Just before Brendan and I left on the Bear Hunting trip, I remember hearing a blurb on the news about some young lady who had escaped from a kidnapper after being held for a number of years. I thought at the time this took place in Australia, but I found out it really had been in Austria. When I returned from our hunt, I checked out the news and saw the articles about Natascha Kampusch, who was kidnapped about 8 1/2 years ago at age 10, and then given up for dead.
Imagine that, being kidnapped as a 10 year old child. Imagine being held captive for most of that time in a small cell below a garage. Imagine the fear, then the terror, the isolation, the hopelessness of her situation. Imagine enduring as did she, being the captive of someone, someone whom I believe must have been a monster, for 8 1/2 years. Then think about it time wise, because 8 1/2 years while long, does not say it right: it was about 3,102.5 days, or 74,460 hours. Imagine the slow passage of each of the 4,467,600 minutes, or the interminable ticking of each of the 268,056,000 seconds as they dragged on. It is only my guess, but I guess she was at the mercy of a twisted, deranged, criminal who was in my mind probably a pedophile - for all that time; and I would bet that much of it seemed like an eternity.
Imagine the thoughts that went through her head, imagine living with those thoughts since you were 10 years old, up until you were 18 years old. One of those thoughts has been reported as being: "I was very distraught and very angry... from FoxNews.com @ . I'll bet she was; and that anger built up over all those years. I'll not go into the details of her other statements, but from some of them it is apparent she has suffered severe mental trauma at the hands of this, in my opinion, beast.
In that sense, it is sad that monsters of almost all sorts fear the light of day. Just as all sorts of imaginary monsters hide in the shadows, so to do the real life monsters like pedophiles, kidnappers, and the like. The guy who allegedly kidnapped the child, now a lady, in question went out and committed suicide just hours after she had escaped from him. It seems he was too fearful that the light of justice was about to shine upon him, the light reflected off of the sword that justice wields. That sword would have undoubtedly torn apart the curtains behind which this fiend had his dirty secrets hidden away, and would have exposed them and him for all to see.
Why did I say it is it sad, you may wonder that he feared the light of day? It is sad because now much of the truth will never be revealed because he quite possibly was too afraid to be exposed for what he must have been. Sure a lot of it will come to light through the accounts given by the young lady, the survivor of this alleged horrible atrocity; but only what she can bring herself to tell us about. I think we would have learned more from the man who was her captor.
You may also wonder why we need to learn as much about this as we can. Well, let me be very blunt - so that we do not remain indifferent because of our ignorance or because of our not wanting to see. Anything we can learn about evildoers who kidnap, torture, molest or otherwise harm children should be brought to the light of day for all to see if only so we know what to look for to prevent such from happening again.
When you see a child being badly handled by a supposed parent, and the child seems terrified, why not stop and question the supposed parent? If you are too afraid to question them, then why not call 911. If you see someone pull a screaming child into a car, write down the license number and description of the car, the child and the possible abductor, then call the police. If you see things of any nature, out of the ordinary, that appear to be possibly criminal - why not call 911. When you hear that the police in your town have been forbidden to engage in high speed pursuits, think about this case because this girl was abducted and thrown into a van while the bad guy made his getaway with her. What would have happened had the police seen him go through a red light in your town? Would they have been allowed to pursue him. make sure to give politicians a wake up call when they enact ridiculous restrictions on law enforcement in the course of their duties.
We have to wake up and realize, if we do not do such things, then they will continue pretty much unabated except for the few the police can thwart. There are an awful lot of monsters out there, real nasty, vile, dirty minded monsters who want to hurt our children, and hurt us - why not do all you can to help put an end to it.
Go to the link above, and read the article. Then read the other linked articles on that news site. Then go out and do something even if only writing a letter you your local politico to see what he or she is doing to prevent such things in your neck of the woods. These are our children folks, and there really are monsters out to get them.
As for this particular young lady; hopefully the press will not hound her. Hopefully she will seek out and receive therapy that will be effective. Hopefully she will blossom into a young woman who has the traits of compassion, tranquility, inner peace, and forgiveness. Not forgiveness for her captor but for those whom she probably at one time believed abandoned her, and most of all for herself. I say this last because she is likely at some level to blame herself for what happened even though it was not her fault at all. Nothing that happened in those 8 1/2 years was her fault, not one little thing. The only one at fault, as I see it, was a monster; and now that monster is dead.
Be safe,
Glenn B
