Political Quotes

“there are those who doubt the argument that returning Elian Gonzalez to Cuba actually means returning a 6- year-old boy to the Castro regime. There are those who question the importance or relevance of the sacrifice that Elian's mother made to ensure that he would live in freedom. There are still others who would question Elian's ability to express his own desires and to help determine his own fate. However, those who have lived under totalitarian rule do not doubt. They know what it means to live in fear, in fear of persecution, in fear of arrest, in fear of torture and even death because of one's belief. They have suffered enslavement and subjugation by Communist regimes which not only stole their present but destroyed their future by exerting absolute control over their children's lives. Someone once said, it is easy to take liberty for granted when you have never had it taken from you. I ask those who seek to oversimplify this case by advocating Elian's immediate return, without a court hearing and without following U.S. law, not to make that mistake. I ask them to hear the pleas of the members of organizations such as the Americans for Human Rights in Ukraine, who are appealing to Congress to act in Elian's case.”