Should Elian Gonzalez go back to Cuba or stay in the United States?
Uploaded by Admin on Feb 15, 2000
Should Elian Gonzalez go back to Cuba or stay in the United States? This seems to be the question drenching the media on a constant bases. Every newspaper, news broadcast, and magazine seem to have a story about Elian. Titles like “Elian’s Grandmothers are coming to the US”, seems kind of silly if you read the headline literally. I don’t mean to be cold but why do we care if Elian’s grandmother is coming to the US? Thousands of grandmas have come to the US everyday, but we don’t hear about them. The media has turned this dilemma into a circus. All that aside, the question and heated debate of whether or not Elian should stay still plagues us.
Everyone seems to have an opinion on this subject. If you ask people casually what they think should happen, you will get very definite answers and plenty of information to back up there opinions. I have asked many colleagues and friends this question. I myself do not have the answer and do not think I am the one to judge. I have spoken to Cubans friends who say the conditions are so terrible over there that there is no way the boy should go back. They speak of old, decrepit, tiny homes with way to many people living in a single dwelling. They speak of a place that has little food and no milk for their children. I have been told of the conditions in the schools and their lack of proper facilities. These acquantenses tell me that Castro his controlling the boy’s father, monitoring his phone calls and making sure he tells everyone that he wants his boy to come home. They say he is not able to say what he really wants for fear of himself and family. For fear that Castro will take away the family’s food and shelter in Cuba. Over all, the general picture that has been painted is not pretty. The only thing not in debate is the fact that children their live a very different life from the majority of the children in the United States.
On the other hand, there are the people that believe the child should be with his natural father. That where the child lives does not matter, what matters is whom the child is with. They say he has lost his mother and should not be taken away from his...