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Politics : About that Cuban boy, Elian -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: George Papadopoulos who wrote (1842)	4/23/2000 10:03:00 AM
From: George Papadopoulos	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9127

Another article ripping the refugees and their 40 plus year failure of their idiotic policies. Cuban refugees forget about democracy Published in The Orlando Sentinel on March 31, 2000 By Gary McKechnie Dump trucks as a blockade, the Virgin Mary on a building's window pane, threats that violence will come not because of their deplorable actions but because the U.S. government lacks reason and patience: Miami's Cuban community continues to show its disrespect for democracy. For 40 years, in fact, Miami's Cuban population has manipulated, stalled and blockaded meaningful efforts to give American citizens freedom of choice and rid Cuba of communism. This is not a defense of Fidel Castro but a notice to anyone who values "liberty and justice for all." I'm not sure the people in Miami do. Elian Gonzalez has become the political poster boy for Miami's Cuban refugees. Taken without his father's permission, Elian was risked for a political motivation he could not possibly understand, and his mother's death at sea was a Hollywood script written for his exploitation. Who needs a father when the Orange County chairman can take him to Disney World? Why should his father's heartache be eased when Elian now has an extended family of political kinsmen? Why should he see his friends or new half-brother again when he seems content with toys and trips? And the longer that Elian is held in Miami, Cuban refugees feel, the greater their leverage in keeping him here. Do they truly believe that policy should be enforced by any adult who thinks that he or she can give a kid a better life? Miami's Cuban cabal has a track record of derailing democracy. Gloria Estefan, once worshipped in Little Havana as a saint, was scorned when she said she would support Cuban musical acts performing in Florida. Rather than allowing Cuban group Los Van Van to perform in Miami, citizens of Little Havana threatened the group, and the city banned the group's performance at a taxpayer-subsidized auditorium. The misguided policy of a Cuba quarantine has been passed down unimpeded since the early 1960s. The embargo prohibits cruises or flights to Cuba from America, the import of Cuban rum and cigars, or the export of American goods. Surprisingly, even after 40 years, generation after generation of Miami's Cuban community insists that this is an effective policy. There's one fault with this argument: It isn't. While Miami's Cuban population has created and controlled America's foreign relations in respect to its homeland, it has gutted the rights of other Americans. By lobbying its cause to the exclusion of reality, it has dictated a policy that no American individual or business can visit or trade with Cuba. And think about this: What if the American government were overthrown by some uniformed zealot? As an American citizen, would you flee to England and spend the next 40 years complaining about the situation -- or doing something about it? If, as the Cubans seem to say, Castro is evil incarnate, why don't they do something besides thumb their noses from the safe haven of Miami? If America -- the country I would defend to my death -- were controlled by someone on the moral level of Slobodan Milosevic or Adolf Hitler, I certainly wouldn't spend 40 years in exile, complaining day in and day out about what a mess he has made of my country. I would find a way to return to oust the dictator or -- as Miami's Cuban community should realize -- overthrow the government with the force of a powerful economy. The Soviet Union went bankrupt trying to prove that its idiotic system could compete with capitalism. Do the residents of Little Havana think Castro would be more resistant to change if we traded openly with Cuba? Embargoes are meaningless; citizens of Cuba seem more willing to flee than fight; and I've never heard of a case of a Cuban-American martyr returning to Havana to sacrifice his life for a principle. So why not try a policy of openness? Let Cubans see what Americans have earned. Show Cubans that capitalism encourages initiative, creates jobs and rewards hard work. Show them that the best ideas are open to everyone and that all citizens should have a right in what they say, see, think and feel. And show them that, in a country as great as America, you don't need to hold a 6-year-old hostage to advance a political agenda. Gary McKechnie, a free-lance writer, lives in Mount Dora.