ELIAN GONZALEZ

Regarding your comments on the González drama: Thank you so much for calling a spade a spade!

As a clinical psychologist, I have been watching this situation unfold with deep fascination. One of the things that has struck me is how shy the media have been about examining this family in Miami with any kind of objectivity, and how willing they have been to give the Miami relatives such an open forum to broadcast their opinions.

Every time I hear Elián's histrionic cousin, Marisleysis, described as his "surrogate mother" I groan in disgust. All that I can see is that she has become profoundly enmeshed with this young boy, and over-identified with him. Now that she has been anointed as his "mother figure," her hysteria has been accorded a degree of legitimacy that utterly belies its self-serving emptiness.

What could have been an act of compassion, for the Miami family to take young Elián in temporarily after his rescue at sea, and provide him a place of comfort and safety before he could be reunited with his father, has instead become the shameful exploitation of a child at his most vulnerable, in order to use him as a weapon in their fight against Castro.

Of course, they were never going to relinquish him voluntarily to his father. Between the machismo you rightly point out, and the extreme reaction they would have encountered from the Cuban-American hardliners, Reno was fooling herself to think that patient diplomacy was going to pay off in the end. By the way, did you see her interviewed on "Nightline"? In all my years of clinical practice, I've rarely seen such a degree of suppressed vitality; it was chilling to watch after a while.

--Dr. Andrew L. Parker

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I totally agree with your interpretation and insights into the González saga. I am a Canadian, and Canada has economic and political relations with Cuba.

My friends were there in March, and were not impressed, but they observed that Cubans had a life. I think Castro is a dreadful man, but a little boy should be with his father, not with flaky distant relatives who seem to think it is better to be an orphan than a Communist.

--Beryl Dorey

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Thanks once again for laughing out loud at the attempts of the media to "Oprah-ize" the Elián González saga. As the product of a mother from a fairly traditional Lebanese-American family and a father of skinny hard-drinking Scots-Irish farmers and lawyers (all from Meridian, Miss. ... think about that!), I heartily concur.

The idea of smothering any combination of these folks in the polyester boucle of forced "public intimacy" and ramming chumminess and American Pasteurized Processed niceness down their throats to help resolve their "issues" has proved ludicrous. I shudder to think of trying it on Big or Little Havana! My cousin Beverly transcended the problem nicely by winning the title of Miss Mississippi years ago.

--W. Michael Williamson
Atlanta

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I've been to Cuba several times. All my Cuban friends believe Elián should be with his father. There's no justification for taking the boy at gunpoint, we wouldn't do it with anyone else.

I do think the thing keeping the embargo in place, and therefore the Cuban government in power, is the sugar subsidy. The Cuban-American grower that Bill Clinton was talking to while Monica blew his harmonica, was also the first guy to give Bill a fundraiser after the impeachment, and owns something like half or two-thirds of the cane sugar production. So we pay double the world price for sugar, and a bunch of money goes back to the Democrats.

I don't think Bill wants to end the embargo. Every time Congress talks about ending the embargo, Bill announces some half-hearted steps to take the wind out of their sails, and Castro says or does something provocative to annoy everyone.

--Brad Jensen
Tulsa, Okla.

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Hurray! Someone has finally seen that the whole Miami González Clan is severely dysfunctional, and I believe are actively dangerous to the psyche of that poor little kid. It was never about what was or is best for the boy -- it was a selfish and really kind of weird attempt of a frustrated old man to wave his limp organ at Castro for taking away his toys back in the day.

And that girl, what is her trip? -- she spends more time in the emergency room than George Clooney ever did. She's a poster child for the vapors!

--Sandy LoSchiavo

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I am also an Italian-American, not a Cuban exile as they call themselves. They are an insult to our mentality. Why did they get this publicity in the first place, I cannot understand. I blame Kennedy for babying these people who made this their home yet do not accept the perks they receive.

I rejoiced when they took the young Elián from those crazed people. Any excuse to cause chaos to Castro. Who cares about him too? Go home and fight your own battles as others have done in the past. They want us to fight their battles. Never, never.

--Milicent Santora

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While I disagree with you on the Elián case as a whole, I hope you will join me in a chuckle when we see the inevitable nostalgia program in say, 2019, showing Elián selling Hyundais somewhere outside of Jupiter, Fla.

--Dennis Hoban

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