Elian Gonzales

Am I the only one who is completely nauseated by the daily barrage of news stories about young Elian Gonzales?  I haven't seen the news on TV lately, because the first story is about young Elian and I turn off the TV in disgust and miss the real news. Since when do governments fly senior officials around the country and into foreign countries to mediate a custody dispute?  In how many other family law disputes does the mayor of Miami personally intervene?  Did Anne McLellan (our Attorney-General) ever fly to your town to get involved with you and your spouse in your custody dispute? This is a sad and pathetic story.  It started out reasonably well, with the news that a young child had miraculously survived an attempt to flee Cuba.  Unfortunately, his mother did not survive.  The young child was taken in by relatives in Florida.  If he had been returned to his father in Cuba, the story would have disappeared.

Instead, a custody battle starts.  That's no big news: there are custody battles (some far more tragic and emotional than this) going on everyday in every courtroom in every city. However, this one crosses the border between communist Cuba and capitalist America. What a victory if the Americans can win custody and the communist Cuban loses! And so began the three ring circus that shamefully occupies the top news item of almost every news program every day.  We see lawyers crying out for "Justice" at the microphones of the media.  They are trying to look sincere and as if they really care.  It looks like they care more about the spotlight and media attention that they are personally getting.

This farce is an insult.  It is an insult to the taxpayers who have to pay for the likes of Janet Reno to fly around and try to convince the relatives to give up custody.  It is an insult to the justice system, which is being used as the playing field in this political tug-of-war.  It is an insult to every single parent and child that goes through a real custody battle.

Most importantly, all of the players in Elian's story are helping to permanently harm this young boy.  They manipulate this boy, parading him every day in front of the cameras, getting him to act out a script for a videotape...Their conscience is put aside so that they can try to win this highly publicized battle.  It's too late for them to back down now: backing down would mean too much of a loss of face. So please: somebody send Elian home quickly.  Let him disappear into his family life and out of the public eye.