The American Mind

Does this kind of miss the point?

Elian is calling Fidel Castro his father? What about his actual father?

I think this shows that his actual father, that fought to bring Elian back, wasn’t much of a father at all.

Yeah, because no one in the history of anything has ever referred to anyone as “like a father” unless it was their actual father.

“Brainwashed”? “Indoctrinated”? Look, how about a little perspective? He’s 11. Anything you tell an 11-year-old is tantamount to brainwashing them. Nobody is able to think for themselves or second-guess the society they live in at the age of 11. That’s what it means to be a child.

This interview is worthless, and anybody who was expecting radical, anti-Castro thinking from Elian right now is an idiot. I’ll be much, much more interested in what the kid has to say when he’s 16, or 18, or 20; nobody should expect an 11-year-old child to have anything but good things to say about his country and his leader.

Elian has been turned into Castro’s pawn just like I thought he would be 5 years ago. Castro won that won with lots of help from Clinton and Reno.

You’re being ridiculous.

“Elian has been turned into Castro’s pawn just like I thought he would be 5 years ago. Castro won that won with lots of help from Clinton and Reno.”

I’m with Chet. At 11 i was in 5th grade at St. Mary’s School in Hilbert and believed everything the nuns there taught me, without question. Because geez, they’re authority figures–why would they ever say anything that wasn’t true? Think about yourself at 11, Sean. Did you question authority at that age? Were you even aware there was anything to question? Because if you did, hats off, because you were a few steps ahead of myself and most other kids our age in that podunk town. (Note: I don’t remember you raising any thought-provoking questions about the way our country was run back when we were 11 and playing with our Transformers. Was there some sort of political allegory you were shooting for while we were fighting over energon cubes?)

I have no real opinion of whether it was “right” or not for Elian to be returned to Cuba, because i’ve never been there, have never met his parents, etc. It’s too complicated an issue for those of us on the outside to judge. But really, to say “he’s been brainwashed” when he’s not even old enough to have developed critical thinking skills is just being reactionary and foolish.

Oh, sweet, Transformers!

Not all 11-year-olds are naive; some are. I expect that the kid-glove treatment Elian lives with combats any critical reality from penetrating. Patriotic speeches by 11-year-olds should be taken with a grain of salt; they’re for teachers and parents, and they are fleeting.

I would not be surprised that, after a harrowing swim in the open sea and the drowning death of his mother, Elian truly wanted to be with his father. Which, if right, doesn’t make it a good thing, and which sadly does nothing good for the thousands living under the Castro regime.

Is he any less a pawn of Castro, and does Castro feel like he scored points against the US? Sooner or later the kid will see beyond the bubble, and whatever gain Castro thinks he won will be ashes at his feet. Kids have a funny way of changing that way.

With the death of the boy’s mother, I really don’t think there was a ‘win’ scenario to this situation.

Five Years After

Sean has a thought-provoking piece up about Elian Gonzalez, who made a fabulous pro-Castro propaganda speech on the occasion of his graduation from grade school.

I am amused when liberals desperately try to defend Fidel Castro and Cuba.

I didn’t treat what Authority Figures taught me worth a hill of beans when I was 11.

But, I was extremely quick in maturing than everyone I knew in K-12. I was already a full fledged adult by the 6th grade. Part of the reason I was so “shy” in K-6th grade was that I always felt out of place with people my age.

By the 6th grade I was already contemplating my entire future after College. Other people were only contemplating how great they are at Basketball or how high they can climb a rope.

But, of course, not all 11 year olds are Jeff MacMillan.

Correction: I was contemplating my future after college while in kindergarden.

I said that I wanted to be a “writer” when I grew up. It was and I knew it was realistic to want to be a writer versus, “police officer or firefighter.”

All of the kidies who were supposed to be my age were stunned and shocked. I was quite amused.

DJ,

Did you refer to someone outside of your biological family as “like a father” when you were young? Much less the president of the United States?

I find it very disturbing that the biological father of Elian Gonzalez is having Fidel Castro play such an intimate role in Elian’s life at such a young age.

It’s the same as having the President of the United States raise your kid for you.

“Uncle,” maybe, Jeff. You know, ‘Uncle Fidel,’ ‘Uncle Saddam,’ hey - they’re people too! Terrible people you should never let your children near.

You wanted to be a writer - so are you, do you have a blog, etc? Don’t see one linked.

You must have been one scary kid.

Tee, i more or less agree with you. The important point was that there was really never any “win-win” scenario with the while Elian thing.

Jeff, i have never had any kind of surrogate father, but i know a few people who have. You’re just being delusional. Also, i’m curiousas to where you think i was “defending” castro and Cuba. Please enlighten me, because i could use a good laugh, and look forward to pointing out how your fanatical righty preconception of everything i say colors your interpretation of my opinions.

I think I still have my Transformers somewhere deep in my attic. Right next to my G.I. Joes

Then you are lucky, sir, that you did not have a little brother like i. Because my old toys got FUCKED!

I love it when Jeff invents fictitious positions to ascribe to “liberals” because his own arguments are so impotent.

DJ,

I doubt the people you know who had a surrogate father had the President of the United States as the surrogate.

And that is my point! Takes 16 read throughs for liberals, I know.

Since CBS wouldnt even begin to delve into the story with even a reasonable semblance of truth, let me give you all a little primer on Cuba and her children.

First, every child is a “pionero,” a pioneer in the revolution. Along with math and abc’s, they are made to learn the preachings of Marx, Mao, etal, without any teachings of any other ideological points of view. Picture this as a compulsory Bot Scouts where merit badges are earned by how much you hate the imperialist yanquis.

Their teachers monitor their “revolutionary attitudes.” That is to say that a child, whether he is 5 or 11, is from that early age not only indoctrinated, but monitored for any signs that his family may not be in tune with the revolutionary dogma. Any deviation noted by the teachers will have the child - and perhaps his family - suffering repercussions: no secondary school, ostracizing, an increase forced labor for the child and loss of ration book, job, home for the family.

Every child in Cuba must spend months in forced labor camps. Every single one. they cut cane, reap tobacco, etc. All this time housed in deplorable conditions at the fields and having to meet quotas set forth by the government.

Children in Cuba dont do plays like Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer and such as they do here in the sates. They do political rallies. They are all forced to attend and listen to their comrades make political speeches. Political speeches written, supposedly, by their classmates.

Someone mentionded in the comments above that all children are “indoctrinated” by default. And that may be so. But the Children in Cuba are indoctrinated to hate anything that is American. They are filled with lies and propaganda and are taught only one thing: communism is good, fidel is great and everything else is bad. There are no in betweens.

So, everything little Elian stated yesterday during his “interview” was nothing more and nothing less than the tenets of fidel castro through the voice of an 11 year old boy.

Thank you for the background, Val. Makes sense, doesn’t it, that a boy would then refer to Castro as a “father”, while still having a fully present biological father in his life? Jeff?

Keep twisting your own words and mine around, Jeff. It’s funny.

Here’s what you said:

“Elian is calling Fidel Castro his father? What about his actual father?

I think this shows that his actual father, that fought to bring Elian back, wasn’t much of a father at all.”

My point being that it’s possible to consider someone else a second father and still have a fully present father in his life.

Your point was that Elian’s actual father wasn’t much of a father if he’s calling someone else “father,” too. And there is absolutely no logical basis for that point to be made with any credence. The occupation of the second “father” is irrelevant.

Anyway, in light of Val’s enlightening post, your point is completely moot anyway.

Elein Gonzallas a victim of renos and clintons imperial storm troopers so they could appease castro who they are big admierers of