Friday, June 17, 2005

A recent email exchange with a good friend reminded me of the situation in Aruba--the missing girl. First, repeat after me: She's dead. They haven't found a body, but if you harbor any hope for her at this point I have a bridge you might be interested in. And the odds that she died swiftly and painlessly are just about zero.

Funny. Everone acknowledges that the US can be a dangerous place. And it can. Leaving a bar with a bunch of guys is plain foolhardy.

But to keep things in perspective, the US is one of the safest places on the planet. Crime makes the front page here. It's always in front of us, so it seems pervasive. But I remember someone once writing that when airplane crashes no longer make the front page, that's when you'll know that air travel is no longer safe. A couple of years ago, Matthew Shephard, a homosexual who was into rough trade, so to speak, made a play for the wrong guys in a bar and ended up dead. It should never have happened, but it did and it made the front page for months. It still does. But--There are places in the world where that sort of thing would hardly raise an eyebrow.

One of America's major exports, it seems, is wide eyed young women. They go to exotic places where they succumb to the atmosphere and allow themselves to be picked up in bars. They take bus trips through countrysides where even nuns are fair game for the local thugs. They stand in front of bulldozers as though their frail bodies can turn aside centuries of blood hatred. They chuck their razors, don Birkenstocks and sing Kumbya for the oppressed locals.

And they die.

What the hell are they thinking?

First, ladies, you've got something guys want. You know exactly what I mean. Most of us can accept "no" and it ends there. But it's a big world and a lot of guys out there could give a damn what you think about the situation. I've mentioned before the Iraq experience. The Army is very reticent about this, lest it be perceived as making an anti-women in combat statement, much as researchers shy away from the terminated pregnancy-breast cancer link lest they be perceived as being anti-abortion, but the fact is that most of the women captured in the two gulf wars were repeatedly raped. Rhonda Cornum admitted it publically a year after her release. Melissa Rathbun-Nealy has made allussions to it. You can bet your sweet posterior that faux heroine Jessica Lynch, the cute, petite little blond, was quite the prize as well.

Then there's the Middle East. If the world could fit into a teacup, the hatreds and passions in that region would overflow to fill a two quart pitcher. Yet there seems to be no shortage of starry-eyed women who want to go and protest on behalf of the poor, oppressed Palestinians (who wouldn't give a second thought to tossing a grenade in those same girls' laps if the mood struck them). Construction equipment is dangerous stuff. Large, heavy, powerful and pitiless, bulldozers also afford the operator very little view of what he's actually bulldozing. Usually that's not a problem as the mission of a bulldozer is to simply push large amounts of material around. But when idealistic young women decide to stand in fron of one, things get ugly quickly. I'm sure that Rachel Corrie's parents taught her to look both ways before crossing the street, but they neglected to tell her that standing in front of a bulldozer in a region where people could teach us a thing or two about hate is just plain stupid.

By all means hit the deepest recesses of some undeveloped country to show your solidarity with the poor oppressed nobles. Uninhibited by our mores, they'll thank you for your kindness by raping you to death and then shoving your bloodied remains into a trash bin.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think part of the problem is that girls are not raised with a sense of responsibility for their own actions. I see this in my generation all the time. The burden is placed entirely on males (be them teenagers, college boys or grown men) to show the restraint.

Take these same girls--girls who believe that only men are expected to exercise self-control--and put them in a foreign country, and they will expect the exact same white glove treatment that they get back home.

Anonymous said...

Hmmm . . . I think my last comment has me coming off as a bit of a prude. I'm not against females showing off what they've got, myself included. It's one of the pleasures of youth we'll all miss when we get older. I guess I'm just trying to express the idea that with the flash of the thong comes a bit of personal responsibility.

Anonymous said...

It all stems from parents who live in their own idyllic world and never talk openly about either real or hypothetical situations. They then transfer that anger to the authorities when their daughter's body isn't found quick enough.

Anonymous said...

I'm having a hard time with this case. Is this the first American to ever go missing like this in another country? Hmmm...

Snakeeater said...

Hardly, Lilly. You need to watch your posterior everywhere. Guys, too. But it goes triple in most places outside of the US.

Leaving a bar with a bunch of guys is generally a bad idea. Period.

Snakeeater said...

You make a good point, Pamela. And I understood. No clarification necessary, but keep it coming.

Thanks for commenting.

Snakeeater said...

D,,

I coulnd't agree more.

Anonymous said...

On MSNBC this morning, the newsreader called the girl's mother a hero. There's a topic for another rant sometime, snake eater - the overuse of the term 'hero'. Firemen aren't heroes, that's their job. That girl's mother would be a hero if she had raised her daughter to not trust males so easily.

Anonymous said...

I lived in Central America, and my parents were born and raised in Cuba during the darkest times of Castro's regime. Believe me, I have no illusions that the rest of the world is like my nice Orange County neighborhood. I think teenagers should be made to read a current events/history book for every hour of "reality" TV they watch. The part I'm having a hard time with, as far as this case, is the extent of the media involvement, especially since this is hardly the first time this has happened, as you said.
And I agree with Pamela. Taking responsibility for your actions is a vital part of being succesfull in every area of life...even more so in dealings with the opposite sex (especially if there's beer and dancing involved) whether you're male or female. Double standards never helped anyone.

Anonymous said...

Oh, and Happy Father's Day! :-)

Snakeeater said...

Murf: You're right. The girl's mother has done nothing heroic. She's simply one more mother who has lost a daughter because she didn't inculcate proper cautions into her daughter. Hell, if the daughter was doing her after school trip in Aruba, something I could never afford, it's likely that mommy never saw, and hence never prepared her daughter for, the nasty underside of life where alcohol is simply the catalyst that fuels those who lack the mores that prevent most of us from becoming killing, raping thugs.

As far as firefighters not being heroes, I see your point, but not everyone can dash into a burning building and save lives. I guess "hero" is simply part of their job description.

Lilly: I can't agree with you more. Caution. Always caution. To leave a bar with guys (or even a guy) after beer and dancing might be extremely tempting, but it's just not a good idea. Too much evil lurks.

Bear in mind, all this is coming from a guy.