Remeber Elian Gonzalez? This is what has become of him.

I remember a lot about this case because at the time I was in high school and I was just starting to really get into politics. This case in particular helped spark my interest into how our government works, against how it is supposed to work. My father and step-mother were staunch Republicans, while I was labeled more of an Independent. This incident came about at a very crucial time in my life and it's outcome was extremely influential in my current way of thinking. For those of you who do not know about this case, I will give you a quick rundown.

González's mother had drowned in late 1999 while attempting to leave Cuba with her son and her boyfriend to the United States. The INS initially placed González with paternal relatives in Miami, who sought to keep him in the United States against his father's demands that González be returned to Cuba. A federal district court's ruling that only González's father, and not his extended relatives, could petition for asylum on the boy's behalf was upheld by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. After the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case, González was taken from his relatives and returned to Cuba in June 2000. Now I will go into how he was taken from loving relatives, and used as a political tool for not only Cuba; but America as well. http://youtu.be/AgaacrxsS4c

At the order of former attorney general Janet Reno, eight SWAT-equipped agents of the Border Patrol's elite BORTAC unit as part of an operation in which more than 130 INS personnel took part in taking the then six year old Elian Gonzalez from his own family. This boy who's mother died while trying to get him here to this country, was ripped from the arms of a family who took good care of him and loved him beyond compare.Janet Reno's excuse was,"the child had to be returned to his father." He was used as nothing more than a political tool for the United States government as well as Cuba's.

It should never have been about politic's, but about the right for a little boy to grow up in a loving family and to live his own life the way he wanted to. The right for his own pursuit of happiness. What our government did was not only a horrific act that was not, nor has ever been justified, but one to plainly appease Cuba's communist regime.

Fast forward ten year's later and here we see what has become of this once happy little boy. He has been indoctrinated into Castro's communist army. Every year since his return, Elian Gonzalez has had to celebrate his birthday with Fidel Castro and his father Juan. When Fidel Castro became sick, his brother and present dictator Raul Castro now goes to his birthday celebrations. About seven years ago Elian Gonzalez told the CBS 60 Minutes interviewer that "he never had a good moment in Miami." He also said in that interview tht he viewed the dictator as a father figure and by all accounts Fidel seems to dote on him like a son. Funny how indoctrination works. Since he had pleaded to his father when he was in Miami that he did'nt want to go back to Cuba. Even though Castro pledged to make sure the boy led a normal life he routinely shows up at government events always sitting close to the front row near Castro. Not only that but his father became a national hero for resisting the American capitalist system and was elected to Cuba's National Assembly, in 2003.

This picture (age 17) is now what Elian Gonzalez has become. Not a store owner or a college student, he is in the communist army of Cuba. I have nothing left to say but, I hope he is truly happy.

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