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Charles Jaco has written opinion and commentary pieces for dozens of magazines and newspapers. Each week, read and comment on a fresh on-line version. The discussion page enables you to share your view points world wide. If you would like to make a comment go to the " Join the discussion" link below. If you would like to view past editorials visit the Editorial Archive.
Editorial: 4/14/2000 In Miami's Little Havana they say "Basta!" In the Jewish retiree's concrete condos
on Miami Beach, it translates as "Enough already!". In the rest of the country, the
translation might be "Give it a rest!".
The mobs and their Cuba-focused political leaders in Miami have become Jefferson
Davis and Robert E. Lee in guayaberas. In their passion to rub Fidel Castro's face
in it, they have decided to kidnap Elian Gonzalez and defy Federal courts and the Federal
government. It's George Wallace and 1962 all over again. Wallace stood in the
schoolhouse door and defied Federal orders to integrate the University of Alabama.
The Republic of Miami has decided to secede from the United States and go its own
way, aided and abetted by the Cuban mayors of 27 municipalities and Florida Governor
Jeb Bush.
The mayors have said their police departments won't lift a finger to help Federal
authorities return Elian to his father. The governor has said neither the Florida
Highway Patrol nor the Florida Department of Law Enforcement nor the Florida National
Guard will become involved. The saga over Elian has turned into a tropical Fort
Sumter.
Meantime, the Feds could win the pullet-zer prize for being chicken. Fearful of
offending the rabid crowds in a presidential election year, Uncle Sam has bent over
and grabbed his ankles. There is one way, though, for Washington to get the attention
of the Miami secessionists, though.
Cut off the money. Today. Right now. The Miami region sucks up millions in
Federal aid every day. Whether it's for refugee re-settlement or water treatment or
highways or schools or drug interdiction, the rest of us are subsidizing the mess
in Miami. Herewith, a modest proposal.
The President issues an executive order freezing all Federal money flowing into
Dade County, Florida. Every Federal office, from the INS to the DEA to the air wing
at Homestead Air Base, is closed, the personnel sent home, the jets flown to another
base. If Miami insists on acting like a sovereign state, then treat it like one.
We can't withdraw our ambassador, but we can choke off every single penny in Federal
largesse bestowed on Havana North.
Let the area re-settle its own refugees. Let the local cops, by themselves,
fight the drug traffic. Let the two million plus residents of Dade County pay for
their own road repairs, their own water purification, their own school and law
enforcement and social programs.
Like my grandpa swatting one of his mules in its' backside with a board to get
its' attention, a swift Federal financial kick in the rump might wake up the
defiant Cuban government leaders in Miami who still pine for the lost cause back
in the old country.
The anti-Castro extremists may be holding on to Elian, but they already seem to
have lost their grip on U.S. policy toward Cuba. Despite the bleating of right-wing
pundits and talk-show blowhards, conservative Heartland Republicans are already
abandoning the hard line against Cuba in droves.
Nebraska Republican Senator Chuck Hegel says the U.S. embargo against Cuba is a
failure and should be lifted. Missouri Republican Senator John Ashcroft sponsors a
bill to lift the food and medical embargo against Cuba, and it sails through the U.S.
Senate with more than 70 votes. Oklahoma Republican Representative Steve Largent writes
in the New York Times that conservatives who support keeping Elian here and who
support our outdated policy against Cuba are betraying their support for family
values. Illinois Republican Governor George Ryan becomes the first U.S. governor
to visit Cuba, and says the embargo should be eliminated.
See a pattern here? The rest of the United States was fairly content to let the
anti-Castro radicals in Miami run American policy toward Cuba for over thirty years.
Then comes the story of a six year old boy that grabs the average American by the
throat. And suddenly, the vast majority of Americans realize what many policy
analysts have known all along---that U.S. policy toward Cuba is a dinosaur, kept alive
only by the seething hatred of a few hundred thousand true beleivers in Dade County.
Had enough? Write your congressman and senators. Just say "Basta!"
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