Let's eliminate age from this for a moment, by pretending that Elian Gonzalez is age 21.

If Elian wanted to stay, he could stay.  If he wanted to go back, he could go back.  Elian could speak freely about what he wanted.  It wouldn't be about Cuba, or the United States, or who deserves custody.  It would simply be about what a person wanted.

But, once again, we have to contend with age.  And for some reason, according to child psychologists, the wishes of a 6-year-old don't count for anything.   Likewise, our Attorney General and our President don't believe that speaking to Elian is of any relevance.

Most appalling of all, our Attorney General, Janet Reno, seems to feel that the sooner the case is out of the way, the sooner the boy is back in Cuba, the sooner all of this problem will all blow over.  In that regard, she's ready to send the boy back to Cuba despite appeals made on his behalf in United States courts.  Would Janet Reno support the idea of putting Bill Clinton behind bars until the Monica Lewinski matter was settled?  Probably not.  But when it's a Cuban kid, who will be denied his chance in the courts if he leaves this country, Reno could care less.

The *MINIMUM* that Reno should do is have the child returned to his father while Elian waits out his appeals.  In fact, once in the custody of his father, Elian might find that he misses Cuba and his family there.  Elian might even decide that he doesn't WANT the appeals.  But no, Reno has stated that the moment Elian is back in custody of his father, his father is free to take him back to Cuba.  This situation is intolerable.

The court system is one of the building blocks of justice.  Reno shows no respect to that part of our system.  In fact, I'd argue that the entire Clinton administration does not recognize the authority of the courts, as was evidenced by Clinton's unwillingness to tell the whole truth to the courts when asked about it in the Monica Lewinski affair.

The American public supposedly believes that Elian should be back with his father in Cuba.  That doesn't surprise me.  I'm sure that it's the same American public that would also support the sending of blacks back to Africa, Mexicans back to Mexico, etc.  The truth is that the American public does not see Elian as anything more than a little Cuban boy - and a rather unimportant one, at that.

But have the Miami relatives done any better?  Have they shown Elian what life in America is really like?  Have they told him about the prejudice he will endure while living in the United States?  Or have they scurried him off to Disneyland, and turned him into somewhat of a celebrity?  What happens when Elian sees what life is like in the United States *AFTER* his celebrity status has worn off?

Elian is a symbol, all right.  He's a symbol of what is wrong with justice in this country.  We forget the human face behind the larger political ideas.   Even I am tempted to use Elian as a symbol for what is wrong with the way that children are treated with respect to the law - much as I did in the opening paragraphs of this page.  And as we diminish the humanity of Elian Gonzalez, we diminish our own feelings toward other people as well.

Christ said "Love thy neighbor as thyself."  Would not Elian Gonzalez be our neighbor?  Would not, in fact, the entire Gonzalez family, both in Miami and in Cuba?  So we should approach this situation seriously - take it as seriously as we would if *WE* were Elian Gonzalez.

I have no doubt that a child of Elian's age can be manipulated.   We're just now seeing videos of him saying that he doesn't want to go back to Cuba.   And we must understand that Elian may not understand all the questions being asked of him.  I remember as a four-year-old child watching a commercial on television which showed a little kid being locked up in a jail, saying "If your child can't read, this is where he's likely to end up," and I remembered running crying to my parents because I couldn't read and I didn't want to go to jail.  It is said that Elian fears going back to Cuba on a boat.  Has anyone bothered to explain to him that he doesn't have to, and likely won't, go back on a boat?

It's time that someone sat down and talked with Elian one-on-one.   That person is Bill Clinton - a person with the authority of the United States behind him - a person who can truly guarantee that Elian's truest wishes will be carried out.  Clinton needs to sit down alone with Elian (and an interpreter, if need be), and ask Elian WHAT he wants, and WHY he wants it.  And if Clinton does this, and does it with the sympathy he has claimed to have for the American people, if Clinton can truly "feel the pain" of a six-year-old Cuban child, and reassure Elian that Clinton will do his best to see what Elian wants, then perhaps Elian Gonzalez, even though he's only six years old, *CAN* make his own choice.

This may take a couple of hours of the president's time - making sure that Elian isn't just answering what he's told to answer.  But what he's actually doing is showing that America *IS* the land of opportunity, and that one person's voice - even that of a child - does make a difference.

What scares me the most is the fact that if we don't find out for sure what Elian wants, we may just be insuring that he has to make another boat trip to get what he wants.  And no one knows if he'll survive the next one.  And that's something that someone needs to ask Elian's father.

This page last updated 11/13/2006 .