News & Reviews

Relatives of Cuban exile boy angered over U.S. decision to send 6-year-old back to Castro The battle for Elian Last week as Elian Gonzalez got ready for school in Miami, U.S. immigration officials got ready to send the 6-year-old exile back to Cuba. In a protracted and controversial decision, the Immigration and Naturalization Service said custody of the boy legally belonged to his father, who remained in Cuba and said he wanted the boy returned to him there. Cuban-American relatives of Elian petitioned INS to award them custody, so that he could continue to live in the United States. They say Elian's father is under duress from the Castro regime to request his return. The tug of war over young Elian began on Thanksgiving day, when two fishermen discovered him floating on an inner tube off the Florida coast. A homemade boat in which Elian and his mother took flight from Cuba had capsized, and Elian's mother and nine others had drowned. Two others onboard made it separately to Florida, and have already accepted U.S. asylum, which will allow them to remain in this country. Under current immigration rules and a special agreement with Cuba, rafters discovered in international waters are returned to Cuba by the U.S. Coast Guard. But if the immigrants make it to U.S. shores, they are offered asylum and freedom. The ruling is meant to deter boat migrations, which often end in death and are a sore point in U.S.-Cuban relations. (Four years ago, Cuban jet fighters shot down four Cuban-American pilots who were involved in search-and-rescue for rafters making the 90-mile crossing to Florida.) Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner Doris Meissner said that an INS investigation did not uncover "any information that might call into question" the father's parental and legal rights. She urged "everyone involved to understand, respect, and uphold the bond between parent and child and the laws of the United States." U.S. officials and others who support the decision, including the National Council of Churches, were careful to cast the verdict in family-values rhetoric, suggesting that U.S. law would allow them to rule in no other way but to return Elian to his father. But the case is much more complex and the law gives immigrations officers far more discretion than Commissioner Meissner suggests. Juan Gonzalez, Elian's father, was divorced from his mother and maintained joint custody of Elian. Had she survived, Elian would have been allowed to remain with her in the United States. Further, immigration officers already have granted custodial rights to U.S. relatives, primarily Elian's great-uncle, Lazaro Gonzalez, who has cared for the boy and enrolled him in private school in Miami's Little Havana during the six-week battle. From their point of view, the decision last week overturned the initial grant of custody and denied Elian's request for asylum, an unprecedented decision, based on the circumstances of his arrival. Mr. Gonzalez appealed to Attorney General Janet Reno, asking that she overturn the INS decision and award him custody. Historical precedent also allows other outcomes. Children fleeing repressive regimes have been treated like others seeking refuge. Vietnamese boat children took up residence in the United States without custody considerations after the Vietnam War. East Europeans fled Nazi repression and communist domination after World War II, often as children and often, like Intel Corp. chairman Andrew Grove, without the presence or permission of parents. While Miami's Cuban-American community seethed over the verdict, U.S. courts and the Clinton administration appeared unlikely to overturn it. President Clinton told reporters he was "convinced [the INS] followed the law and the facts [and] did the best they could with the decision." Relatives, meanwhile, hope for a Solomonic outcome: Juan Gonzalez has been invited by U.S. officials to come to the United States to retrieve his son, and Cuba has been pressured to allow an exit visa for him to do so. If he likes it here nearly so well as his son does, he may decide to stay. The No-Comment Zone

-by Cal Thomas, © 2000 Los Angeles Times Syndicate 11th-hour campaign turns back pro-gay ordinance Clothes call Christians and business leaders in Dayton, Ohio, last month joined forces to help turn aside a pro-homosexuality nondiscrimination ordinance that had seemed destined for certain victory. Introduced by city commissioner and open lesbian Mary Wiseman, the measure would have added "sexual orientation" to a list that already forbids housing and employment discrimination based on race, color, and religion. The language of the proposal was specifically designed to cut a swath so broad it would include transvestites (thus making it illegal to fire a man for wearing a dress to work, or even to ask him to change clothes) and "the poor" (thus making it illegal for a landlord to refuse to rent to a person who could not demonstrate that he or she had the financial means to pay the rent). The amended ordinance would have contained no exemptions for religious organizations, schools, or daycare centers. Ms. Wiseman had cemented support for the proposal from four of five city commissioners, according to Internet publisher WorldNet Daily. But Dayton Mayor Michael Turner had consistently opposed the measure, and as word of the ordinance circulated through the community, it became apparent that Dayton citizens opposed it as well. Telephone calls flooded the city commissioners' office, with protest calls outpacing those supporting the ordinance by 16 to 1. Pastors and members of religious organizations mounted a campaign to defeat the initiative. Local landlords, real estate agents, and business owners also rallied to oppose it. Some landlords, for example, told city commissioners they'd sell their property before complying with a law forbidding them to ask potential renters for proof of means. By the time the commission voted on Dec. 21, the measure was defeated 4 to 1; the lone "yes" vote belonged to Ms. Wiseman. Schulz puts away his pen Charlie Brown's farewell Good grief, Charlie Brown! The Peanuts daily comic strip came to an abrupt halt on Jan. 3 as cartoonist Charles M. Schulz announced his retirement due to a bout with colon cancer. For nearly 50 years, Mr. Schulz alone wrote, drew, colored, and lettered the most successful comic strip in history. "I always had the feeling that I probably would stay with the strip until I was in the early 80s. All of a sudden it's gone," he said on NBC's Today. "It's been taken away from me. "All of a sudden I realize, he never got a chance to kick the football," Mr. Schulz said, laughing, recalling the running gag that has Lucy pulling the football away from Charlie Brown. "What a dirty trick!" The Sunday edition will finish on Feb. 13 and the strip will carry on with reprints from the 1970s.