himself to be on the verge of a tremendous discovery, one that will benefit all of mankind, decides that the rules don't apply to him him him, because the end result is just too important and so he starts experimenting on people. He is so sure the ends justifies the means that he can no longer see the reason for the structure that normally governs the means.
But I believe the structure is there for a reason. And even if Elian's staying here is a good thing, (and of course I wish they both WOULD) the consequences, the ramifications, the implications, the precedents, the damages to other core beliefs, by forcing this upon him and bending our own structure, is just too great.
At least we are going through the legal system now, and I believe that at this point it's the best way to handle this. In fact, it might be good to have this go through the maze all the way- allowing us all the opportunity to examine our own beliefs about freedom and what it means to us. |
