AMBER with Anger

[lpara]

<span style='font-family:comic sans ms'>March 14, 2003, 10:00 a.m.
AMBER with Anger
Not-so-smart demands.

The &quot;miracle&quot; of Elizabeth Smart — wonderful news, to be sure, that the 15-year-old Utah girl is back home with her family after nine months of abduction — has had a somewhat odd result: the launching of a war against House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R., Wis.).

On Thursday morning, one of Elizabeth's father's many media stops was NBC's Today show. One only had to be paying cursory attention to hear railing — from Mr. Smart, and others — against &quot;a Republican congressman&quot; for &quot;stalling&quot; legislation that would save the lives of boys and girls like Elizabeth, taken from their homes and families.

&quot;He is hurting children,&quot; Mr. Smart said of Rep. Sensenbrenner.

&quot;I was shocked by the transcript,&quot; one longtime media observer told NRO. &quot;In the heat of this human-interest story, is it really fair to just let an emotional father whack at this guy?&quot;

Interesting (http://www.nationalreview.c om/lopez/lopez031403.asp)</span>

[Terri]

It does seem like an unfair attack especially since the Amber Alert would have done little to find a girl held in the woods for two months.

I do wonder if the police used tracking dogs and if they did why didn't the dogs find her?

[azwhitewolf]

Quote[/b] ]Mr. Smart's emotional effusions can be excused; who among us cannot imagine how terrible his experience must have been? But the rest of us should support thoughtful deliberations on how best to save the Ambers of the future. So says the article!

Why does Mr. Smart think he is in the position to demand that laws be passed? Calm down, Smart - you might blow a vessel.

Let's look at Mr. Smart. He hires a bum - A BUM - to help around the house. His daughter, who has run away before, is introduced to a drifter.

Bums don't generally have CARS, and if they do, they are stolen cars. Using that logic, you'd have to post every &quot;stolen cars&quot; license plate on any Amber Alert system to POSSIBLY find one girl.

Am I still the only one that thinks Smart is hiding something? He seems to cause quite a stir with the press on ANYTHING that doesn't have to do with him or his daughter directly. Almost as if he's trying to put the spotlight on other people.

Something smells fishy about this whole story.

[lpara]

<span style='font-family:comic sans ms'>AZ~~you and my husband must be Guatemalan twins, separated at birth. http://gopusa.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/laff.gif He thinks she ran away and they are hiding something. http://gopusa.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif</span>

[azwhitewolf]

It's the press conference with the police that kills me. It sure was a nice grandstand for the officers involved, but they aren't really pointing out anything besides the obvious.

Just like Officer Moose with the sniper shootings. That guy was a waste and constant interruption during &quot;Law and Order&quot; - no info, no juice - heck, no NEWS. Just a conference with NO NEWS. And the press called him a hero after a PRIVATE CITIZEN did the work. Just like the Smart case.

I'm going out on a limb - far enough to say that Elisabeth was molested PRIOR to her running away. Everything I've seen points to the symptoms of that. EVERY HOUR, another Smart family member is &quot;calling a press conference&quot;. Something ain't right. She runs away, older man, a BUM no less, she definately has some self-esteem issues that are deep rooted. I don't buy &quot;taken&quot;, even if the sister does say so - she could have been threatened as well.

But ol Ed Smart is looking pretty actively involved - to a point where he's taking charge. That's a pretty good sign that he's got some stake in being &quot;in control&quot; of the situation.

I know this is a crazy guess, but that's all it is - a guess.

[Terri]

Wow! I must be very naive. Seems like someone has told me that a couple of times lately. http://gopusa.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin5.gif

I can't say that any of you are wrong for sure but I think you are, except for the police. I think they had the best of intentions but they blew this bigtime.

Wolf, I'm not doubting you but I didn't hear that Elizabeth ran away before. When was that reported?

[azwhitewolf]

For the life of me, I'm trying to find where I read that.

Wow. I feel kind of stupid - I usually have my sources ready.

I respect the police, and I think their intentions and efforts were there also. HOWEVER, the grandstanding is unnecessary, espeically in light of the fact that it wasn't cracked BY the police.

I hear the reporter giving the facts, and they turn to the &quot;police, who are speaking&quot;. I learned more from a 2 minute schpeal from a reporter than the 10 minute press conference with the police. I can't tell if the police's lack of answers annoyed me more than the reporter's questions.

I'll see if I can find the source. http://gopusa.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[Leelanau]

As an abused child myself, I thought it was extremely strange that this girl came back to the family so freely with big smiles - but never tried to escape even though they obviously had been in the neighborhood during her kidnapping. *A brainwashed person wouldn't have so easily adapted to coming home and touching her family members so easily. *Most likely she would have been told monstrous things about how her family hated her, etc. in order to keep her under control. *

The first thing I thought was that she was willingly with that couple, but for reasons unknown. *The second thought was how possible it was for her to been molested during her capture, but not one word of that had been brought up - especially by her father. *Which led to the third thought - she was probably molested at home, which would killed her self esteem and made her prime pickings for kidnapping. *That BUM seemed to recognize that in this girl.

