Raid to Rescue Cuban Boy

I want to applaud the efforts of President Clinton and Atty. Gen. Janet Reno for getting little Elian Gonzalez removed--safely--from Miami. There are many sides to this difficult issue, but time had long passed for negotiation, and action was needed. The action was amazingly swift and error-free. This was the only conscionable thing that could be done by rescuing Elian from the clutches of political fanatics and returning him to his loving father.

We might hope that Elian and his father would apply for asylum now in this free country, but it’s really not our place to decide. And the residents of Little Havana in Miami have no right to decide either. It’s up to the father, who is Elian’s legal guardian. America did a decent thing, showing the world that we respect the rights of families and nations. Good job on Elian!

MARK BODZIAK

San Pedro

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The Sunday front-page photos of a terrified Elian being abducted by armed men in the middle of the night sickened me. What an outrage! How can such actions be justified? We’re dealing with a little 6-year-old boy, not a wanted criminal. Reno should be removed from office.

The other photo of Elian smiling with his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, was almost as sickening and just as much propaganda as the video his Miami relatives made. Like many Americans, I was tired of the daily Elian reports, but today, Easter Sunday, I can honestly say I am ashamed to be an American.

MARLA L’ANGELLE

Valley Village

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Finally, Elian is in the arms of his father, where he should have been in the first place.

MADELINE DeANTONIO

Encino

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If President Clinton wants gun control, he has certainly picked a poor way to push the proposal. The photo of a government agent pointing an assault weapon at an unarmed man certainly validates that power truly does grow out of the barrel of a gun.

I suspect that any Clinton gun control proposals will fare poorly in Congress as a result of this unneeded and egregious use of force by the executive arm of our government.

DOUGLAS CAMPBELL

Culver City

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Ah, now I understand. It is child abuse for relatives to point a camcorder at a child, but it is a caring act when a masked man points a machine gun at a child’s head. Thank you, comrade Reno, for enlightening me.

SUSAN STALZER

Santa Ana

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I fully support the actions taken by Reno and the INS in removing Elian from the house of his distant relatives and reuniting him with this father, who had the legal and moral right to the custody of his son.

Am I the only one who thinks the family of Lazaro Gonzales and the Cuban community in Miami are wacko zealots?

LIA WILLIAMS

Aliso Viejo

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I’m angry that it took Reno this long to act. As a parent, it disturbs me that people seem to feel that Elian’s Miami relatives were entitled to have any rights to him. I’m really horrified by the fact that this child had a father who wanted him and stepped forward to assume responsibility for him (when there are so many fathers who wouldn’t), yet that means nothing to a lot of people in this country. Whether or not we agree with the politics of Cuba does not mean that we have the right to withhold a child from his father.

The Miami relatives continued to come up with obstacle after obstacle when they had no legal or moral right to do so. The next time someone says that the INS had no right to enter the home armed consider two things: 1) The INS is a law enforcement agency, not a social services agency and 2) if it was your child being withheld from you, would you really be willing to give some crackpot relatives chance after chance after chance?

ASHLEY HOOKS

Inglewood

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How ironic that George W. Bush and his cronies, who so vehemently oppose gun control, are up in arms when the Justice Department displays guns to enforce the law.

BERNARD ALTMAN

Los Angeles

* You hit the nail on the head with the use of the word “harsh” in your Sunday editorial, “Harsh but Right Action.” I guess we in America don’t care about how harsh we are anymore. All we need to do is satisfy our sense of justification and then it’s perfectly OK to break down doors of a family home and point guns at the occupants--including little boys.

Sorry, but I for one believe it’s time to rethink our approach as to how we do things in America. Unless there is real cause to believe that imminent danger to some occupant is involved, we can and should use other means to gain admittance into a private home.

LOUIS N. DeWITT III

Westminster

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The outcry about the Elian raid suggests a new term: bleeding-heart conservative.

E.P. MACUS

South Pasadena

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The Gonzalez family and their supporters seek to blame the INS for the way Elian was removed from their custody. The Justice Department negotiated endlessly with the Gonzalez family to try to ensure the peaceful transfer of the boy to his father. It was their continued defiance of a government order to surrender Elian that forced the INS to act. If emotional damage was inflicted, the Gonzalez family’s stonewalling and brazen disregard for the law is responsible for it.

The escalation of events could have been prevented by the Gonzalez family if they had been more concerned with the child’s welfare instead of their own political agenda.

Unfortunately, they will now most likely be rewarded by the American entertainment industry for their selfish actions.

GREG STONE

Barstow

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The Gonzalez family didn’t like the policies of the Cuban government, so they left the country. Now they are unhappy with the policies of the U.S. government. Sounds like it’s time to move again! Please feel free to take several thousand of your friends with you.

STEVEN C. BOWIE

Pasadena

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Thank God that the child is reunited with his dad. I hope this is the end of this boring soap opera. Now if they would arrest Lazaro and his daughter for kidnapping a child and holding him hostage perhaps they would stop playing to the cameras and becoming the stars of a crazy melodrama.

JOHN KOLIAS

Placentia

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I would like to know why many Cuban Americans choose to fly the Cuban flag, which represents an oppressive communist nation, instead of the U.S. flag, which has given them many liberties such as freedom of speech and expression?

JOE MARTINEZ

Carson

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It is now time for politicians of both parties to stop hiding behind the smoke screen of distraction they have created in the Elian case. The boy is back where he belongs, with his father.

Now they can devote time to convincing me how Washington will deal with problems that affect all Americans: inaccessibility to health care, gun violence in schools, the widening gap between rich and poor in this country, American jobs disappearing overseas, and a lot more pressing issues than what has dominated the front page for the last few months

PEGGY ANDERSON

Long Beach

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Family law triumphs over political expediency--finally.

WILL WYCHE

Palm Springs