Speech on Elián Gonzalez in Washington, D.C., Part 1

On July 4, 1776 America's Founding Fathers identified the fundamental moral principle on which our country was based. This principle was that every individual possessed the inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The Founding Fathers also identified the proper role of government; it was to protect individual rights -- specifically, to protect individuals from the initiation of force by other people, including the government itself.

In the Elian Gonzalez case we are witnessing a tragic reversal of the proper role of government. They are acting not as protectors but as violators of Elian's rights. The Department of Justice has become the Department of Injustice. Consider the facts of the case. Elian's mother risked her life in an attempt to escape from a brutal dictatorship and to bring herself and her son to freedom. She no doubt took the poem on the Statue of Liberty seriously: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free." She gave her last breath in desperate loyalty to that idea. She must have assumed that if she or her son made it to America, the U. S. government would grant them asylum. In betrayal of that hope, our government is trying to send Elian back.

Back to what?

Many people are confused about Cuba, because they do not understand what a totalitarian dictatorship actually consists of. There are four key characteristics of a dictatorship:

(1) one party rule;
(2) imprisonment, torture and/or death for political crimes;
(3) no freedom of speech and assembly; and
(4) no ownership of (or confiscation of) private property.

What does this actually mean in practice? It means that you have no right to your own life, that you exist only by permission of the state, that you are not free to think, to act on your judgment, to disagree with government officials, to start your own business, to vote for the leader of your choice, to be secure in your person, to plan your own future, or to bring up your children the way you want. You are not even free to leave the country without permission. Since Castro came to power:

• From 15,000 to 17,000 people have been killed for political reasons;
• More than 100,000 people have been sent to prisons or concentration camps for political "crimes"; in prison they are often beaten, tortured and starved;
• Youths are forcibly removed from their homes and made to work in the countryside for 45 t0 60 days each year;
• All the best careers are reserved for those who have the "right" political views;
• All students are subject to constant political indoctrination and can be punished (even at age 10) for political crimes;
• The fields of psychiatry and psychology have become totally corrupted and now operate as agents of state control;
• The economy has been destroyed; there are shortages of every commodity, even milk, and most Cubans suffer from malnutrition;
• Approximately one million people have fled the country with permission (after being stripped of their property);
• 100,000 people have attempted to flee the country illegally and one third of them died in the attempt.

Cuban parents have been so desperate to save their children that more than 14,000 of them have been smuggled off the island unaccompanied by their parents. To quote from an Amicus brief on the Gonzalez case...

Edwin A. Locke is a senior writer for the Ayn Rand Institute. He is author of The Prime Movers.