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Posted on 02/11/2002 11:49:23 AM PST by Luis Gonzalez
HAVANA (AP) - The U.S. group Freedom Forum presented shipwreck survivor Elian Gonzalez with its Free Spirit Award Friday in a ceremony attended by the boy's family and a few Cuban officials.
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Elian, 8, looked a bit awed as he receive the metal sculpture — a stylized globe with what appears to be a flame rising out of the top, representing a free spirit.
"Besides being able to survive at sea, our Free Spirit Award committee said that through his ordeal Elian was able to come back and laugh no matter how many grown-ups were tugging at him," said Neuharth.
"This is from the United States to you and to the people of Cuba," Neuharth told the boy. "Everybody in the United States loves you."
Elian was just 5 when he was found lashed to an inner tube as he floated at sea off the Florida coast around Thanksgiving 1999. He was one of three people who survived when their boat capsized as it traveled from Cuba to the United States. Elian's mother and 10 others perished in the waves.
The child was temporarily placed with his relatives in Miami, setting off a seven-month international child custody battle between family members on both sides of the Florida Straits. After a battle that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court (news - web sites) and an armed raid to seize the child from his Florida family, Elian and his father returned to Cuba in late June 2000.
"His dad told me he is doing extremely well and that Elian sometimes talks about being a doctor, sometimes talks about being a teacher, but mostly talks about being an astronaut," Neuharth said. "Among his interests have been baseball and now, karate. He has a purple belt."
The Freedom Forum, a nonpartisan foundation dedicated to free press and free speech, presents the award annually along with $1 million. In Elian's case, the money could not be awarded because of the 40-year-old U.S. trade embargo against Cuba. Instead, it will go to help help needy refugee children living in the United States, Neuharth said.
Elian's award, announced in 2000, could not be presented until now because of delays by the U.S. government in granting a license to Neuharth and other Freedom Forum for the trip to Cuba. "The Cuban government immediately said we could come, but our own government fooled around for another year and a half," Neuharth said.
Previous Free Spirit Award recipients include Terry Anderson, the former chief Middle East correspondent for The Associated Press who was held hostage in Lebanon for nearly seven years, and former Supreme Court Justices William Brennan and Thurgood Marshall.
No Luis it doesn't. The look on that childs face............Has anyone seen a pic of Elian smiling since the raid?
In the 48 years that I have been on the planet, I can't recall anything that is more weird than this award.
Thanks for the flag.
Then, I pulled Ol' Billybob outta retirement and fired up my latest column (#284) on this precise subject. Click below to see how your effort turned into my column.
Congressman Billybob
Are the slaves in Cuba still allowed to laugh, Luis?
The only "grown-ups" tugging at him were the leftist, socialist, behind-kissing liberal communist-loving clintons. Which include Reno, Greg Gregg and the totally brain dead.
And USA today Sucks! :)
I made a commitment to myself that nobody is ever, EVER going to do that to me or anyone I love. Every single true American should make the same commitment.
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Oh yeah, it definitely sucks, especially when I see so-called "conservatives" carrying on over an illegal immigrant. His feet didn't touch dry land, so he should have been sent back to his immediate family in Cuba after being rescued. If they had done that, we wouldn't have the controversy about it now. How come none of you express the same outrage over political asylum seekers from China who have their appeals rejected and get sent back to that country along with their families? China's human rights abuses are certainly far worse than Cuba's. In fact, would any of you have protested as much if Elian had been Chinese, or Vietnamese, or North Korean? And I'm sure most of you supported Proposition 187, which denied education access to the children of illegal immigrants in California. I have no love for Fidel Castro or Janet "We had to burn those kids to save 'em" Reno, but the utter hypocrisy and double standards that many people have on this issue makes me sick. Immigration seems to be made special for the Cubans, and it's ridiculous.
And to anyone I p***ed off with this post, oh well. If the Mariel boat lift didn't change your mind about the Cuban immigration issue, I don't know what will.
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