To the

shock and dismay of millions of Americans, the federal

government, under direct order from Attorney General

Janet Reno in the Justice Department, has loosed its

considerable might via heavily armed storm troopers on

peaceful civilians, who by all apparent accounts were

unarmed and on private property.

The taking of Elian

Gonzalez in the predawn hours Saturday morning was a

travesty, and a shameful failure of the American legal

system to protect the best interests of a child.

The plight of little Elian

Gonzalez promises to be a heavily debated, probably

lengthy, legal case, fraught with philosophical,

constitutional and sociological implications that go to

the very heart of this country. Etched in our collective

conscience will be an indelible blemish in our nation's

history of a little boy who has suffered much, suffering

much again at the hands of the American government.

Elian has become a cultural

icon, a patron saint of adult causes, a political pawn in

an ongoing clash of ideological beliefs, and yet in

truth, he is just a little boy who is the innocent victim

of circumstances beyond his control, and possibly even

beyond his capacity to comprehend. I am relieved that

Elian has been reunited with his father, but am appalled

at the method, and grieved by the fact that this boy

again is suffering the abrupt loss of an important

relationship in his life.

It is absolutely critical

that Elian be allowed to continue a significant

relationship with his relatives in Miami, most especially

Marisleysis Gonzales, his cousin and primary caretaker

for the last five months.

Aside from the lasting

traumatic implications of the violent incursion, in which

he was literally ripped at gunpoint from the arms of a

family which has nurtured and loved him back to health,

there is the serious long-term threat to Elian's ability

to trust attachments if he is prevented from seeing

Marisleysis because of the bungled manner in which this

whole situation has been handled by both the Cuban and

American governments. As is often the case in bitter

custody disputes, it is imperative that adults on both

sides of the issue put aside their personal differences

in order to best serve the interests of Elian.

In retrospect, Juan Miguel,

the boy's father, should have been allowed by Fidel

Castro to immediately fly to Miami to retrieve his son

from the hospital just days after his rescue. This would

have prevented nearly all of the subsequent heartache. No

doubt, Castro feared that Juan Miguel would attempt to

seize the opportunity to apply for his own political

asylum, not terribly likely if his new wife and infant

son were left behind in communist Cuba.

Interestingly, now that

Castro needs to portray the image of a happy family to

procure the return of Elian, he has sent them all to the

United States, a turn I hope will result in political

asylum for all four members of Elian's family. In a

perfect world, Juan Miguel, his wife, Elian, and his baby

brother would be embraced by the exiled Cuban community

in Little Havana, where Elian could be raised by his

father, and still maintain close familial ties with his

Miami relatives.

Somehow, though, the world

doesn't seem so perfect now. Now that Elian has resided

in this country for a period of time, has had a taste of

freedom (and sadly, persecution), lawyers representing

Elian and the Miami relatives have built a strong case

for political asylum.

never wanted to deny Elian the right to be reunited with

his father; they only wanted to guarantee that he

wouldn't be returned to Cuba. Opponents argue that Juan

Miguel, as the sole surviving parent, is the only person

with jurisdiction to argue that point for Elian, but the

federal court of appeals in Atlanta disagrees. The court

extended the ban on Elian's removal from this country

until his plea for political asylum can be heard.

Meanwhile, we may just find

ourselves in the middle of another huge congressional

investigation into allegations that the feds operated

illegally, not to mention immorally, in their seizure of

Elian from his surrogate home.

Senator Bob Smith, a

Republican from New Hampshire, called the raid a

"violent abuse of power." Roger Bernstein, one

of a team of attorneys representing the Miami relatives,

called the operation a violation of the Fourth Amendment

to the Constitution. He claims that federal marshals

failed to "knock and announce." The law

requires that access first be denied before a door is

battered down, except in special circumstances. He echoed

the family's contention that to return Elian back to

Cuba, without having his day in court, "to be a

slave to the revolution...[would be] morally

reprehensible."

This is a case which could

bring a nation to its knees, but in the heat of the

battle is the heart of a boy, whose battered little soul

deserves so much more.

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