ejmoosa

We Interrupt this Story...

Live from the village of Duluth, Ga, where we are searching for the monster that escaped the castle. Villagers have been combing the countryside seeking the monster....

Wait a minute, there is not a real monster. There is a woman that ran away from her spouse- to- be and family. But in less than 24 hours from the time she left her hometown, the local villagers made it a national story greater than one could have imagined. Is it a surprise she came up with the idea of being kidnapped by the time she contacted family? It was the media that backed her into this corner.

Jennifer Wilbanks had no obligation to inform the local authorities that she was planning to leave town. She did not ask for search parties and sniffing dogs to hunt for her. The only thing the locals were missing were the pitchforks and the torches.

And now that everyone knows that she is fine, the locals want to crucify her. "Make her Pay", they scream. "What a selfish person", then repeat. But where is their responsibility for their overreacting?

They were ready to lynch the groom to be when he would not take a polygraph. "He must be guilty", they murmurred. "What is he hiding?"

"The greatest love ever", people were saying in front of the cameras. "Just let us find her alive". And they did.
Now, they want to prosecute her. They want to lynch her. And who are the "they" in this equation? People so hell bent on doing the right thing that they have no trouble finding the wrong thing to do if the mob is large enough.

Yet it was her parents, her fiance, and others who seem to have been completely disconnected from Wilbanks that should be held to task. They are the ones that jumped so quickly to the conclusion that something foul had occurred. Or is it possible that the parents, with so much invested, wanted to get her back as fast as possible to save the expense of a very large wedding scheduled for Saturday? We may never know all the details, as we really have no business in most of this, do we?

If she does not come out and apologize soon, and enough, with real tears in her eyes, and with sufficient volume to appease everyone from the cajun restaurant owner in downtoan Duluth, to the mayor of Duluth, to guest number 487, then there is going to be hell to pay and we will find something to charge her with. Everyone wants to hold her accountable, yet no one is stepping up and saying the response to her missing was a grand overreactionI imagine they will storm the castle, or run her out of town, as if she really is the Frankenstein monster.

"Not enough remorse", said one cop. I guess she should beg. Though once again, why should she be remorseful for? Leaving town without telling anyone where she was going? The only remorse she should have is for panicking and telling her fiance she was kidnapped. That is between the two of them. The rest, well they brought this on themselves.

This sounds like a modern day witch hunt to me. No, she did not make good choices. But neither did a lot of other people in positions of responsibility.

As for the cost, let the media pick up the tab. They are the ones that made this story. And they are the ones that profit as well.

posted by EJ @ 11:23 AM