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Guestbook Archives
April 1-8, 2000

Name: Keith
E-mail address: kvalenza@aol.com
Homepage URL: http://elian.8k.com
Comments: I hate to play censor, but I had to remove several posts that were inflammatory and expressed hatred toward Cubans. I do not mind disagreements, but engaging in name calling and KuKluxKlan-like rhetoric is not acceptable here. This attitude of "America, love it or leave it" when taken to an extreme really galls me. I have met the Cubans who are protesting outside the Gonzalez house. They are people of prayer and love. They have said they are willing to die for this child, rather than send him back to slavery in Cuba. They are not armed. They don't even carry stones to throw. They just want to protect this child. I am sick of hearing about this "bond between father and son," because that is not the issue here at all. Why do you think Castro wants to send an entire entourage to this country to accompany the Gonzalez family? A reader of mine put it best, when he said, "Castro's demand that a huge entourage be sent here. I think we need to remember his old-fashioned Iron Curtain tactics. I'm convinced that the reason he wants to send all these people is obvious: The father, Juan, could not defect if there is a huge crowd accompanying him. And the children with him couldn't defect either, for their families remain back in Cuba. Castro wants this group to act as a shield so that Juan can take Elian back to Cuba. Otherwise, he knows quite well that Juan and Elian would defect together." If the American people are so stupid that they can't see that...may God help us all.
Saturday April 1st 2000 01:20:08
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Name: Frank A.
E-mail address: arduinif@interaccess.com
Comments: Kieth, It is interesting that you (rightfully) object to name calling in censoring posts, but then turn right around and call Americans "stupid" if they disagree with you. In fact, it is either stupid or disingenuous to ignore the fact that there IS an alternative reason to send a "large entourage." The shameless (and arguably criminal) behavior of the American "family" to turn Elian away from his father, immediate family, country of birth, and culture will not easily handled by a mere four family members. I for one would expect more help will be needed. And doctors, psychologists... who else would you have do it? But worse, your objection to the large entourage is simply a red herring trying to distract the world from the fact that your earlier claims that "Elians father must not really want, or he'd be here" were vacuous rhetoric, not a real point of any value. Well, he's coming. You were wrong. Fuss, and mewl, and puke all you want. When his father gets here, there will no longer be any rational reason to leave him in the hands of the American "family." And that just must drive you nuts. Let us not be hypocrites here, Keith. You cannot accuse Castro of brainwashing without recognizing explicitly that all the toys, trips to Disneyworld, and enforced captivity away from his father is brainwashing of the most obvious sort. You reveal your true stripes when you claim that "the bond between father and son" is not the issue here at all. Of course it's not!! It is pure, unfettered, rabid, emotional hatred of Castro that is the issue here. And who cares if a six year old boy is destroyed in the process? Certainly not you. I am a West Point graduate. I have patrolled the border of the Communist world with the 2d Armored Cavalry Regiment in Germany. And I have been responsible for nuclear artillery on the Soviet border as a member of a NATO unit in Turkey. And even though I have risked my life in the defense of Democracy against Communism, I never once believed that there were not good families in Russia, or East Germany, or Czechoslovakia, or (dare I say it) Cuba! And I especially never felt that it was right, or just to rip a child from his father just because Democracy is better than Communism. You should be ashamed.
Saturday April 1st 2000 07:16:34
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Name: Sharron
E-mail address: angelluv925@aol.com
Comments: Even though I am only a young teen I fell that the choice where Elian wants to stay should be up to him. We should see where he wants to stay. This young boy is going through a lot and if I were him I would choose to be with my father because I really love my dad. I want to pray for young Elian and that God will keep him safe.
Sunday April 2nd 2000 01:10:03
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Name: Lupe
E-mail address: Lupe28@aol.com
Comments: ?Elian’s father told Elian over the telephone to go back to Cuba that his mother was alive and in Cuba. What a manipulating, abusive, and insensitive comment to make to that poor child, after all he has been through, he even saw his mother drown! We know is not the father expressing himself, but a slave of Castro’s oppressive regime being a parrot. A coward, under house arrest, following the strict directions of a crazy and decrepit man, puts his own needs and concerns before his son’s. Juan Miguel fears retaliation on his family and his own life, so bad, that he is willing to sacrifice his own son, before sacrificing himself. What an awful way of life, no one should have to endure that misery, choosing between his life and his son’s freedom, safety and future. Can the untruthful news given to Elian by his father be considered human, even by the Castro’s pedal pushers on this forum?
