Perhaps the father DOES want what is best for the child. Cuba is a hard reality. I do believe (because I personally know of situations of parents who did this to their children - my friends) would relinquish control of their children to get them to the US. They are in the custody of the father’s extended family - having them raise the boy is not that odd in Hispanic culture, it happens all the time. He may love his son enough to make this sacrifice and yet is unable to voice this option.
We can’t be sure of it, but in seeking a resolution, we should consider all sensible options and not create a proces that will ignore this one. One that is common and very possible looking at the facts. And, an option that has not been explored.
You mean the part of the father’s family which is holding the boy in Miami? Oh now THERE’s a reliable source. :rolleyes:
Absent evidence to the contrary - and I repeat, there is none - Sr Gonzalez should be presumed to be speaking the truth. The fact that Castro MIGHT be able to pressure him to lie about his wishes emphatically does not demonstrate that he actually IS doing so. Have you ever heard of Occam’s Razor, RobRoy?
Something that the pro-Miami mob keeps overlooking is that Sr Gonzalez is NOT POOR. He has a good job, a decent house, is apparently a believer in Castro’s revolution … not only is there no reason to believe that he DOES want Elián to stay in Miami, there’s no reason to believe that he WOULD - unless your own worldview makes it impossible for you to see that not everybody thinks of Cuban life the way you do.
Finally, I did see that interview, and with all due respect you’re smoking crack. There was absolutely nothing in that interview to support the claim that he doesn’t want Elián back.
Occam’s Razor, yes I shave my head with it every morning…
Crack? Hardly. Contrast the comments the father made in the main part of the interview with the comments he made when asked what he wanted to say personally to his family in Miami…total lack of vitriol there. Strange…Kinda like the Kennedy Nixon debates. Listen, Nixon won. Watch, Kennedy did.
I also missed the part where you scanned my brain for what I thought about life in Cuba.
What I tried to do above is raise ANOTHER possibility… one you have effectively reduced to impossible. Therefore we can shut down any consideration of this point and continue with our typical analysis.
Options include:
Castro BAD
Castro GOOD
America BAD
America GOOD
Papa Gonzalez loyal companero of the revolution
Papa Gonzalez cynical puppet of the revolution.
Pick 2.
Do not choose two adjacent statements.
Do not deviate from the list.
Voltaire: regarding your quote above concerning the Florida judge in this case; a key thing in ethics is avoiding the appearance of bias. There is no rational way that her connection with the side in whose favour she ruled does not appear to be unbiased.
Every day that goes by is another day that this child is being held a prisoner by our government. I don’t care what the conditions are in Cuba. If Elian’s father loves his child, and I see no compelling reason to believe otherwise, living conditions are irrelevant. A couple of months ago there were thousands of Kosovo refugees living in overcrowded tent cities. Would the U.S. have ever considered removing children from the camps, tearing them away from their parents, simply because we could have offered them an air-conditioned house and a visit to Disneyland?
There IS no issue here. His mother is dead. And though I’m sure she wanted a better life for her and her child, one could argue that endangering the life of your child in order to seek liberty is reckless at best and criminally negligent at worst. The child belongs with his father.
And, on final note, where the hell is Jesse Jackson in all this?