Elian is a person, not a possession.
By Kate Dwyer, NR assistant editor. National Review. 5/11/00 9:00 a.m.
The ad-hoc grassroots group "Americans to Keep Elian Free" held demonstrations in Washington, D.C., and fourteen other cities yesterday to speak out for Elian Gonzalez's individual rights and to honor the self-sacrifice of his mother, Elisabeth Brotons, on International Mothers' Day.
In Washington, about 60-75 peaceful protesters gathered outside the U.S. Department of Justice holding aloft American flags and handmade signs with messages such as: "Don't Make Elian State Property," "Dictatorship Is Not a Lifestyle," and "This Would Be Illegal in Cuba."
Two had brought posterboard enlargements of the chilling photograph of the goggled government agent pointing a submachine gun at Elian Gonzalez and Donato Dalrymple during the Easter weekend raid.
An inner tube filled with white roses and American flags graced the ground before the podium from which speakers — including Dr. Edwin Locke, senior policy analyst with the Center for the Moral Defense of Capitalism, and Linda Chavez, president of the Center for Equal Opportunity —
addressed the crowd. Remarking on Elian's mother, Dr. Locke noted: "She no doubt took the poem on the Statue of Liberty seriously: 'Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.'... She must have assumed that if she or her son made it to America, the U.S.
government would grant them asylum. In betrayal of that hope, our government is trying to send Elian back." Later he emphasized that "the difference between Cuba and America is not just a matter of lifestyle...It is not a difference like that between Republicans and Democrats. It is a
difference between a country that respects and protects individual rights and one where the concept of rights does not even exist (for parents or children)..." Chavez lambasted the Clintonites not only for their utter lack of respect for the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, but also for
having "paraded [Elian] to Georgetown so that they could entertain Democratic party fat cats..."
Ms. Brigida Benitez, a lawyer and one of the people physically assaulted by Cuban "diplomats" while demonstrating in front of the Cuban Interest Section in Washington, also addressed the rally - offering a firsthand account of the diplomats' thuggery.
Following the Washington demonstration, participants delivered 535 white roses, American flags, and copies of the poem by Emma Lazarus inscribed on the Statue of Liberty to Members of Congress.
National Review 215 Lexington Avenue New York, New York 10016 212-679-7330 Customer Service: 815-734-1232. Contact Us. |