Freedom is Still Elusive

Photo was the Pulitzer prize winning shot of Alan Diaz

Ten years ago, 5 year old Elian Gonzalez was found was found floating off the coast of Florida in an inner tube after his mother and others fleeing Cuba drowned trying to reach the U.S.

Relatives refused to give him up. Federal agents raided his uncle with guns drawn and seized the boy from a closet to return him to his father. (A/P MiamiHerald)

Now 16, Cuba released photo of Teenager Elian attending a Young Communist Union congress.

From American Thinker. Re blogging some parts of the article. Click the link to read the whole thing including comments.

Instead of a Miami Dolphins Jersey, "Cuba released photos of one-time exile cause celeb Elian Gonzalez wearing an olive-green military school uniform." Elian Gonzalez is what youthful subjugation looks like when a boy, a heartbeat from freedom, is deprived the liberty Little Havana fought to hard, but failed to deliver

If Elian had been granted asylum, today he would be a teenager preparing to go to college with every opportunity for success ahead of him. Instead, on the cusp of adulthood, Elian poses for propaganda photos sandwiched between Cuban army soldiers attending the Union of Young Communists congress in Havana.

The youthful Gonzalez should have been wrapped in the America flag. Instead a boy who once represented the quest for the God given right to be free, waves a Cuban flag symbolizing poverty, oppression, authoritarianism and misinformation.

Free people should take a good, long look at Elian Gonzalez and observe what our nation has the potential to become ten years down the line if, instead of moving in the opposite direction, America's row boat continues to inch closer to Cuba's shores.

Somebody made a comment to this America Thinker article, saying it's one of the saddest among the news today. Just because a mother risked her life to give free to the little boy but it all went for naught.

Yes, quite sad. Elian just sits there with dazed look. A propaganda shot.