Family Ties versus the Good Life

Home at last!

Tomorrow, June 28, 2000, little Elian Gonzales will be able to return home to Cuba with his family. I wrote the following article on April 22, but held off the publication until I would hear this news.

Freedom or Family

April 21, 2000, the day between Good Friday and Easter, five-year-old Elian Gonzales was reunited with his father after having been held by his father's relatives for months. He was rescued at sea by a fisherman after his mother drowned in an attempt to flee Cuba and become a refugee in the USA. It seems reasonable that this boy would have been returned as soon as possible to the only family he had, his Cuban father, but until arrangements for his return to Cuba could be made, he was taken into the home of his father's relatives in Miami who claimed to be his rightful guardians. Many former Cubans living in Florida are convinced that this little boy would be better off living in the freedom of the United States. They themselves left Cuba of their own volition. Oppression is what they remember of their lives in that country. Do they have a right to decide what is best for a little boy who has not yet had a chance to mourn the loss of his mother? Should they deprive him of the love of his father as well?

From the View of the Child

Let us view this problem through the eyes of a child. I, too, was in that position as a small child. I, too, could have escaped to freedom instead of having to live through the horrors of World War II and through the Russian invasion of my homeland. I, however, was not asked to make a decision. My parents made it for me, and I thank God every day that they chose as they did. The experiences of the war and post-war days left deep scars in my life, but deeper than that would have been the scars of rejection if my parents had decided to let me escape to freedom without them. I could not have borne the thought that my parents would have considered my freedom more important than their love for me.

My Chances for the Good Life

I have never understood what it was that attracted people to me as a baby and toddler, but my mother told me many times that of all her children, I was the one whom everyone wanted to adopt. She watched me like a hawk, fearing that I would be kidnapped some day, especially after a gypsy woman looked at the lines in the palms of my hands and asked to buy me.
The copyright of the article Family Ties versus the Good Life in Natural Health is owned by Traute Klein. Permission to republish Family Ties versus the Good Life in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Go To Page: 1 2 3 4

Articles in this Topic    Discussions in this Topic