The Good, the Bad and the Nasty About Little Elian

Elian mail:

“Thank you for stating, rather bluntly, what so many in the media are not willing to say about Elian Gonzalez. Watching that videotape made me sick to my stomach. To paraphrase Mister Rogers: Can you say ‘brainwashed?’ Sure. I knew you could.”

--John Day

“So, the whole videotape thing was a charade. How do you know? Were you there?”

--Michelle and Robert Goetsch

“The video shows he was being coached. That poor little baby.” --Selma Shultz

“Since when do children appear in videotapes broadcast to the world, without a parent’s permission?” --Paul Coleman

“These Cubans remind me of little kids throwing tantrums, trying to gain attention. The thing to do would be to send all of them back on the same boat that Elian goes back in.”

--Michael Jabbra

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“I wish you could have mentioned the chocolate milk threat. That is the one where the female cousin who keeps fainting tells the child when she is making his chocolate milk that he won’t get it anymore if he goes back to Cuba.” --Pat Milnamow

“Now that the court has ruled Elian can’t be taken out of the country until all appeals have been exhausted, he should be removed from his dysfunctional family in Miami and allowed to be in Washington with his father, stepmother and little brother.

--Barbara Mace Otaki, Mission Viejo

“You’re right, it is not Elian’s interests these people have in mind, but their own.”

--Betty D’Auria, San Juan Capistrano

“As a single dad with four children, I feel outrage that a 6-year-old is being forcibly held from his dad.” --John P. Walsh, Pasadena

“Being a father of three, as well as the son of a refugee from communism, I am torn between the ultimate rights of parents and turning people back to the communistic hellhole that Cuba is.”

-- Kaarel Hamersky, Woodland Hills

“Half of me says the kid belongs with his dad. The other half says it would be a hell of a thing to return him to communism. It would be like returning one of my ancestors to a South Carolina plantation.”

-- Dennis Quick, Charleston, S.C.

“Lazaro Gonzalez left Cuba because he did not want to be under the rule of a dictator. Now he is dictating to our U.S. Justice Department.”

--Marie Emley

“Cuba is better off without these people. We, alas, are worse off with them.”

--Jonathan Gordon, Encinitas

“As for the videotape, has anybody thought of drawing a parallel between this ‘hostage’ situation and that of Patty Hearst, when she suddenly emerged as Tanya the revolutionary?”

--Joanne O’Roark, Santa Barbara

“When I first saw that video, I looked at my husband and said, ‘You can tell a 6-year-old to say anything, and he will.’ Shame on these people.” --Laura Pampu

“You could take a 6-year-old to Toys R Us and he wouldn’t want to go home.”

--Hal Braun, Hollywood

“My wife and I went to Kinko’s to make ‘Free Elian’ T-shirts. Our problem has been we get absolutely no reaction from the public when we wear them.” -- Peter Merlin

“The boy’s father is alive, he wants his son, give him over, end of story. To hell with Gloria Estefan.” --Jeff Seastone

“Three cheers for the 11th Circuit Court and its ruling.” --Don Kenney, Los Angeles

“I would like to give the Cubans in Miami an island of their own. One of the Aleutians would be nice.” --Rick Mearns

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“Thanks for an article that sums up what millions of others are thinking: Elian, please go home.”

--Don MacKenzie, San Dimas

“Too bad the Gonzalez relatives probably won’t have the opportunity to read your column.”

--Don and Judy Gunderson, Buena Park

“It is a wonder you get paid for writing such a misrepresentation of the facts.” --E.J. Jones

“We need more voices of reason like yours.”

--Guillermo Kuhl, Daly City

“I don’t know how many rattlesnakes you had to milk to write this article, but we Cubans have the antidote for your venom.”

--Mario Abelleira, North Hollywood

Mike Downey’s column appears Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Write to him at Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles 90053.