TO hear both sides in the Elian Gonzalez dispute tell it, the issue is clear-cut and unambiguous. Both sides also insist that politics has nothing to do with it — that all that motivates them is what’s in young Elian’s best interests.
Neither statement could be further from the truth.
From the moment the frightened boy was plucked from the sea clinging to the inner tube to which his mother had bound him — even as she, her husband and eight others lost a desperate battle to stay alive — this case has been about politics and little else. The problem is that both sides have a compelling case — and a Solomonic compromise just isn’t possible.
But those arguments have been lost in the blatant political posturing and blatant manipulation that’s surrounded this case on both sides.
Circuit Judge Rosa Rodriguez’s order keeping 6-year-old Elian here until at least March 6 spoke of “imminent and irreparable harm … to his physical and mental health and emotional well-being.” But that’s hardly likely: Fidel Castro would treat Elian’s return as a major propaganda victory, and there’s little doubt the youngster would be treated as a returning hero.
Reuniting Elian with his father and stepmother, after the devastating loss of his mother and stepfather before his eyes, would seem only natural, especially for conservatives. With the nuclear family under attack from so many radical quarters, the move would reinforce the notion that traditional family ties are always in a child’s best interests.
And yet — those are the words that keep popping up in response to each logical argument. Yes, Elian would be better off surrounded by his father and his four grandparents than by a great-uncle and cousins whom he barely knows. But his mother — who had legal custody of the boy — determined that his best interests lay in escaping Castro’s Cuba, despite the terrible risks. Doesn’t her choice count for anything?
“Here he’ll have opportunities, a career, freedom,” said Elian’s cousin, Marisleysis Gonzalez, in Miami. That’s exactly what motivated the youngster’s mother in her desperate, fatal flight to freedom. It’s what’s motivates thousands of Cubans who’ve had their fill of Castro’s flawed socialist utopia and continue to risk their lives to come to America.
And yet — even while admiring the courage of these bold refugees, Americans have made clear that they do not want more of them on our shores. Had Elian and his mother been found by the Coast Guard in international waters before the tragedy that took so many lives, they would have been placed on the first boat back to Cuba — with no media attention or controversy.
On the other hand, those who argue most passionately for Elian’s return seem motivated less by the boy’s best interests and more by their conviction that continued isolation of Castro is a wrong-headed policy. (Interestingly, few if any of those demanding new openings to Cuba ever felt the same way about Franco’s Spain.) They’ve romanticized Cuba, depicting Castro as a paternal, benevolent leader, praising his country as an idealistic paradise and belittling the advantages Elian would enjoy as an American.
“Has he really been living any kind of normal life in this country?” asked NBC’s Matt Lauer. “After all, he’s been showered with gifts, he’s been to Disney World. How normal a life is that?” Actually, it’s quite normal. More normal, certainly, than anything he would enjoy in Cuba — where his father, a Communist Party member, recently sold the family car: a 1956 Nash Rambler.
But this isn’t simply about material possessions. Remember Walter Polovchak, the Ukrainian 12-year-old who, in 1980, refused to return with his parents to the Soviet Union, demanding political asylum?
Like Elian, Polovchak and his supporters were ridiculed for seeking to undermine family ties. Walter belonged with his family — leave politics out of it, was the cry. The ACLU intervened on behalf of the parents, defending the Polovchaks’ right to have their son deported.
But Walter Polovchak won his fight and became an American citizen, even as his parents returned back to Ukraine, where they remain. He’s now 31 and married, with a son Elian’s age. He lives in a suburban four-bedroom home and is a member of the Jaycees.
“I hope his father would be wise in this situation and give his son the opportunity to stay,” Polovchak told the Chicago Tribune last week. “I was 12 years old and he’s 6 years old. But the situation’s very similar. I have a 6-year-old son myself. I want the best for him.”
But so does Elian’s father. Will Elian be better off among his closest relatives who, by all accounts, love him — but who are committed to an ideology in which freedom and opportunity are nonexistent? Or is he better off separated from that family, but able to realize the dreams for which his mother died?
Whatever the final decision in this case, it will be the wrong one. I’m just glad I’m not the one who has to make it.
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