Unless you have been living under a rock you probably have heard about some girl from Alabama going missing in Aruba. Another awesome example of mainstream media’s horrific slide into oblivion. Have you noticed the media has been telling us for about the last five years that unless you’re pretty, white and rich they could care less if you’re missing, unless of course rape, incest or molestation is involved.
I had a conversation with my mother about this girl a few days ago and I told her I could care less about this. I know, it’s horrible of me to say that, but the way I see it the girl brought whatever her fate ends up being on herself. Here are the facts of the story.
- She went to a foreign country with 100 of her school friends on an unsanctioned “Senior Trip” with seven chaperones.
- She went to a bar with a few of her friends and met three guys.
- She left the bar at 1:30AM with three total strangers in a foreign country.
- Nobody there, her friends or the “chaperones”, apparently thought this might be a bad idea.
How does this make this girl sympathetic? Personally, it looks like Darwin is thinning the herd on this one. If you’re a pretty American girl in a foreign country and you leave a bar, possibly intoxicated, with three total strangers who are all men, then you’re just asking for trouble. Especially when you’re only 5’4” and 110lbs. From where I’m standing this girl had every chance in the world to avoid her fate, but didn’t.
joe, once again, you have hit the nail firmly on the head. i am completely with you on this one.
I could not agree with you more, on all accounts. In all honesty I am getting pretty sick and tired of hearing about this crap. I mean stuff like this happens everyday, but you don’t hear about it. And why not? Because the other people it happens to are not “pretty, white and rich.” I am sure someone in Detroit went missing last night for crying out loud, but we will never hear of it. In addition one article I did happen to read made it sound like the entire population of Aruba, including other tourists, had dropped everything to help look for this girl. If it were me who had gone missing they’d just be like “well the poor fat white guy is missing….anyone want a drink?” And people wonder why I don’t watch the news.
My bleeding heart only goes far enough for a “that sucks”. I can’t bring myself to be empathetic to this girl’s actions if they are all as listed above. More so, those people she went with are complete asshats and I hope are going to be smacked around regardless of this outcome.
That said, I don’t care she is blonde, or good looking, or American… I do care that she is a person that made some dumb mistakes and hoping she at has another chance to make some better ones. Here’s to hoping she isn’t dead (like it’s being reported from the crack staff in Aruba).
Need for [inter]national news coverage? No. Aruba responsible to find her as a country? No.
Actually, it bothered me more that something bad happened in Aruba. I didn’t think anything bad happened in Aruba.
While it may be naive of me to think that, I’m also sensible enough that, while in Aruba, I never wandered off with strangers.
Yeah, you have a point.
Personally, I too, believe there are much more important things going on in the world today for this to be on the front page of every media outlet. *BUT*, it is indeed a tragic story and I’m surprised to read such lack of compassion here.
I wonder if you guys would feel the same if you took a second to be genuinely empathetic. I’m certain if it were your little sister, for example, that was probably raped and brutally murdered, that you would post differently.
Furthermore, can’t you remember some of the stupid decisions *YOU* made when you were a teenager? I sure do, and I’m grateful to even be alive today.
It’s very likely that these dirt bag MFers dropped something in her drink. All reports about the girl’s character seem to paint her as a well-rounded young adult. Whether or not she willingly put herself in that dangerous position, it’s a waste of what looked to be a potentially beautiful life. I feel bad for the family. I hope they execute the maggot(s) who are guilty.
Chad,
I feel bad it happened, but I’m not very sympathetic because of two things:
1.) Her friends did NOTHING to stop this. How many times have you, as a single dude, been cock blocked by friends? This girls friend let her leave the bar with THREE dudes.
2.) Her parents let her go to a foreign country with little or no supervision at a young, pretty 17 year old girl.
I look around this situation and see nothing but people not taking responsibility for this poor girl (her friends, the chaperones, the parents and this girl herself). Like I said, it’s a shame this girl met this horrific fate, but let’s not get carried away – this happens hundreds of times every day, but we only hear about the cute rich white girls.
> 5’4” and 110lbs
The major part of the world-population does not know what you are talking about.
http://www.metric4us.com/
Ok I try to guess:
The 5′ could be feet –> 1.52m (meters)
4” might be inch –> 10cm (centimeters)
So she was 1,62m or 162cm.
Could you gess how many inches 5feets are?
110lb –> 50Kg
[Which are about about 500N (Newton)]
You will never know how many oz that are.
But it’s easy to say 50000g.
Please read whynot.html and why.html on that website before you complain!
She didn’t just meet the guy that night. When she left with them, she had had too much to drink. I think they all know something and just won’t admit it! Have they taken lie detector tests?
Amen Joe! Yes, it is sad about what she probably went through. And yes, she is young and so are her friends. But her parents? Honestly, some of these parents send their kids on these trips and I want to ask them: “Would you leave your kid at home alone for 7-10 days with a stocked liquor cabinet, any drug at their disposal and, like, 50 people you don’t know? Then why in the hell would you send them to a foreign country to have basically the same surroundings only no idea where they are and no help while they are there!” It is a recipe for this exact kind of consequence and while what happened is maybe sad, it is certainly not shocking.
Good point, Amanda.
Well, I don’t totally agree with that statement. I think this girl’s “friends” and the “chapperones” failed her (and her family) by not stepping in. Would you (or I) let our pretty young (drunk … drugged?) friend leave under those circumstances? Well, I definately would not.
I think the media needs to move on. The 24-7 nature of this story is insane. It’s not a big story. This kind of thing happens every day.
Meanwhile the Supreme Court ruled last week that the government can take anyone’s property for any reason. That got all of 5 minutes on the news … which story effects you more?
Also, staying on the Supreme Court, there will probably be TWO appointments made in the coming months that could domino into decisions effecting every American’s basic rights.
Plus the G-8 summit … etc … a lot of more important things going on than combing the Carribean for a dead Alabaman.
I also think the fact that this girl is blonde, white and wealthy has (sadly) something to do with why this story is seemingly always on page one. If it were a poor black girl ??? We’d have never heard about it. That’s reality folks (and I’m a white guy writing this).
Can we, as a nation, move on to bigger issues like Global Warming, Aids in Africa, Poverty, etc … we have a lot of big things to focus on.