One boy's taste of freedom

Cuban government releases photos of teenaged Elian Gonzalez

AP – Elian Gonzalez attends the UJC, Union of Young Communists, congress in Havana Sunday April 4, 2010. …
1 hr 9 mins ago
Ten years ago this month, the saga of a Cuban boy named Elian Gonzalez captivated the nation and much of the world. Elian, 6, was found floating on an inner tube off the coast of Florida, after his mother drowned trying to reach America.

The Cuban immigrant community in Florida embraced the boy as a symbol of the struggle of ordinary Cubans to flee the oppression of Fidel Castro's communist regime, and rallied behind the boy's extended family in Miami, which sought custody of young Elian.

But U.S. immigration officials insisted that the boy be returned to his father in Havana. Agents of the Immigration and Naturalization Service conducted an armed raid on Elian's adoptive Miami home - yielding a powerful image of paramilitary forces in America menacing a frightened 6-year-old. Florida's Cuban immigrant community brandished that infamous photo as a reminder of what they considered American power effectively doing the bidding of a heartless Castro government.


BT comment: It turns out that all of the controversy surrounding this young man some ten years ago was an exercise in futility. If he would've just stayed in America he could just as easily have served under this Communinist/Socialist regime that we have in place now. Granted, he may not have been a national symbol as he is in Cuba.
Our neighbor off the coast of Florida is further along in the dream of a Socialist utopia,but with Obama driving this bus at breakneck speed we should overtake them in no time. Poor medical care(sorry Michael Moore), starvation, unemployment, censorship, etc. It's all just one Obama term away.
I wonder if Elian remembers his short stay America. I wonder if he remembers his family living here in Florida. The love, the joy, the freedom. I pray that it never becomes a distant memory for us as it may have for him.