Uncle Lazaro Will Be Long Remembered
Jack Thompson
Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2001
The Associated Press named as its top two news stories of 2000 the
presidential election's Florida aftermath (No. 1) and the Elian Gonzalez saga (No. 2).
But for No. 2, there would have been no No. 1, as it was the votes of
Florida's patriotic Cuban-Americans, appalled by how Clinton-Gore-Reno
illegally took this little boy on Easter Eve, that delivered Florida to
George W. Bush.
Whereas millions of Americans saw the front door of the Little Havana home shattered with a battering ram wielded by Reno's storm troopers, they will never see the heart of Lazaro Gonzalez, just as surely broken by that early morning raid - crushed not just by the loss of a boy but also by the loss of faith in a country where the Constitution was supposed to prevent such governmental violence.
In fittingly making Lazaro Gonzalez NewsMax.com's "Hero of the Year," we honor all those simple men and women whose sacrifices have allowed America to endure more than 200 years. Liberty endures not because of the sophisticated language and logic of lawyers, not because some Justices somewhere come to the rescue of abstract principles of equality.
Liberty endures for all of us because men and women calling themselves Americans are willing to risk all, even harm at the hands of their government's soldiers, because they love America and will continue to love her with broken hearts.
Lazaro Gonzalez will be considered a grander hero in the coming years than he is even now, for when Cuba's Communist regime falls, as it inevitably must, "Great Uncle Lazaro" will be mentioned by those who finally breathe free air in Cuba as someone who inspired them to hold out for freedom.
Jack Thompson, a Miami attorney, covered the Elian Gonzalez story for NewsMax.com. Read why Uncle Lazaro will be considered a greater hero in the future.
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