Interesting that people are making these assumptions about my point of view. Guest and faswilli2, I made no statement about keeping Elian from his father. I think that Elian has become a political football in Cuban - US politics, and the media circus has not helped at all. What I wrote describes the very long history of pain that is the backdrop to this situation. The child is being treated like a symbolic political object. I wish he was in his father's arms.