Sunday April 2nd 2000 07:27:36
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Name: Lupe
E-mail address: Lupe28@aol.com
Comments: ?The forum conducted on http://www.pathtofreedom.com by that "JULES D," synonymous with “Castro’s brown nose employee,” will delete and even go to the extreme of banning any posts that are not “PRO CASTRO” and that they can not intelligently rebut. Last time I checked, this was a free country with freedom of speech, but I guess he is trying to take that freedom from USA citizens just like Castro did to Cubans in Cuba. That is truly something to worry about. WAKE UP PEOPLE! WE HAVE COMMUNIST SCUM ALL AROUND US.
Sunday April 2nd 2000 08:16:35
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Name: David Byrden
E-mail address: David@Byrden.com
Homepage URL: http://Byrden.com
Comments: There are an estimated one hundred million children around the world of Elian's age or lower, living in regimes as bad as or worse than Cuba. If they all wash up on a beach tomorrow morning, will the Cuban exile community in Miami demand that they all be granted US citizenship? Indeed, have they been protesting the repatriation of Haitians? Why not? Are brown children more valuable than black ones?
Sunday April 2nd 2000 01:48:54
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Name: C.Rosa Quintero
E-mail address: demeros@prodigy.net
Comments: Today, Sunday April 02, and the beginning of the fourth week of lent for catholics, I would like to send this note in the sense, that our prayers are with Elian Gonzalez & his family and friends in Miami and all the U.S and the world. That God may give them strength to continue fighting to save this child. That God grant them the light to understand that HE is with them, and that HE that saved him in the seas, will also save him in land from all those that want to hurt him...... For Dad's father, may God grant him the wisdom and the freedom to express himself and not accept the continue cohertion that fidel has enforced on him. To those in Government, janet reno, bill clinton, hillary clinton, and those that have convinced them that this step of sending Elian back to Cuba is the correct one, i.e. jose serrano, rangel and the "pastors for peace" the peace that they believe in, which is not definitely God's peace, may they soften their hearts, and open their eyes and ears to the truth........ LET ELIAN BE FREE, LET ELIAN FULFILL HIS DREAM AND THAT OF HIS DECEASED MOTHER, LET THEM ALLOW HIM TO ENJOY LIBERTY AND FREEDOM IN THIS LAND. MAY GOD IN HIS ETERNAL MERCY LISTEN TO THESE PRAYERS AND MAY HE GRANT US THE WISDOM TO ALWAYS ACCEPT HIS WILL. MAY THESE PRAYERS REACH OUR GOD THRU HIS SON JESUS CHRIST.
Sunday April 2nd 2000 05:32:51
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Name: Richard Nelson
E-mail address: RichardNelson@hotmail.com
Comments: This situation disgusts me. The new allegations about Elian's father are dispicable, and I wonder whose idea it was to fabricate them? The Miami relatives? More than likely one of the sleazy lawyers. The Miami relatives keep moving the goalposts after saying all along that Elian's father only needs to come and get him. There's a very good chance that Elian's father would have come and defected, but the way the Miami relatives have now made it clear that they will not give him up, I believe Castro will not permit the visit. What we have here is a group of exiled Cubans whose (understable) life obsession it is to humiliate Castro and for the first time in many years, they have their chance with Elian. This is outragous. Okay, so life in Cuba is crap. So is 75% of the world. If the situation consisted of Elian's father trying to fly, drowning, and Elian's mother back in Cuba calling for his return, there probably would be any fuss at all. Having said that, the Miami lawyers would probably start inventing allegations about her, too. This has nothing to do with politics.
