Rescue & Betrayal at Sea

Did you read the post below about castro's assassins?  Do you understand who castro is?  Do you get what life is like on the island gulag?  Are you a parent?  Can you imagine doing this?

MIAMI - More than a thousand Thanksgiving holiday revelers cruising within view of Cuba had to make an unexpected stop over the weekend to rescue 10 migrants from a 15-foot boat foundering in the Florida Straits, passengers said Monday.

Among the migrants the crew of the Zenith plucked from the sea Sunday was a young girl named Jennifer.

The 7-year-old won the hearts of passengers during her 10 hours on board the ship, owned by Miami-based Celebrity Cruises.

But for the girl and her family, the upgrade from a boat powered largely by homemade oars to the luxury liner was brief.

The seven men and two women in the group were taken off the cruise ship at about 11 p.m. by a U.S. Coast Guard cutter, where they remained Monday, Petty Officer Dana Warr said. Their names have not been released, and their relatives have not come forward.

The group was being questioned by immigration authorities who will determine whether they will be repatriated or eventually allowed to resettle in a third country.

"How do people do that?'' said Wright, who spotted the group through the lens of his camera.

Another passenger, Cuban-born Joel Villa, a senior systems analyst for Knight Ridder, which owns The Miami Herald, was on the five-day cruise with his family.

Villa, who came to the United States when he was 12, knows about the endless stream of Cubans trying to reach U.S. soil.  "You hear about these refugees, but you don't get to see it up close like this,'' Villa said.

Knowing a child was among the migrants touched Villa.  "I have an 8-year-old son,'' he said.

Some of the other 1,300 passengers on board went to meet the young girl in the cabin the captain provided for the migrants.

Villa said when the Cuban girl was escorted off the ship, passengers yelled: "Goodbye, Jennifer!''

Some unaware of the U.S. wet-foot, dry-foot policy for Cuban migrants may have envisioned a happy ending: The girl and her family were headed to Miami. Villa explained the reality to some.

Monday, Wright and Villa were still thinking of the migrants and their fate. "I'm just glad they're OK,'' Wright said.

Villa wanted to know:  "Have they been sent back to Cuba yet?''

Why would you place your child in such a risky circumstance you ask?  For the hope of freedom.  In Cuba the child is the property of the state.  She can look forward to an adult life as property of the state.  That means no free will to decide where she will go to school, where she will work, no control over how much she will earn or where she will live.  No choice about what books she can read, or where she can travel.  No exploring the world through the Internet.  She will stand in long lines for daily staples, and there will never be enough.  When she has children, if she does, (Cuba has a very high rate of abortion) she will worry every moment about where she is going to get enough to feed this child, and how do you offer your child hope for a future when there is none? 

Cuba has the highest rate of suicide in the world, especially for women.  This is life in Cuba, castro's earthly hell.

What do you think?  Is it ok to send them back?  We treat our pets better than this.  Say a prayer for these refugees and call the White House. Please ask President Bush to stop this terrible injustice and end the wet foot/dry foot policy.

Read the whole story here  at KansasCity.com.

Comments

[Alberto Quiroga]

The ironies of history...this post is not for the purpose of justifying, by any means, the current US "wet foot-dry foot" policy vis a vis the Cuban people. I can't help but wonder sometimes if perhaps this tragedy, a direct result of the curse of kaSStro, was visited upon unfortunate Cuba because once, not so long ago, strangers in desperate need knocked on the door...and were refused:

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005267

We should all heed these words and live by them:

"Do onto others as you would like them to do unto you."

I hope Uncle Sam is listening too.

[kathleen]

That tragedy was one among a larger world wide one my friend. Cuba has been very kind to the Jews, pre-castro. Including some of my family. Over the centuries Jews have prospered in Cuba, starting with the large number of original conversos fleeing the inquisition. I don't believe for a moment that Cubans deserve their misfortune in an eye for an eye payment for that time. There were German agents involved and the usual other factors. President Bru and his party is to blame, and the 40 thousand is a small minority, the majority of Cubans had nothing to do with the demonstration or the incident, and note as well that the US did not volunteer to help, or any other land. The world turned its back on the Jews during that dark time. The blame for the tragedy of Cuba is castro's, not his victims.

[Charlie Bravo]

Thanks for fighting like a lioness, Ziva. I just saw this, after I posted about it in my blog. I added a line thanking you at the end when I read this. Thanks.

[Alberto Quiroga]

Well said, Kathleen - hope the connection between kaSStro and today's tragic situation is clear...think too that we should all be reminded there is a moral obligation to shelter the persecuted. My family and I are direct beneficiaries of Uncle Sam's welcoming policies and the thought of these unfortunates being returned to the lair of the beast is too painful to contemplate-maybe one is looking for rational answers or cosmic connections to the whole tragic thing. There are no answers, no explanations - one can only ask WHY?

[kathleen]

Alberto, you can make yourself crazy with that big why. It's better to say why not? Why not do the right thing now, it's a choice, and this wet foot/dry foot is wrong, wrong, wrong. If everyone would stand up and say it, Bush would hear. And I'm not just talking about Cubans either. All of us have a moral responsibility to say no to injustice.