It's been hard to develop a firm opinion about Elian Gonzalez, the 6-year-old Cuban boy plucked form the sea after a boat full of defectors capsized between Cuba and Florida. Elian lost his mother at sea and wound up in Florida. Elian's father wants his son back, he never approved of the oceanic exodus. Elian's American family and the community of Cuban exiles wants the boy to stay. The INS wants him to go back. Senator Dan Burton wants him to stay (and subpoenaed him to testify before congress, and the kid can't leave the country as the INS requested when he's under subpoena, it's one of the cleverest tricks I've seen in awhile.

Right wingers are confused, torn by their desire to see kids live with their families (i.e. fathers and mothers) and their hatred of Cuban communism. American lefties are just as undecided, they don't tend to hate Castro or communism, but they wouldn't raise their kids in Cuba. At the same time, they wouldn't want their kids to be taken away from them just because they lived under the wrong government. Politicians have tried to grand stand on this issue, but there's just no right position to proclaim.

It's hard to believe that Elian's father isn't under some form of coercion but it's also hard to believe that he wouldn't genuinely want his son to come home. You don't have to hold a gun to a father's head to make him want his lost son back. Then there's the will of the mother who died to attain freedom for her son. I bet Elian's confused. I know I'd be.

The INS didn't order Elian deported, they merely said he should go back to Cuba and all parties should find a peaceful way for him to return. The INS suggests that Elian's father travel to Miami to pick him up. The added benefit is that the father would be free to speak without the influence of the Cuban government. But I think this is either a trick or foolish. It's foolish because he will be leaving family back home and they could be punished if the father speaks out against Cuba. Also, he would never be able to return. As long as he lives there, he'll be under the influence no matter where he travels. This is where the trick comes in: the INS is hoping that the father will come to Miami and take the opportunity to defect himself. Elian stays, he stays, and what's Cuba going to do about it?

I doubt that will happen. What Americans forget is that not all Cubans hate Castro and not all Cubans think Cuba is a bad place to live. I know that comes as a bit of a surprise but you have to think about how Fidel came to power with an army of peasants behind him. That the Cubans in America are largely connected to the people who were in power before the revolution, the people who handed Cuba to American corporations and starved the working men and women of the island in the name of profit. Some Cubans, no doubt, prefer the current system to the unchecked capitalist dictatorship of the past. We Americans tend to think the opposite, that communist regimes are automatically evil. We may well prefer capitalism (I do) but we often forget that capitalism is no good without political controls. Freedom and capitalism. You can't have one without the other.

That said, freedom and communism certainly don't exist in Cuba. I wouldn't move there. Castro has undoubtedly committed some heinous crimes and basic human rights as I see them aren't respected in Cuba. It would be better for Elian to grow up in the United States, then.

But who can tell with a child? He's obviously resilient and adaptable and he's been through so much already. He could probably flourish in Cuba or the U.S. or anywhere. Where should he go? I'm not sure. It seems we must consider the mother's sacrifice. We must also consider that the father (divorced) may not have approved of the mother's escape, and might well have wanted to stop her from taking their son. I think this isn't a matter for the INS. It's more a childcare issue than an immigration issue. So go to family court, let a judge sort this out. I don't envy the judge, though.

The last time Michael Maiello was stumped for an opinion he was choosing pizza toppings. This is the first non-food related issue to baffle him in a while.