Marissa Marie Graham - One Smart Girl...

...and because she was so smart, smart enough to see her chance, then because she was brave enough to take that chance, she is alive today and reunited with her family.

I am, of course, talking about the little girl who went missing and was apparently abducted in Oklahoma two days ago, and then became the subject of an Amber alert. More information about her ordeal and her escape can be found in the article Missing Oklahoma Girl Found After Amber Alert Issued; Suspect Still at Large at: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,244860,00.html.

Before you read it, allow me to point out that the article has it quite wrong at least in one regard since it says the little girl was found. She was not found, she escaped, and she ran directly to those whom she knew could help her. No one found her, no one rescued her, no one saved her - except for herself and possibly whomever taught her that escape was an option. There is an important lesson there to be learned, and I am about to give my opinion about the lesson to be learned. Please note it is my opinion, but one I hold strongly, and one on which I based what I taught to my children about abductions. Taking any of this as advice could wind up getting your child hurt, but it could also wind up saving your child's life. It is up to you as a responsible parent to decide if it is right for your own children. Any child who reads this should show it to a parent to see what your parents think about it.

Apparently this young child, only 10 years old, took action when she had an opportunity before her. Either it was incredibly lucky for her to have realized there was such an opportunity and that she was not too terrified to take it, or her grasping that opportunity and taking action was a preplanned thing that someone had trained her to do. The training could have been given on purpose say by her parents, or in a class at school, or maybe she just saw something on television one day about what to do if abducted. However she got the idea to escape it was a very good one indeed. You see, victims of child abductions often wind up dead after being horribly sexually abused, or they often wind up being held captive and repeatedly abused for many years.

Something that this little lady had going for herself was that she effected her escape while she was probably not totally overwhelmed by whatever terrorizing tactics the kidnapper would likely have used on her later on in order to get her to comply with his wishes. There was no chance for anything like a Stockholm Syndrome to have yet set upon her. She was not yet in anyway emotionally involved with her captor, except that she was in fear of what was happening to her. This is very important in the scheme of such things. The child had not yet lost hope that she could escape because the abductor had not yet been able to exert full control over her psyche. In other words the child was not yet brainwashed nor frozen with fear. It is important that all parents realize this.

Why is it so important. Well because you need to tell your children, if they are ever abducted, they need to try to escape immediately. The reasons they should try to escape immediately are because: they are likely nearby to help, someone else may see the commotion and call police, they are not yet frozen with fear as if held captive for many hours or a day, they have not been brainwashed into hopelessness by the kidnapper, they are strong as they may be throughout the remainder of any ordeal to come. They have the best chance of getting away or just making it impossible for the bad guy to get them in the first place.

Their initial attempts at getting away should include fighting the kidnapper. They can try to run away, try to kick, punch, scrape with fingernails, bite, gouge, scream, squirm, call for help and do anything at all possible to make it harder or even impossible for the kidnaper to successfully get them. Even if the kidnapper gets them into a vehicle they can try to get away. They can try to rake the abductor's eyes with fingernails, they can grab the steering wheel and try to crash the car, they can open a window and scream for help. They can try to escape if an opportunity presents itself and they are left unattended or if the kidnapper is distracted. Even if thrown into a trunk they can try to help themselves. They can pull out the brake light wiring (and mom and dad should tell the police this is what they trained their child to do if abducted), they can try to push out the brake light covers and stick a hand out through the hole, they can search for a weapon like a tire iron with which to strike at the abductor when he or she opens the trunk.

Most of all, at any chance they get, they should try to escape, even if doing so poses somewhat of a risk to them, because if the abductor is successful there is a chance that the kidnaper will pose a greater risk to them. The sooner they do all of this the more likely they are to escape without having been molested by the abductor. The sooner they do it, the more likely they are to never be brainwashed by the abductor. The sooner they do it, the more likely they are never to fall victim of Stockholm Syndrome and then start to see things in agreement with the way their captor sees them. The sooner they do things like these, the sooner they are more likely to be safe and sound, and not in the clutches of a raving evil doer.

No these tactics may not work each time. Sometimes a child may get hurt, severely hurt, or even wind up dead because he or she tried to escape. You have to weigh the odds of that happening against the odds of what a child molester, or other kidnapper, is likely to do to your child if your child is ever abducted. It has been, and still is my opinion, that children need to have a plan that includes escape as their top priority, and fighting back as the best way to effect it right from the very first moment of any abduction attempt. One of the wonderful things about having a plan is that is gives hope. One of the wonderful things about training someone, even a child, to implement a plan is that it gives them the knowledge that they need to take action, and those who are trained, in the great majority of cases, will follow their training. I chose to ready my children to fight back and to escape, what do you choose for your children.



All the best,
Glenn B

Silence of the Pigs

With Bizarro World Upon us - How Far Could Silence of The Pigs Have Been Away From Us?

Well, apparently not far enough it seems. See the article Vancouver Pig Farmer Accused of Murdering Six Women @ http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,245118,00.html. Before you go there to read it thoguh, please be advised that reading it may well get you sick, and I mean that.

It is an article about a suspected serial killer, who allegedly lured young prostitutes to his pig farm, killed them, and possibly: disposed of the bodies by cutting them up, putting them through a wood chipper, and feeding them to his pigs. It is also about how the authorities in Vancouver, Canada (city of free roaming prostitutes, at least the last time I was there back in 2001 anyhow, they were all over the place) pretty much completely ignored the fact that a number of prostitutes had gone missing and that some clues pointed toward the pig farmer. That is, they allegedly ignored the clues until they went to his farm to serve a search warrant for an illegal gun, and they then came across ID cards and other items that belonged to some of the missing women. Then they got a search warrant to look for evidence of the missing, and they came up with body parts. Amazingly this apparently was going on for years.

If this guy is convicted, I say cover his body in pig slop and feed him to his own swine while he is still alive.

Beyond Bizarro World indeed.

All the best,
Glenn B