The Editor, Sir:

Truly significant turning points in history are seldom seen as great events in the news. The bombing of an FBI building in Oklahoma City, the destruction of the World Trade Center in New York, a tidal wave in Southeast Asia. All were great, news-making events, but their real significance hangs upon what they are truly made of, not what we make of them.

I believe the greatest, most significant turning point in recent, United States history was the day the federal government decided to return a little Cuban boy to the homeland that his mother died trying to escape. It was a day of infamy, a day that mocked all America has ever represented or will ever hope to represent. The mother and the boy did not come here looking to make money, they came looking for freedom and tragically found it was gone!

Never forget

What this turning point taught us is something we should never forget: True leadership takes more than just the ability to say what people want to hear, to gather votes, and write a great news story. True leadership must demonstrate the insight and wisdom needed to help a society solve its many problems and to guide its progress, all the while defending its most cherished ideals and values, even at the risk of death.

Indeed, we must ask ourselves what the principle of 'freedom,' the one we all hold so dear, must have meant to Elian Gonzales the other day when the Cuban government gave him his official Communist Party card in celebration? We should have taken a moment of silence and bowed our heads in shame.

I am, etc.,

Ed McCOY

mmhobo48@juno.com

Bokeelia, FL

Via Go-Jamaica