Sunday April 2nd 2000 11:16:24
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Name: Lupe
E-mail address: Lupe28@aol.com
Comments: ?Frank, I suggest you do some research on the Vietnam Vets, you will find lots of Cubans of course you don’t know that because you were still a child when the Vietnam war was going on. What happened, why did you get kicked out at nine years of service, you didn’t make rank? Why are you so upset? Is it because you can't handle the truth? All I said is being on the border doesn't qualify you to know about communism. YOU HAVE TO LIVE COMMUNISM IN ORDER TO KNOW COMMUNISM. You are a joke, we are not talking or comparing countries based on how poor they are, we are talking total and complete oppression by a murderer communist dictatorship, that will be compared to Hitler in the history books of the future! You have to be more than ignorant. You are simply inhuman. By the way I am not here to be pleasant to Castro's "pedal pushers," I am educating good people that just happen to be misinformed about the thousands of deaths accountable to Castro, the complete lack of human rights and the non existing parental rights on the island! Frank, it is true I don't know who you are, but I know what you are! As for "not worth the ground that Keith walks on" you better believe it!
Monday April 3rd 2000 02:40:10
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Name: PRODOS, Melbourne, Australia
E-mail address: prodos@prodos.com
Homepage URL: http://www.PRODOS.com
Comments: Clearly Elian's father is speaking at the point of a gun and saying what he is told "or else". I disagree with the suggestion that he is coward for succumbing to this. What is staggering is that ANYONE can mistake what Elian's father says as being truthful. I would even go as far as to say that Elian's FATHER is very likely amazed that no-one can see the guns pointed at his head and those of his family. My guess is that Elian's father loves his son and cares for him and WANTS his son to grow up in a free country - not a slave state ruled by a psychopath. The truth is that Elian is in good hands with his relatives. What can his father offer him that he cannot have in America? I would like to ask you to consider the following: What if a child's father was a murderer - would you hand the child over? What if a child's father was living in a slave labour camp - would you hand the child over? What if the father had a gun at his head - would you hand the child over to a father who cannot even protect HIMSELF - let alone a young boy! The onus is on the American government and especially the American MEDIA to uncover the coercive methods of Castro. I salute the Cuban-American community for fighting so fiercely against Castro and with such passion for the right of young Elian - and therefore for the right of ALL children - to grow up as free individuals in a free country.
Monday April 3rd 2000 05:43:31
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Name: Gail Morrison
E-mail address: GLocks2@aol.com
Homepage URL: http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Museum/7438/
Comments: This is a pity that so many people are fighting over Elian like he is a ragdoll. My heart cries out for justice. Yes, justice for Elian. I did not realize before this situation that INS has so much power. I have always believed in the legal system in the USA. I have believed that Justice is blind. The law is clear in the Cuban Adjustment Act that the people who make it here to the soil of the United States are given ammensty. Why not Elian? Why do so many want to deny this child freedom? This not a custody case - this is a case of the right to be free. Elizabet gave her life to see to it that her son would know freedom. Juan knew that his former wife and son were coming to the USA and was glad that at least Elian had made it. He, himself asked that his uncle take the boy. Only later, when Castro began exerting all sort of pressure on Juan Gonzalez, and maybe threats, did the father change his story and demand that Elian be returned to him in Cuba. No, this is not a custody dispute; this is a grudge match between Fidel Castro and the United States. Right now we have a liberal government that seems intent on setting up a socialist country for us, and so apparently, to Janet Reno and President Clinton the life in Cuba is acceptable, as it will be the lifestyle in America soon too. What I don't understand is why the American people can't see through this thin guise. Are the Cuban-Americans the only ones that can see this? I am Euro-American, my family landed with the Mayflower. I am your proverbial WASP. Yet, I can see what is happening. I do not have to live under opression to understand it. I don't have to read the Diary of Anne Frank to understand that oppressiion is bad. I don't have to either sneak off in the Underground Railroad, nor set up Stops to understand that slavery is bad. It doesn't take a leap to understand the simularities of these happenstance to what many are advocating to happen to Elian. I believe the Cuban-American are brave and courageous people. I only wish I could join them in Miami to help protect Elian. Alas, I live in Connecticut and can not be a part of such noble sacrifice, but my prayers go continually to Heavenly Father asking HIM to protect Elian and also to expose liberalism for what it is - the true oppressor of people. It is Socialism in another form. gail
Monday April 3rd 2000 03:22:18
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Name: Don C. Heinle II
E-mail address: jesusfreak209@about.com
Comments: Hello, I come from a place where I have a lot of freedom, and I don't think it is fair to send this child of God to that place. My prayers are with and for you.
