I used to believe this country valued human life more than any other on the globe. But I made a Yankee mistake - I confused “human” with “American.” Don’t worry citizens - your boys in Washington are much clearer on the distinction than yours truly.

Last summer, a speedboat full of Cuban refugees-to-be were caught in a chase between smuggler and enforcer (read this). The smugglers disobeyed, the enforcers shot down their engines, and the boat spun to a halt. A young Cuban woman suffered blunt head trauma. In the two hours it took a tangled, English-speaking chain of command to acknowledge Anay Machado Gonzalez’s injury and do something, she died.

Back at shore, the border security tallied a buzzer-beating victory. The boat was stopped just miles short of Key West. This was imperative. The Coast Guard couldn’t just follow the boat to shore, where the smugglers and refugees would be trapped. They had to shoot them down at sea. Why?

Here comes the second double standard: A Cuban becomes legal the moment their toes touch American sand. (I’m willing to bet my citizenship that a lot of Mexicans and Guatemalans wish their country’s throne was occupied by a communist remnant of the Cold War, too.)

So we shot the boat, killed a Cuban, and avoided having 30 more refugees in Miami. Right? Actually, not quite. Those aspiring refugees were called upon to testify in the smugglers’ trial. And the proceeding was certainly not held at sea.