President Obama was wrong to free mastermind of terrorist group that killed my brother for political reasons

New York Daily News – by Steven Steinberg

Not a day goes by that I don’t think about my younger brother Charles Steinberg.

Charles was only 26 years old when his promising life was cut short on Aug. 3, 1977 by the FALN in a bomb blast at a Manhattan office building.

Four decades later, I routinely talk about Charles and admire his high school graduation picture prominently displayed in my bedroom.  

Still, it was an incredible jolt to hear his name back in the news on Tuesday.

It was with utter disbelief and disgust that I learned President Obama had commuted the sentence of FALN mastermind Oscar López Rivera.

How could the President I voted for and endorsed taint his legacy by granting clemency to such an undeserving killer?

López Rivera’s group planted more than a hundred bombs around the country as it sought independence for Puerto Rico. He has refused to renounce his terrorist past. I believe he played a critical role in my brother’s death.

Charles was not only my sibling, he was also married to my wife’s sister Robin, so we had, for a brief period of time, a wonderful and intimate family union that shared life to its fullest.

We dreamed about having children together, grandchildren, anniversaries and other festive events that typical families live for. Those thoughts and dreams never materialized for us.

There are many avenues for voicing political views in this wonderful land of ours, but the FALN and its leaders, who preached violence without ever thinking about the consequences of their actions on innocent families, never once thought about the lives they were destroying in their wave of violence that rocked our country.

After all, the FALN is composed of intellectuals, bright people who had to know the ways of Gandhi, Martin Luther King and others who preached non-violent methods of opposition and achieving political and social goals.

I often wonder, what would Charles look like today? My 95-year-old mom constantly dreams about Charles and what could have been, as does my wife Beth and sister-in-law Robin.

Would he still be the fun-loving and jovial man I was so proud of? Would his success in business have continued into his later years? Would he have balding gray hair or the full head of beautiful hair he still has in my personal memories?

We will never know, but that will never discourage me from thinking about my brother.

My children never met their uncle, never shared family events with their uncle, never played with his children while growing up together on Long Island because the FALN planted two sticks of dynamite inside the Mobil Oil building where he was attending a business meeting.

Had Charles been sitting in the chair his partner sat in, he would still be alive today. Had their business appointment been delayed or canceled, he’d be “Uncle Charles” to my children.

But that was not meant to be. Instead, a bright, loving and handsome young man’s life was stolen, and for what? Political views? For the independence for Puerto Rico?

I’m not opposing this view or goal, I’m merely opposing with great vehemence the FALN’s means and methods for voicing their opinions.

Whether López Rivera actually constructed the bomb that took Charles’ life or planted the bomb at the Mobil Oil Company building on E. 42nd St. is not material.

As a leader of the FALN, he endorsed violence against innocent civilians. He has shown no remorse for the five deaths, 140-plus bombings, injuries to more than 100 people, prison escape plots and armed robberies carried out by his group. That speaks volumes about his character. He has defended his seditious conspiracy, means and methods.

Did López Rivera simply fail to grasp that the actions of his group of terrorists, focused on imposing independence for Puerto Rico by means of violence, threats and terror, would result in collateral damage and the loss of innocent lives? I don’t think he and his followers ever really cared.

I strongly object to the release of anyone who stoops to violence to achieve a political or non-political goal. If President Obama feels that López Rivera has been rehabilitated over the last 34-years, history doesn’t agree.

Yes, López Rivera is a brother, a father, a grandfather and a son. But Charles Steinberg was a brother, a husband and a son, and he could have been so much more.

Those responsible for my brother’s death, the death of others and the maiming of many should never enjoy a lovely sunset, a walk with their wife and children or a happy moment when their victims never will.

We should never pardon those convicted in connection to murder, whether they actually planted the bombs, obtained the dynamite or simply empowered others through their seditious rhetoric. Sparing these people the death penalty is “reward” enough. The knowledge they will never enjoy a sunrise or sunset more than a few steps from their 6-foot by 9-foot prison cells gives solace to their victims’ families.

The final punishment is yet to come when López Rivera dies and faces his maker. That it something no President can ever interfere with. There are no pardons in hell.

Steven Steinberg, 68, is an architect, painter and photographer who grew up in East Rockaway, N.Y., and now lives in northern California with his wife Beth. They and their three children remain close with Charles’ widow Robin.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/obama-wrong-free-faln-member-killed-brother-article-1.2949815