14
Tuesday, April 25, 2000
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Scott Hicks
EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR
Katie Abel
UNIVERSITY EDITOR
Jacob McConnico
CITY EDITOR
Point-Counterpoint
In Elian’s Best Interest?
The Justice Department had no
choice other than to use force.
Bv Laura Stoehr
Editorial Writer
When a group of federal agents plucked
Elian Gonzalez from his Miami relatives’
home early Saturday morning, justice was
served.
Facts concerning late-night negotiations
between the parties remain muddled, but by
stalling in past weeks, Miami relatives
trapped the Justice Department into using
force to reunite Elian with his father.
With the family’s refusals to agree on a
specific time and place for Elian to return to
his father, Attorney General Janet Reno, a
Miami native, was left without any alterna
tives. The family’s uncompromising position
meant that a peaceful transition could not
occur.
So Reno ordered the rescue operation.
And according to a national CNN/Gallup
poll, nearly six in 10 people supported the
government’s operation to bring together
father and son. However, Americans haven’t
made up their minds about the force used.
Unfortunately, it was necessary. To a fam
ily insistent on keeping the child with them
at any cost, the message to release Elian only
would be clear if it came from the lips of an
armed agent.
Also, as in many operations, agents could
not be certain what they would face from a
potentially violent and politically charged
crowd.
Of course, family members later accused
the Justice Department of acting in a manner
unbefitting a free government.
But that showdown was exactly what they
wan tad*
Theifamily wanted millions of Americans
to watch in horror at Elian’s terror-stricken
face as an agent ordered one of the fisher
man who found him to release the boy.
The picture is not kind, but it’s just anoth
er manipulative tool the family is using to
provoke sympathy. I don’t doubt that they
wanted the boy. I do, however, question
whether they remember the boy’s interests.
After the raid, Marisleysis Gonzalez told
reporters that she pleaded with agents to put
down their guns.
But she, and the rest of the Lazaro
Gonzalez clan, had plenty of time to bring
Elian to the agents without thrusting him into
a traumatic situation.
The family knew a raid was probably
coming, and so on Friday afternoon they got
ready, not by preparing Elian, but by choos
ing photographers to man the house.
When agents arrived, they yelled for 20
seconds - in Spanish and English - for some
one to open the front door.
The family had more time to turn over
Elian when the agents broke down the front
door.
Instead, though, in spite of the impending
search, the fisherman grabbed Elian and
backed into a bedroom closet.
Elian was happy later Saturday when he
met his father. And that’s really what the
operation was about - serving his best inter
ests.
No one wanted Saturday’s clash, but as
President Bill Clinton said, “the law was
upheld, and that was the right thing to do.”
Readers' Forum
One Hour of Your Time
This Week Could Make
You an Anonymous Hero
TO THE EDITOR:
I feel compelled to write this letter in
response to the lack of interest shown at the
American Red Cross blood drives held on
campus March 29 and March 30. It is my
responsibility, as the director of the blood
drives, to inform the students and faculty
about the opportunity they missed to help
save someone’s life.
Every pint of blood that is collected by
the Red Cross can save up to three lives. I
realize that this is a busy time of year with
exams and graduation approaching.
However, it literally only takes an hour of
your time to save a life.
The next opportunity to donate blood
on campus will be today and Thursday.
The drives will be held in the Great Hall
in the Student Union from 11 a.m. to 4:30
p.m. each day. Anyone who comes will also
have the opportunity to get typed for bone
marrow donation.
Rob Nelson
EDITOR
Office Hours Friday 3 p.m. - 4 p.m.
Matthew B. Dees
STATE & NATIONAL EDITOR
T. Nolan Hayes
SPORTS EDITOR
Leigh Davis
FEATURES EDITOR
One look at Elian's face proves
that Janet Reno was wrong.
Bv Kelli Boutin
Assistant Editorial Page Editor
On Saturday, a picture was worth a thou
sand outcries.
The Associated Press captured a moment
that serves as silent testimony of the fact that
the Justice Department screwed up royally in
its handling of the transfer of the boy’s cus
tody. The image of a terrified Elian Gonzalez
in the arms of one of the fishermen who res
cued him, an MP-5 automatic rifle just inch
es from his face, speaks volumes.
No one can blame Attorney Generaljanet
Reno for feeling as if she had no other
options - the boy’s caretakers were undeni
ably unhelpful throughout the process, find
ing every way they could to defy the gov
ernment and delay the inevitable reunion of
the boy and his father, most notably by fail
ing to come to an agreement with Justice
Department officials the night of the raid.
