Joel Achenbach and Marjorie Williams
Marjorie:
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I'm stunned by the latest news from Miami. Because I have a naive faith in the decency and wisdom of my fellow human beings, I had assumed that the Miami relatives of Elián had permanently moved to Sister Jeanne's house on Miami Beach. Surely they realized that they had to get the boy away from the chanting throngs in Little Havana, that regardless of what happened next, that was no place for a little kid. What a dope I am. Lazaro González spurned Reno and took Elián back to NW 2nd Street late last night. We keep hearing that the Miami relatives want only what's best for Elián--and apparently they've decided that what Elián needs is to be forcibly taken by scary large men in bulletproof armor. Marjorie, did you notice on TV by chance a group of people dressed entirely in black, holding hands in circle? There was one person, maybe the leader, dressed only in white. Who were those folks? It always makes me nervous when people in monochromatic clothing form a circle.
ABC aired a home movie, apparently freshly made at the Little Havana house, of Elián pleading with his father not to take him back to Cuba. Seems to me his emphatic wishes have to be put into context, and not just the context we've previously noted, which is that 6-year-olds don't get to call the shots. This boy is so scared, he became convinced, according to Sister Jeanne, that he was going to be put back on a raft. He couldn't sleep. Everyone had to persuade him that he wasn't going to be dumped back into the Gulf Stream. This thing is just heartbreaking, and more than a little infuriating.
I'm also surprised that the police have yet to move the crowd back from the current set of barricades. I was there a couple of weeks ago: The barricades can't be more than about 100 feet from the house. They're right next door, practically. By 2 p.m. there could be thousands of people there. What are the feds going to do, drive through the human chain in one of their Waco tanks?
Marjorie, what do you think about Janet Reno? When I was at the Herald she was regarded as a straight shooter, totally by the book, and unquestionably honest in a town where you couldn't say that about most public officials. Why does she have so many enemies now? She's hated from every direction, left, right, the White House, now even in her hometown. She still strikes me as one of the least phony people in American public life. It's not like she suddenly adopted a new hairstyle when she hit Washington. She doesn't even take the medications (as I recall) that can keep her arms and hands from shaking.
Meanwhile we'll have to keep an eye on the market today, since all the Michael Saylors of the world have been watching their paper fortunes disappear by the hour. I just heard the markets opened up. Generally speaking I love it when tech stocks take a dive since I'm mostly invested in pre-Old Economy stocks, which is to say, the Ancient Economy. I have taken a major position in, for example, the papyrus industry. I am heavily into chariots. For the record, I do own 30 shares of Microsoft. I guess that means our "Breakfast Table" exchanges are poisoned by my financial self-interest. Enough hits on this site, the next thing you know we can turn around the Microsoft nosedive.
One day recently I drank too much coffee and read an e-mail from a reader who had a hot stock tip, and I instantly bought some of it, right from my desktop computer, it all happened in about 30 seconds. The stock instantly plummeted. A total dog. Value cut in half in 48 hours. It was like stuffing cash down the garbage disposal. I consoled myself that at least it wasn't my retirement money that I was blowing in the market, it was just the kids' college fund.
I hope your day's off to a great start.
Cheers,
Joel
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Reader Response from The Fray--to be read after the final entry:
Let me get this straight: they give out Pulitzer's for criticism [Monday]? Please--my heart is pounding, my blood pressure is rocketing, my hands now shake, please dear, please, please tell me, where do I sign up?
--Old Timer [who is well-known in The Fray for his expertise in this area.]
(To reply, click here.)
Re: Elian Gonzales. I believe that immigration laws should be as open and welcoming as possible. But at the same time we need to look at the long-term situation of the country the people are fleeing. There is not always a whole lot we can do, and we also run the risk of becoming control freak America with it's thumb in every pie--oh, hang on, we already are that. Well, anyway, my point is that instead of trying to pass a bill to make Elian a citizen, why don't we lift the embargo and make life a little better for all Cubans?
--Anne
(To reply, click here.)
"That's exactly what Castro wants us to do", I believe, is the stock response to either ending or continuing the embargo.
--Steve Dowling
(To reply, click here.)
[This response almost silenced David Edelstein, but not quite:]
The embargo is a 40-year hissy fit, and it's time to give it a rest. Say what you will against Castro (I can say plenty), he'd have been long gone if the embargo had been lifted 25 years ago and Disney and all the other U.S. corporations had moved in with their sundry inducements to free (sic) enterprise.
--David Edelstein
(To reply, click here.)
The question of why people hate Janet Reno [Thursday] is a bit intricate and since I do hate her, I'd like to take a stab at it--the question, not her (I don't hate anybody that much). Reno reminds me of the Greek tragedy Antigone which shows us that strict enforcement of the law, by the book, isn't always the best thing. The Waco invasion wasn't the best thing, for example. I believe the law justified her actions, that the operation was by the book. But that doesn't mean it was a good thing. With Elian, there's that potential again that Reno will embark on the legal course, but that it won't be the morally right course.
Reno does not respect people who defy her. She assumes they are wrong and she acts on that and she has a tremendous amount of power to enforce her interpretation of law. This is the crux of my anti-Renoism: She doesn't talk to people, she barks orders at them. When people ignore the lectures they get punished. Hey, that's her job. But it'd be nice to have a more philosophical sort wielding all that power--someone with a better sense of proportion who realizes that every act of defiance is unique and deserves unique treatment.
--Michael Maiello
(To reply, click here.)
Don Porges writes in The Fray about Thursday's entry:
The definition and connotations of "dice" are much more precise in naming the objects in question. My old TI-99 had a "random number generator" command in its BASIC programming. Since it was just code, it resembled nothing that would help baby get a new pair of shoes. Besides "dice" fits into a headline nicely.
--Charles
(To reply, click here.)
[No proposals this week. But that doesn't mean the Breakfast Table went unappreciated:]
These guys were the best. And that's granting that there were some close competitors. But Joel and Marjorie are the BT gold standard. The King and Queen are dead! Bring on next week's random number generators!
--Mike
(To reply, click here.)
(4/14)