LETTERS: YOUNG CUBAN BOY'S HOME IS IN CUBA

To the editor:

For a campaigning politician, visiting the Cuban exile community of south Florida seems to have an effect sort of like getting out and admiring the full moon has for the wolf man. How else can one explain the asinine remark by U.S. Sen. John McCain, naturally while visiting the Cuban exile community of south Florida, to the effect that the internment of 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez by distant kin in Miami should be made permanent since he would be free, whereas in Cuba, his country, he would be a slave? I daresay the typical Cuban would be very surprised to learn that he has been a slave all along.

Young Gonzalez was halfway abducted to the United States by his mother, who died in the attempt. She had had custody of him only two days a week, by the way, so if it were not for the fact that the United States disapproves of Cuba's politico-economic system, this case would no doubt have been treated as the noncustodial-parent kidnapping that it manifestly is. The abduction was continued by the U.S. Coast Guard and is about to be completed by the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Lots of credit to be handed out all around, not excluding the Cuban exile community of south Florida and the politicos who suck up to them.

Any superpatriot out there who deludes himself that this country's instincts automatically veer toward doing the right thing should examine our actions so far in this case and get into the real world.

Here, at least, is something the Clinton administration can do right for a change and at little loss: Send young Gonzalez back to his dad and to his country. True, this would enrage the Cuban exile community of south Florida, but their votes are already firmly in the GOP column anyway, and they can't vote twice, so no loss there. A beneficial side effect is that the approval so prized by politicians, I scarcely need add of the proverbial right-thinking, independent-minded U.S. voter may well be gained by such a noble act.

DONN S. MILLER

Tamms, Ill.