And if the standoff between the Gonzalez
family and the government only concerned
adults, a show of force in the wee hours of
the morning would have been the right thing
to do.
But a child was involved, and no 6-year
old even begins to grasp the concept of law.
Nor does a 6-year-old understand that the
big, scary men wearing helmets and goggles
and carrying big, scary guns are there to do
something good.
True, Elian is no ordinary 6-year-old. Just
picture how he held on to that raft for days
on end. But just as that experience proved
his amazing strength, it also most likely
weakened him as well, leaving deep psycho
logical scars.
The last thing the young boy needed was
more trauma.
Because of the implications for the child’s
well-being, a situation like Saturday’s raid
should have been avoided at all costs.
And it could have been.
Aaron Podhurst, a friend of Reno’s who
acted as a spokesman for the Miami relatives
during telephone negotiations on Saturday
morning, said he believed an agreement was
close at hand even as the eight agents kicked
down their door. “I believe a deal was with
in minutes or an hour away,” he said on the
“Today” show. “I was shocked. I was disap
pointed. I couldn’t believe what I was look
ing at on TV.”
Because of the chance that a deal could
have been hammered out, Reno should have
held on just a little longer.
In the end, the right thing happened.
Elian belongs with his father, especially
because the INS had revoked Lazaro
Gonzalez’s temporary legal custody of the
boy nine days earlier, but the events imme
diately preceding the reunion ofjuan Miguel
Gonzalez and his son are inexcusable.
If Reno felt the situation had deteriorated
to the point where her agents had to seize the
child, she should not have sent them in
armed.
After months of spouting off about how
the best interests of the child should be pro
tected at all costs, the government did the
worst possible thing for his future well-being,
proving that actions do indeed speak loud
er than words.
The need for blood and blood products
is great.
This region alone supplies more than
100 hospitals with blood that they need for
their patients. Each hospital uses more than
1,500 pints of blood daily.
Just as it is one’s civic duty to vote, it is
also one’s responsibility to donate blood.
Only five percent of the population
donates blood, yet more than 97 percent of
the population will need a blood product
by the age of 72.
The University has been participating in
blood drives for many years. The last dri
ves in March were disappointing because
the two-day goal of 130 pints was not met.
Only 87 pints of blood were collected.
Please join the American Red Cross in
the Great Hall on Tuesday and Thursday
to become an anonymous hero.
Thank you to everyone that has donat
ed in the past.
Casey Copp
Director of Support Services
Orange County chapter of the
American Red Cross
Opinions
alt? irnhj (Far Mtd
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Robin Clemow
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A. 1
Economic Globalization Inevitable
Chanting. Marching. Vandalizing.
If the November riot in Seattle dur
ing the World Trade Organization
meeting was the main event, last week’s
“mobilization for global justice" in
Washington during the meeting of the
International Monetary Fund and the World
Bank was one hell of an encore.
Although the anti-globalization camp is
totally misguided, it’s not difficult to under
stand why some people believe some govern
ment agencies to be a racket for big business.
The amount of congressionally authorized
corporate subsidies is odious indeed.
Instead of giving handouts, government
should focus on raising personal living stan
dards via free trade policies and recognition
of property rights. If organizations such as the
IMF, WTO and the World Bank are the vehi
cles to achieve that end, they have fallen well
short thus far.
The IMF, for example, originally was
formed to provide short-term loans to foreign
countries in order to promote free-market
policies, but it instead has made many coun
tries into loan addicts. In fact, 70 countries
have depended on IMF credit for more than
20 years, without any movement toward eco
nomic liberalization.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Boris
Federov last year said: “I strongly believe that
IMF money injections from 1994 t 01998 were
detrimental to the Russian economy and
interests of the Russian people. Instead of
speeding up reforms, they slowed them.”
A similar sentiment can be expressed
regarding the World Bank.
According to a recent Meltzer Commission
report on international financial institutions,
“many of the bank’s failures result from lend
ing to countries unprepared or unwilling to
adopt wealth-creating policies.”
And while the World Trade Organization
has acted modestly to reduce trade barriers,
most of the events that have opened up the
world economy (such as the collapse of the
Soviet empire and the emerging merchant
class in China) have occurred without any
help from the WTO.
Because none of these organizations has
accomplished any significant pro-market
reforms, it stands to reason that it is not the
Robbins’ ‘Agenda’ Too
Idealistic; There Are
Better Ways to Help
TO THE EDITOR:
In response to Tara Robbins’ April 20
column:
For once, Ms. Robbins is right: No per
son should be condemned to a life under
a repressive regime. No one should ever go
hungry.
Those damn communists have gone far
enough!
