Notable & Venting: Henry Among the Freaks

"There's a jealous freak out there that says I wanted Elián to be sent back to Cuba. Forget for the moment that this jealous freak doesn't even know me, has never spoken with me and certainly didn't even know who I was back during the Elián saga, my words regarding Elián speak for themselves. Jealous lying freak." — Henry Gómez, Cuban-American Pundits, "Jealous Freak," November 27, 2007

I will first have you note that he is afraid even to address me by name. Nor does he dare to do so on Babalú, where he knows that I (and others) would notice. Instead, he hides on his own hugely unread blog and hopes that his fulminations will not reach me. Fond conceit. Everything that Henry says about me always reaches me. His friends see to that.

So I am a "jealous lying freak?"

It is rather pathetic, isn't it? The enormity of his ego matches his girth. I do not know of even one attribute of Henry's that I could covet. If I did it would be only because I wanted to demean my own talents. And why would I do that?

He has a right to be ashamed of his past and I cannot blame him for walking away from it. Still, he cannot rewrite his personal history or call me a liar because I am acquainted with it. I am not the only one. I will not betray what was told to me in confidence. But there is no doubt in my mind that Henry was fanatical about Elián being returned to Cuba. His disdain for Elenita is but a faint reflection of his conduct at the time of the Elián affaire. It was the good opinion of his Anglo neighbors and judges that mattered to Henry, not the life of this hapless boy. So it was then and so it is now. At least among Cuban exiles, it was Henry's stance which qualified him as a "freak." Of course, among "American-Cubans" — the label which he invented for himself — his conduct may have been quite "normal."

I must confess that I find Henry's puerile petulance rather amusing. I'm just glad that I can be amused at a distance. I should not be pleased if I actually had to witness his temper tantrums, which is the price that his intimates must pay for associating with him.


POSTSCRIPT:

Since 2005, Henry has been against returning Elián to Cuba. He has cited numerous posts to prove it. In a related story, Gretta Himmelgeister claims to have hidden Jews from the Nazis in 1950.