Government KidnappingIt is yet another outrage of government that a son has been legally separated from his father by bureaucratic fiat. I'm referring to the young Cuban boy who was rescued in the ocean off Florida. In an official statement which again reveals the ultimate hubris of the Clinton administration, it was said that the boy will be better off living in America. By this standard we should forcibly remove every son and daughter from every parent living in the third world, or more narrowly, from every parent living in a so called "repressive" regime, which would include not only Cuba, but China, North Korea, Iraq, Iran, Vietnam, Syria, Afghanistan, Sudan, etc. I went through a twelve month long custody fight over both my children when they were 7 and 9 years of age. I was one of the first fathers awarded custody. I know first hand the legal prejudice against fathers. This case amplifies that prejudice in the prism of domestic politics in the administration's blatant pandering to Florida's Cuban emigre community. I've never been a supporter of the Castro regime. But this heartless decision is a disgrace to justice and to serving the real interests of this young boy's well being. If it could be poven in a court of law that this boy's father is an unfit parent, that would be one thing. But no one, not even the boy's Miami relatives, his making that claim. The only claim is that the boy will be better off growing up in America. In other words, the STATE makes a better parent that one's own. This smacks of the worst excesses of the very totalitarian regimes this young boy is supposed to be rescued from. Not content in its ambition of turning everyone on earth into an obedient worker-consumer, American Imperialism now reaches into the primordial bond between father and son. To allow this monstrous decision to go unprotested is acquiescing to yet another grave assault on the integrity and sanctity of the family. December 1 , 1999 Mr. Maxwell wrote and directed the film "Gettysburg" and is currently preparing his own feature film on Joan of Arc. Copyright 1999 by Ronald F. Maxwell |