Since America has the answer for an
ogre like Fidel Castro, and since all the ills
of communist nations are the fault of those
who live there, I have some suggestions
that will make it easier to realize Robbins’
agenda.
First, let’s send a 747 jumbo jet to
Havana and fly all the Cubans we can to
South Florida.
There, Elian Gonzalez’s (distant) rela
tives, who seem affluent and caring
enough, will surely take them all in! Then
the immigrants can spend their days at
Thomas Ausman
DESIGN EDITOR
Megan Sharkey
GRAPHICS EDITOR
William Hill
ONLINE EDITOR
fm
ZSj
JONATHAN TRACER
THE LIBERTARIAN LETTERS
organizations themselves that protesters hate.
They hate the essence of capitalism, or they
think they do.
Consider that one major anti-globalization
Web site claims increased corporate invest
ment will “constrain the rights and opportuni
ties of the majority of the world’s people.”
Excuse me, but exactly which opportunities
would the presence of business constrain in
these countries? The opportunity to bake in
the sun all day without break to have scraps to
feed your family or the opportunity to live in
a communal toilet and die of preventable dis
ease?
Investment, as it always has, does not con
strain opportunities; it creates new ones.
Before capitalism, individuals not of royal
birth were locked hopelessly into a state of
poverty, whereby starvation and deadly epi
demics were routine facts of existence.
With that in mind, let’s look at what pover
ty is in contemporary America, courtesy of W.
Michael Cox and Richard Aim’s recent book,
“Myths of Rich and Poor.”
In 1994, 97 percent of “poor” households
in America owned a refrigerator. About
92 percent owned a color TV set. More than
70 percent owned at least one car.
Department of Labor data shows that in the
early 19.905, the median duration of a poverty
spell was 4.2 months, proving that for those
willing to work, poverty is largely a transitory
experience.
Regarding overall opportunity, we can turn
to data of the University of Michigan Panel on
Income Dynamics and see that more than half
of those earners in the lowest 20 percent
income bracket in 1975 had reached one of
the top three income brackets within four
years.
Disney World, wearing those neat little
American flag shirts that Elian always has
on!
Ooh, and let’s do the same for the hun
gry!
I envision the entire population of
Ethiopia being shipped to Alabama, where
it will undoubtedly receive all the warm
and wonderful benefits of capitalism.
Then we can crate up some Vietnamese,
kidnap some Koreans and Shanghai some
Chinamen. All these people would be bet
ter off under another, noncommunist sys
tem, so let’s bring the rest of the world to
the United States!
That, or we could allow those countries
to be recolonized, which is the situation
that necessitated the communist takeovers
in the first place.
Or we could ask the American govern
ment to stop kidnapping citizens of other
countries, like Elian, and instead the
United States could help those countries
attain a basic standard of living by raising
embargoes, dismantling the International
Monetary Fund, etc.
Robbins, though, seems to want only a
Vicky Eckenrode & Cate Doty
MANAGING EDITORS
We also see that in 1992 the number of
black-owned businesses was up more than 46
percent from just five years earlier, while the
number of female-owned businesses was up
from 4.6 percent in 1972 to 33.2 percent. The
earning gap between white men and blacks
and women, a beloved subject of the main
stream media, has been shrinking and should
continue to narrow for years to come.
Clearly, our capitalistic economy, although
certainly not a pure free-market system, is still
extremely dynamic, and opportunity for
advancement in American society has never
been more accessible.
America is not a nation of “haves” and
“have-nots.” It is a nation of “haves,” “have
mores” and “have mosts.”
But such a situation only has come about
within a democratic framework that recog
nizes private property rights and the impor
tance of business investment.
Although protective tariffs certainly have
played a part in American history, trade has
still played an important role in our success.
Were we to drastically reduce trade barriers,
consumers would reap great benefits in the
form of lower prices for higher-valued goods
as per the theory of comparative advantage,
which is taught in any basic macroeconomics
course.
Many world leaders and their citizenry are
now beginning to truly understand that free
markets are the only way to escape rampant
poverty.
Consequently, were the IMF, WTO and
World Bank to disappear tomorrow, the trend
toward economic globalization would contin
ue unabated.
It’s very easy for American activists to rally
against “tainting” foreign societies with corpo
rate influence.
But for those individuals who live in
squalor, the choice of the status quo or the
elimination of poverty via corporate invest
ment and free trade is usually not a difficult
one to make.
Jonathan Trager is a senior journalism
and mass communication major from Long
Island, N.Y., whom you can sponsor for only
SSO a day. Send cash contributions to
trager@email.unc.edu.
higher horse, from which to bluster more
noticeably.
Josh Fennell
Junior
History
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