Anyone who lets a stranger work around your children without doing even a quick background check is totally irresponsible. *At the bare minimum you should make sure the permits are current, has references, etc. *And NEVER give anyone access except to the areas that need work. *Why did this man know where this child slept??

I agree that this family has MANY skeletons in their closets!!

[pRIMrose]

Quote[/b] ] agree that this family has MANY skeletons in their closets!!

I tend to agree ~ I can't help but remember all the hoopla that was going on when she first disappeared and how ambiguous some of the relatives were being ~ like they knew something and were afraid to share it. Very cryptic. One of the relatives said something about he couldn't comment and he just hoped that it would all work out. http://gopusa.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tqrolleyes.gif We'll probably never know the whole story.

[Terri]

So what are all of you saying?

You think the family did it? Why?

Do any of you remember Patricia Hearst?

[pRIMrose]

Terri ~ I don't think the parents did it. However, I just have this queezy feeling that they were complicit (knew more than they were willing to admit) in some way.

And I can't compare Pattie Hearst, who was captured by gun toting SLA members who were experts in brainwashing and corruption, to a couple of religious fanatic day laborers who are lonney toons.

It's beyond my comprehension that someone like these two could capture a fourteen year old and in such a short time twist her mind so badly she wouldn't try to escape. Unless she was being held at gunpoint every minute. Teens are notoriously inventive and hard to contain under the best of circumstances.

To tell the truth ~ I don't think the Smarts', especially the father are all that stable. Being overjoyed at the return of your lost child would definitely be an emotional experience, but spending hours and hours wailing about it in front of the TV cameras is a little more than strange to me.

If she was abducted (against her will), and if she truly didn't have a chance to escape, and never, never, never in nine months could pass a note or whisper to someone that she was being held captive, then I'm all wet and I'll have to put away my http://gopusa.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/anon.gif and admit I'm wrong. It won't be the first or last time http://gopusa.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/laff.gif

[Terri]

We know that Elizabeth's mother encountered this guy on the street and after prompting by her kids she gave him $5 and talked to him. That led her to suggest he do some work for her husband and he worked on their house.

Now that is nothing short of stupid but if you put it into the context of religious people trying to live their religion, I see how it happened. I just think it was very irresponsible.

The Morman religion teaches children great respect for their elders, for authority and of course for God. *I think it highly unlikely that Elizabeth was used to solving her own problems or that those children are much like most of today's children.

RIM, I think that a looneytoon coming from a religious perspective would be far more powerful to a religious child than the SLA would be.

Patty Hearst was a 19 year old coed, living on her own, and she was completely brainwashed by those people into doing things she would never have done otherwise and has not done since.

Elizabeth was only 14, big difference.

And of course, I don't know that the Smarts are clear of any involvement but I think they are.

I think they seem different to you because they are different. Morman families live their religion and not all of it is something most of us would agree with but I have to say they raise very stable and successful children.

My brother in law married a Morman woman and converted to the Church of Latter Day Saints. I don't really know a lot about their religious practices but they were stability personified.

[pRIMrose]

Quote[/b] ]The Morman religion teaches children great respect for their elders, for authority and of course for God.

Terri ~ what you say makes a lot of sense ~ and FWIW, this girl will spend much of the next portion of her life trying to come to terms with what has happened. Which brings up another touchy subject ~ the Mormon religion. I have personal experience with some of their teachings since one of my SIL's who lives in Leesburg is now Mormon. She wasn't always Mormon, her prior religion was very staunch and the family was in shock when she changed. I won't go into the details, but suffice it to say, from what I have seen personally, they have some very strange beliefs and methods of persuasion. I'm in no way knocking the religion ~ I would never do that to anyone's religion, except for perhaps radical Islamists. I've always espoused that most religions have their good points.

It just seems to me that there are so many strange and unanswered questions. Why did it take the nine year old sister two hours before she told her parents? I'm asking from my own frame of reference ~ if it had been me, there is no way I could have spent two hours in pure terror and not run to my parents ~ no matter what the abductor threatened. Once he was gone I would have become hysterical. But that's just me and perhaps Mormon training gives them more self restraint.

Unfortunately, human nature what it is, we can turn any religion into &quot;fanaticism&quot;. That doesn't mean the religion is necessarily to blame.

You are absolutely right about the mother having very poor judgement. Even a good and religious woman should have better sense than to let a bum on the street con her into a job. Especially one that looks like this guy. http://gopusa.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tqrolleyes.gif This isn't the 1950's when most everyone was able to trust each other and our country wasn't saturated with illegal types with a nefarious agenda. To hire a hairy bum with no references to come to your home where you have two very naive and trusting daughters is something I just cannot reconcile.

BTAIM ~ sometimes life's lessons are very hard. I can't help but think that the whole family has learned a valuable, albeit traumatic lesson, and striking out at AMBER and others will not solve this unfortunate chain of events.