This morning's paper has several farewell columns to Elian..
including one by Mark Davis, who is also a radio talkshow host in the DFW metroplex. A couple of paragraphs from his column:
I wondered how I would feel when I saw Elian Gonzlez board a plane for his inevitable trip home.
For seven months, adults have battled over this boy's fate, and for seven months I have said he must go home with his father.
Not because I want him to grow up under Fidel Castro, but because what I want does not matter. Those arguing to keep him here have run afoul of one basic, unavoidable principle:
Parents should speak for children -- period. Even in Castro's Cuba.
The most torturous logic from American soil has been that because communism violates parents' rights, we should do the same, unilaterally presuming that Juan Miguel Gonzlez has been nothing but a Cuban puppet mouthing Castro's wishes.
That is, of course, possible. But since we cannot know, we have two choices: Take Juan Miguel at his word, or conclude that he is lying and take his child from him.
We did the only thing we could do. We reunited father and son and got out of the way.
<snip>
But one thing could have happened: On that tarmac, we should have seen Marisleysis and Lazaro Gonzlez waving a loving goodbye. Elian should have been able to return home wrapped in the loving glow of `all' of the family members who cared for him in America.
What kept this from happening? The courts? Janet Reno? Greg Craig?
No. The Miami relatives themselves assured that they could not be part of Elian's farewell.
They had a right to fight their court battles to keep him here. But after two Florida judges, a district judge in Washington and the unanimous dozen judges in the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta found no basis for their claims, it was time to do what was best for the boy.
It was time to unite with Juan Miguel to concentrate on what they supposedly had in common: love and best wishes for Elian.
But their Supreme Court appeal was the final piece of evidence that Elian's well-being was never higher than second on the Miami relatives' priority list. From the mob scene in Little Havana to the creepy, coerced videotape of Elian scolding his father for seeking his return, this has been about Castro for them.
God bless them for their anti-Castro zeal. But even for a noble cause, their use of this boy as a pawn was wrong.
Castro's use of him as a pawn would be wrong, too, and I expect that it will happen. If Castro is as big a PR genius as he is given credit for, he will know the world is watching Elin and how he is treated.
I hope we keep watching. And as we watch, I hope we see the Cuban communist domino topple so that we can see Elian grow up in a free country -- whichever country his family chooses. |
