Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Shawn Hornbeck again

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I'm hearing that some of John Q. Public are asking questions and passing judgement. "He was left unsupervised; why didn't he try to escape?" "He had access to the internet; why didn't he make contact to get help?" "He's selfish to put his parents through that when he had the chance to get away." (Can you BELIEVE that one???) "This is fishy; it doesn't add up."

Folks, I've got some questions for you: Were you kidnapped as a child; ripped away from any love and safety and security you had, and kept without it for years? What lies did your kidnapper tell you? Were you afraid of him? Did he threaten you? What did you have to do to survive? Oh, yeah...it didn't happen to you. Yes, it may be puzzling to you to think that he had chances to get away and didn't. But if you haven't been in that situation, you cannot begin to imagine what it was like, what his frame of mind was, how afraid he was. You have no insight as to his perspective. You have absolutely no room to pass judgement. So shut the Hell up.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've been watching the story, too, I guess people maybe are forgetting that when he was abducted he was just eleven years old. Maybe because now he looks like an almost-grown-up?

The whole story is so weird! Can you imagine working with that guy, the abductor, at a pizza parlor for years and years and having no idea you were working with a crazy man!

jenn said...

You know, people love to talk like they know things. But they don't. Asshats.

CosmicAvatar said...

Hear bloody hear.

I was reading about Natascha Kampusch (another recent high-profile kidnap who was kept by her abductor for eight years - sorry if I get the spelling wrong). She emerged from captivity utterly composed and refusing to criticize her abductor, but a recent visit from a paper reported behaviour which suggests that she is completely fucked up. So unless these people have gone through what she and Shawn have gone through, they can just belt up.

Angela said...

I watched the Hornbeck family on Oprah last week. It was really respectfully handled, and I think that the parents are doing what they can to handle it the best way they know how.

It's just a sad, crappy situation all around.