Monday April 3rd 2000 05:50:15
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Name: Guard Kid (UK)
E-mail address: guardkid@hotmail.com
Comments: Elian Gonzalez belongs with his father in Cuba. End of story. The fact that the relatives in Miami are trying to prevent the boy from being returned to his father is disgusting. The child does not belong in the US - if an american kid was being held in another country under similar circumstances there would be outrage in the US. This has only become an issue because the child is Cuban. The situation has become a political circus with the media loving every minute of it. Thankfully it will end with Elian returning to his homeland probably in the very near future.
Tuesday April 4th 2000 08:48:28
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Name: Miguel
E-mail address: me2cold4you@hotmail.com
Comments: ?Frank, when you joined the military you had to be about 18 years of age, you said you graduated from West Point. This tells me you either went to college while enlisted or served after college. Either way it does not add up. In 1974 the WAR had already ended. Lupe was right you were a baby. At the start of the war you were about 9 or 10, if you enlisted at the age of 18 in 1974. At the end of the war you were at least 16 or 17. Around that time the legal adult age was 18. Let’s talk about the military: I am an active duty military member who has passed your 9-year enlistment. I am Cuban American. My dad who is also Cuban American fought in Nam (1st Calvary Division). He volunteered for the Army and Nam. My father’s cousin died in Nam, also Cuban American. I am torn between two flags. The American flag that I would die for. The American flag that has given me freedom. The American flag who has never let me forget that I am a Cuban, Latino, Hispanic and SPIC. Then comes the Cuban flag. The flag of my roots and culture. The Cuban flag, is the one I will never forget, A flag that tells me and my children who we are. You say that you were a West Point Grad and you served the military, WHO CARES? You did not do the 20. Dedication must not be your strong point. The Military has taught me a lot of things, but one thing it taught me is that even in our ranks we have racists. I am not saying you are one of them, but let’s get real this page is not about you, Lupe or me. This is about Elian. Elian, who will never have the opportunities I had. We still have hope and faith. You will never understand, so stop trying to change this WEB-SITES forum.
Wednesday April 5th 2000 03:33:06
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Name: mrs c.fokken/the netherlands/europe
E-mail address: c.fokken@chello.nl
Comments: NAZI GERMANY? Come on. What are you talking about? Let the boy go back where he belong: to his father in Cuba! I went to Cuba a few times and also to the United States, but I felt more free in Cuba than in the United States. What freedom in the United States. Yes, if you are white and a christian! I am white and not a christian and I am not a communist! So again: LET THE BOY ELIAN GO TO HIS COUNTRY!
Wednesday April 5th 2000 10:17:19
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Name: Prodos, Melbourne, Australia
E-mail address: prodos@prodos.com
Homepage URL: http://www.PRODOS.com
Comments: Sending Elian back to Cuba would be a great tragedy - and a disgrace for America. His mother risked - and unfortunately lost - her life to get out of that hell hole. She did not make this decision lightly. It was not an overnight whim. She knew the nature of the terrible society she was living in and the importance of living in a free society. Clearly she appreciated the value of America and freedom more than many Americans seem to. Cuba is NOT a free society. Cuba does NOT defend or even understand individual rights. Do not send Elian back to Castro. Give the boy a chance to grow up and prosper. I applaud the Cuban American community's fierce struggle to defend Elian, and to defeat Castro. THE TWO CAUSES ARE INSEPARABLE. By defeating or even weakening Castro, OTHER children will have a chance to see a free Cuba some day. Wouldn't that be something? Their mothers won't have to die trying to escape from a slave state. Should a free Cuba ever come about, I'm sure that historians will recognise the part played by this current, valiant cammpaign. Fight on Cuban Americans!!
