Letters to the Editors

Elian's Miami relatives forced Reno's hand

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 27, 2000

As far as I'm concerned, members of the Gonzalez family in Miami got just what they asked for. For months they've been thumbing their noses at government officials who have tried everything known to man to resolve the conflict and allow Elian's dad to see his son. They've talked to American officials about what terms they would accept and then changed their minds at the last moment. Finally, they dared the government to enforce the law.

The bottom line is: The exiles never had any intention of letting Elian see his father again. Furthermore, they were counting on the government forcing their hand in order to add fuel to their anti-Castro propaganda machine. Unfortunately, our government had no choice but to play into their hands.
-- Bob Dalzell, St. Petersburg

Cheers to Janet Reno

Re: Reno's action on Elian merits respect, April 25.

Thank you, Martin Dyckman for this column. Yes, Attorney General Janet Reno's action does merit respect. It seems to me that she showed great restraint until it became clear that the law and the authority of the federal government were not going to be observed by Elian's Miami relatives and their lawyers.

Those who have stridently called for law and order now see fit to scold when someone acts lawfully to enforce order upon the disorderly. But I am not as sanguine as Dyckman in expecting that our presumed leaders will ever do more than seize whatever is the most recent publicity circus as a means for their own personal promotion.

I expected nothing other than a knee-jerk reaction from Sen. Connie Mack and congressman Bill McCollum, but I am deeply disappointed in Al Gore and Bob Graham. We would be much better served if Reno would aspire either to the presidency or the Florida senatorial seat. She would get my vote in either capacity.
-- Tom Ziebold, St. Petersburg

A smooth operation

Re: Reno's action on Elian merits respect.

I think it would be most difficult to improve on Martin Dyckman's analysis of little Elian's recovery and the excellent operation by our attorney general and Immigration and Naturalization Service. The only thing I might add is the real smoothness of the whole affair: only eight persons, including one woman to handle the delicate part of carrying Elian to the waiting vehicle with soothing words of kindness. It took only three minutes. Of course the show of force or show of weapons proved valuable in controlling the goofy, mad crowd and precluded any stupid attempt by any one in the crowd or house to prevent the agents from doing their job.

I found this to be a grand display of our professional agents at work, doing what they are trained to do. And believe me, the young boy's broad smile as he was reunited with his father was a beautiful, magnificent conclusion to the whole affair.
-- Billy Cox, Clearwater

No excuse for a home invasion

What happened to the good old days of bleeding heart liberalism? I read Martin Dyckman's April 25 column and now I cannot stop humming Where Have All the Flowers Gone?

Janet Reno and the INS did a good thing? If that raid was in the name of returning the boy to his father, what about raiding the homes of kidnapping parents all over the country? It frequently happens that a non-custodial, divorced parent grabs the child and bolts. Do we chase the grabbing parent down with a platoon of goons, put the kid in a $10,000-per-hour jet and whisk him away to a resort with the other parent so they can recuperate?

To tell you the truth, I was relieved. I fully expected to see a tank or armored personnel carrier roll down the street and up the sidewalk to knock out the door with a machine gun. If I recall correctly, it was Reno's motherly instincts that prompted the battering by tank at the Branch Davidian compound.

The problem was competing egos. It was a widely publicized face-off between the non-English-speaking uncle and his shrieking daughter on one hand and the comically dour attorney general on the other. Both sides were completely irrational and both were using the child for publicity purposes. But why the platoon of gun-toting goons? Why not a warrant for the arrest of the uncle and his daughter? Then why not send a deputy to execute the warrant? With all the media coverage, he or she would have been safe. But there is simply no excuse for the U.S. government to batter down the doors of a home at 5 in the morning so a squad of armed men could invade the home.

The government caused the problem by turning the boy over to those people to begin with and then changing its mind. There can be no excuse at all for the armed invasion of a home just to return the child to his father. Period.
-- Howard C. Batt, Clearwater

Reno should be out

For Janet Reno this is strike three. In any other business, after three blunders you are out. First she had Ruby Ridge. Then it was Waco, where 26 innocent children were burned to death. Her excuse was they were being abused.

Now America will never forget the face of that little 6-year-old boy scared to death when he saw a man with a rifle pointed at his face. No 6-year-old should ever have to go through this. First he saw his mother die in shark-infested waters and then he is taken out of his bed at 5 in the morning at gunpoint. Reno's excuse this time is that some unknown person told her that there were guns in the house, a charge the Gonzalez family say is a lie. It is time for Bill Clinton to accept responsibility for her stupidity and lies and give her the gate.
-- Patrick Dennehy, Spring Hill

Reason to rejoice

Re: Elian back with dad, April 23.

