Wednesday, May 3, 2000; NewsMax.com

The Lesson of Elian: Is America Still Worthy?

By John LeBoutillier

In the midst of all the furor over the Elian case is a most important question. Why do those of us who are fighting to keep Elian here in America care so passionately about this one little boy?

The answer reveals much about each of us.

First of all, if you are an American you should be thanking God or your lucky stars about a million times a day for having the good fortune and destiny to be here in this country at this propitious time in history. Never have any people had it any better in any nation than we Americans have it today.

Now, if you have a generous soul and a good conscience, you must also wish that other people could be as fortunate as we are.

The Founding Fathers believed that everyone in this country was given certain rights. No mention was ever made of origin of birth. If you were here, you had these rights. The Constitution was designed to protect those rights from a potentially intrusive government!

Your rights include "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

Our nation believes you have these rights – and no one can ever take them away from you unless, of course, you commit felonies and are tried, convicted and imprisoned. Even in jail, by the way, you still have some rights.

OK, now to little Elian. This seemingly insignificant little Cuban child touched the hearts of many Americans because in him we can see the innocence and purity of youth threatened by danger and evil.

First came the cruel seas of the rough Atlantic Ocean followed by the obviously dangerous threat of sharks. Then his mother died right in front of him. Can you imagine that scene? The drowning, the screaming, the shouting, the despair? The tears? The not knowing what had happened? The unfulfilled hope that perhaps she would still show up?

Not enough people have seriously tried to picture this horrifying ordeal – and what a miracle that Elian is alive here in America.

His next threat came from Fidel Castro, who declared an all-out effort to bring the boy back to his island prison. Inside that threat is the unstated but obvious plan to "re-educate" Elian, make a terrible example of him and then have him "disappear," as Castro’s daughter has predicted.

And last but not least came the direct and dangerous raid to take a screaming Elian away from Miami and back into the hands of Cuban needle-wielding doctors and brain-washers and security men trained to manipulate and terrify.

In the face of all these threats and adversity, Elian remains here in America, at least temporarily protected by the very Constitution that Castro deplores. An infant foreigner protected against a president of the United States, an attorney general and an evil and corrupt foreign tyrant – all by a few pages of writing more than two hundred years old!

Those of us who believe that Elian must be allowed to remain here – despite the good arguments made in favor of the father-son relationship – recognize a simple fact: Elian’s rights cannot be taken away from him.

If he is sent back to Havana, he will have no rights. He will be a slave consigned to a life of hardship, persecution and suffering.

America should not be in the business of sending refugees back to that system.

Those who want to send him back are saying, in effect, that they have more God-given rights than does Elian.

I reject that notion just as I condemn many Right-To-Lifers who favor sending Elian back to Cuba. If aborting an unborn child is, as these Right-To-Lifers sincerely believe, tantamount to depriving a human being of his or her "right to life," then so, too, is sending Elian back to a system that believes you have no rights.

Many of those who want to send Elian back speak of the "inconsistency" of this position. "Why do we send children back to Haiti and the Dominican Republic?" they ask.

They forget the unique history of Castro’s Cuba and the United States. Life may be awful in Haiti, but it is not the same as Cuba. Haiti is indeed corrupt and poor and ruled by a series of awful despots. But Castro is a declared and avowed enemy of the United States. He has aimed nuclear missiles at our shores, run narcotics across our borders, discriminated against Jews, and persecuted those who dared to speak their minds.

We who are fighting for Elian believe his case is a test. In a time of unmatched freedom and abundance has America actually lost something more valuable than material wealth? Have we lost that special quality that made America the leading nation of all time? Have we grown complacent and selfish? Have we grown so self-satisfied with our own lot in life that we cannot empathize with others less fortunate?

The ultimate outcome of Elian’s case will give us an indication of whether the American people are still worthy of those special rights granted to us all.