Wednesday April 5th 2000 10:19:41
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Name: Keith
E-mail address: kvalenza@aol.com
Homepage URL: http://elian.8k.com
Comments: Please try to keep your comments on the discussion of Elian. On both sides of the issue, personal attacks will not be tolerated. If you have a personal issue with a post, please email that person privately. This guestbook was originally designed as a support forum for Elian's family, not a free-for-all. Posts that engage in personal attacks will be deleted. Now...to those of you who think things are so great in Cuba...here is a URL for a series of articles written by an independent journalist who spent seven days in Cuba. www.gopbi.com/travel/local/cuba.html
Wednesday April 5th 2000 01:19:00
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Name: Zurama
E-mail address: Zuramart@aol.com
Homepage URL: http://members.aol.com/zury16/zurama.html
Comments: God bless you Keith for your honorable efforts. You are a hero in my book, and little Elian is lucky for having someone like you behind him. Sincerely, ZURAMA Freelance Artist Fine Art/Pet Portraits Zuramart@aol.com http://members.aol.com/zury16/zurama.html ART BY / ARTE DE ZURAMA
Wednesday April 5th 2000 07:33:18
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Name: Tina
E-mail address: TinaKitt@aol.com
Comments: Today is April 5th, 2000. Many years ago my youngest brother and I left Havana, thanks to our parents' courage and with the help of Operation Peter Pan. I can never thanked them enough for their sacrifices .... I can never thank God enough for allowing us to live in the Land of Freedom! Tina Operation Peter Pan, April 5th, 1961
Wednesday April 5th 2000 10:15:11
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Name: Prodos, Melbourne, Australia
E-mail address: prodos@prodos.com
Homepage URL: http://www.PRODOS.com
Comments: The Ayn Rand Institute has just issued a press release defending Elian's right to stay in America. To read it please go to: http://aynrand.org/medialink/pr_elian5.shtml
Thursday April 6th 2000 11:56:39
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Name: Kevin Pierce
E-mail address: kevoco@weedmail.com
Comments: Emotionally, I feel that the child should stay, but politically, the child must return to Cuba. Allowing him to stay sets a precedent that will throw open the borders of the U.S. to anyone that will "have a better life" here. I think a large percentage of the world falls into that category. Sorry Miami Cuban community - the kid's going home. The continued struggle to keep him here only hurts him in the long run. - Kevin
Thursday April 6th 2000 08:41:00
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Name: Karen Geris
E-mail address: westieWL@hotmail.com
Comments: well I heard on the news you could send a message to president Clinton, but i can't find the link. Let me introduce me. I'm Karen, soon 15 from Belgium. I think that the situation Elian is in now, is just liek a sort of devorce,where you have to choose between your parents and that's hard trust me. Elian is only 6 and cna't decide for himself, that's hard. I think that Elian should stay in the USA until he's old enough to decide himself, cause if you send him back to Cuba, he'll never get the chance to get back to the USA but if you keep him in the USA he has 2 choices. you must all be thinking why is she mixing her in it, but i know how hard it is to make such a decision, but please just give him the oppertunity to do so, because you never know what you'll take away. i'm not saying he shouldn't see his dad, but HE CAN4T GO BACK TO CUBA!!!! Karen
Friday April 7th 2000 09:39:16
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Name: Les
E-mail address: someone@someplace.com
Comments: I am 16 years old and desperately concerned for Elian! I just saw the news and I was moved to tears. Does Janet Reno know she is sending a little boy to a life of poverty, political agony, and possible death? How do we know his father isn't either abusive, overbearing, just plain stupid, or being threatened by the Cuban government? WHERE IS THE JUSTICE? WE MUST DO SOMETHING TO SAVE ELIAN!!! But what CAN we do? What can we do? The government should bring Elian's family now residing in Cuba to the US. Once they get here, they'll never want to leave. If only the father had come over to "win back his son" like he said he would. He would never have gone back to Cuba once he got here. :-(::::::::::
Friday April 7th 2000 11:48:36

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