It is with jubilation that I greeted the news of Elian returning to his father. For weeks and months we have been forced to view the inflamitory statements and banners coming from leaders in the Cuban-American community and people surrounding the Miami home of the Gonzalez family. Yes, at times I have even been ashamed to be an American when I listen to the words and banners displayed in this community.

The boy belongs with his father. Marisleysis is not his mother and needs to accept that fact. While I know we should be thankful for the love she provided him in a time of need, the Miami family members went too far in refusing to let him return to his father, filming him with his finger pointing at his father, providing numerous media interviews and allowing such a spectacle to surround his day-to-day life. This is not an example of life in America.

I feel Janet Reno had no choice since the stakes were constantly changing from Day One. It is unfortunate the federal agents had to go into the house with a show of force, but the government was given no other choice. You can just review the footage of the signs held on the street and know that the agents had to fear for their own life.
-- Juanita Boggs, Pinellas Park

A child's resilience

Re: Elian back with dad.

What a wonderful picture of father and son! This is what the rescue of Elian was all about. Trauma is not unique to him. Almost everyone has suffered or will suffer some sort of trauma before they leave this Earth.

Healing does occur, and the front-page picture shows the process has already begun. The fact that he shows such resilience already is a tribute to his father. I wish this type of rescue did not have to occur, but it was inevitable given the rhetoric of the Miami relatives and many in the Miami Cuban exile community. I am absolutely convinced they never would have released him unless forced to do so at the point of a gun, as regrettable as it was.

In time, the picture of Elian and his family will be paramount in most people's minds.
-- Shirley Smith, Largo

A smile proves little

It was said that Elian Gonzalez was coached when he said from his bed that he did not want to go back to Cuba.

When the picture was taken of him in the arms of his dad, he had a big smile. It stated that he was very happy.

Did you ever have a picture taken by someone who didn't say "Smile" or "Say cheese"? I rest my case.
-- Lorraine Kollman, Pinellas Park

Don't forget Castro's tyranny

We as a country have come to the dangerous point in our history where we have been so separated from despotic tyranny that we have forgotten how tenuous and precious a good and stable republic is. Recent polls indicate that Americans, by a 6 to 4 margin, think that Elian Gonzalez ought to be with his father and that it is okay for him to take the child back to Cuba.

Fidel Castro's government is not big enough for individual self-determination or for freedom of the press. Fidel Castro's government is only big enough for Fidel Castro. Dissidents often land in jail, usually without visitation rights. He is a heartless, controlling man whose ends always justify his means. He is despot of the highest order who seems to be in Bill Clinton's good graces.

The Cuban-American community can not bear to see even one small child sent back to Cuba. To the Cuban-American community this is unpalatable, and so, each Anti-Castro Cuban-American has taken the child as his own.

Cuban-Americans are passionate about this issue because their families are there. It is they who allow them inside the intimidation, the abuse and the poverty that is Castro's Cuba. Their families suffer, so they suffer. To them, Cuba is Hell, and Fidel Castro sits upon a throne of fire and blood. The Cuban people continue to suffer and in their desperation to leave, hundreds, including children, continue to die in anonymity in the treacherous, cold and shark-infested waters of the Florida Straits.

President Clinton is hungry for normalized relations with Cuba, and so the pact with the devil has been made -- the soul of a child in exchange for a new market for American businesses. This is truly a dark day in our history.
-- Jose E. Pedreira, Tampa

Opportunists and spendthrifts

Your April 24 editorial, Elian's ordeal, should be sent to those opportunist politicians, namely Sens. Connie Mack and Bob Graham and their Republican ilk for their idiotic comments regarding Janet Reno's handling of the Elian Gonzalez case.

The only regret I have about the action taken by Reno is that it should have occurred sooner. But as far as the action taken, the majority of Americans have approved. Any other citizen thumbing his nose at the the American justice system would have his derriere hauled to jail in an instant. Instead you have this joker Lazaro Gonzalez doing just that!

Now, these same politicians are going the waste taxpayers' money and time asking for a congressional investigation! Don't they have anything more important to do, like working on a health plan for needy Americans or simplifying the IRS?
-- John T. Spera, Tampa

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