Aruba Could Take Some Lessons...

...from the City of Richmond Police Department.

There are some who think that the coverage of Natalee Holloway has been way over the top.  I haven't really written about the case because of that fact. 

Well, that's changing.......The body found in Mathews County Virginia is that of Taylor Behl, the 17 year old missing from Virginia Commonwealth University...only a month after she went missing.

And something needs to be said.

The Natalee Holloway case hit home for me because I have daughters her age.  The Taylor Behl case hit very close to home for me because I live near VCU. 

So I thought it was time to say something....I thought it was time to say that the lives of these girls are important enough to bring to your attention.  I'm not here to say that they are any more important than the lives of any others who are missing or any soldiers who have lost their lives in the fight in Iraq....I'm just here to say they are just as important.

It seems to me that folks, including folks on this site, have been complaining about the constant coverage of the Aruba case.  Well I say, too damn bad.  My children are precious to me...I would die for them and I would kill for them.  And I certainly would take advantage of any and all media coverage offered to me in the pursuit of finding them and bringing to justice the scum who hurt or worse yet, killed my child.

The Aruban authorities have made a mockery of their justice system.  They bungled that investigation from the beginning and it is my belief that they bungled it on purpose.  Those boys who committed the crime(s) against Natalee Holloway are being protected by the authorities in Aruba and no one will ever be able to convince me otherwise.  They let Urine (yes, I spelled it that way on purpose) out of jail during our hurricane disaster in hopes to minimize media coverage.  Extremely cowardly, don't you think?  Aruba wants our business but doesn't want to do what must be done when one of their own commits a crime.

So what does Aruba's actions tell me.....they tell me that Aruba doesn't need our business.  They apparently have so many tourists from around the world that they don't find the alleged rape and murder of an American citizen important enough to perform an appropriate investigation.  Maybe they should send some of their investigators up to Richmond to learn a few things about a proper investigation. 

I'm not a big boycott supporter, although I did boycott France for a while. But I am boycotting Aruba.  I will not travel there, vacation there, or buy anything made there.  Will it make a difference... no.  Do I care... no.  But it is my personal way of supporting Natalee's family. 

There but by the grace of God go any of us.....My heart is with Natalee's family in their search for their daughter.  And my heart is with Taylor's family... closure is not always a good thing.

Lisa

The Political Teen has video.  Scared Monkeys has more...and more here.

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Comments

[Judy Westmoreland]

My God! I couldn't have expressed it any better if I'd tried! I agree with you 110%. It could have been any of our children and if you are any kind of parent at all you would do everything in your power to try to find your child if they were missing. My thoughts and prayers are with Natalee's family. I wear my 'Hope For Natalee' bracelet every day. I hope she is found.

[Judy Westmoreland]

My God! I couldn't have expressed it any better if I'd tried! I agree with you 110%. It could have been any of our children and if you are any kind of parent at all you would do everything in your power to try to find your child if they were missing. My thoughts and prayers are with Natalee's family. I wear my 'Hope For Natalee' bracelet every day. I hope she is found.

[Chris]

My problem isn't with the mother it is with the media. They have used this girl and her family for ratings. They have treated her as if she is more important than the other missing girls. I think it is disgraceful because not for one second does Fox news really care about her--they just want to be able to say Fox News helped solve the case.

[Lisa]

Chris...

So what...It wouldn't matter to me what the media's motives were. All I would care about is the fact that they were helping me. Sometimes motives don't matter as long as the end result is the same.

[LtCol USMC(Ret)]

"Fox News" is not a person. How can "Fox News" care about anything? It is not alive. It is a business. Not a person.

[Mr Fox]

I seem to recall the people of Aruba doing what they could to locate Natalie Holloway. Do you think visiting a country gives you some say in how their justice system works? Do you think Aruba is dangerous? Natalie was more at risk in hew own home than she was in Aruba. There are more dissapearances in her home state in the entire modern history of Aruba. You seem to want to punish them for not being as familiar with murder cases as we are in the US. There is no evidence at all that authorities deliberately bungled the investigation. If there is, show me. The people and businesses ahave been very generous to Natalie's family and the tourist industry there has been instrumental in providing them with free accomodation during their stays. Is there a place in the US which would do that for the multitude of foreigners missing or murdered in the US?

Natalie, like many other teens, went to Aruba to drink herself drunk with her classmates. We all feel for her family but we think that there are plenty of other families out there in a similar situation who do not get covered. Also it takes away time from more important news in Iraq, Afghanistan, and real news generally. The boycott Aruba campaign is as pathetic as the boycott France campaign. Boycotting France while their soldiers were serving in Afghanistan alongside our troops. Why? Beacause France wanted to give inspections more time rather than rushing into a war. Pretty dumb I think.

[Chris Sears]

Mr. Fox,
The "people of Aruba" have always been honored and complimented by the family. Visiting a country does not give you a "say" in HOW their system works BUT if it's system is BAD, then anyone (especially her parent and anyone in her country) definitely has a right to react to that. All of the disappearances and murders in her state, country, or the WORLD even, do not matter one bit when you are a parent looking for your dead baby. (It's okay - there's no way you have kids, but if you ever do, you will know some things you do not know now)
I know about TV and their ratings being all they care about. So, whenever it has been on, it has been because it would rate better than whatever happened that day. If it was my daughter, I would take whatever airtime I could get. (And so would you - but you don't know that yet)
"Natalie went to drink herself drunk" is the clue that this is not a real opinion of your own. (Way too mean for any usual person)
A way to get some reaction maybe and you did!

[Merideth Carleton]

Have you seen this before? It's a number guessing game: http://www.amblesideprimary.com/ambleweb/mentalmaths/guessthenumber.html. I guessed 51480, and it got it right! Pretty neat.