Missouri Boys in the news

Happy Friday morning! I wanted everyone to know that the gas price one block away from our house is $1.91 - woo how!

I haven't closely been following the news about Shawn Hornbeck but yesterday he appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show. I have several comments about the whole situation. October 6, 2002 - apparently this kid was abducted. He has been missing for 4 years. His parents set up a website and have done extensive searching. Here is the odd thing in my opinion. This kid had freedoms - phone, INTERNET!!!!!!!, and playing with friends. I cannot get over the fact that for FOUR YEARS this kid never slipped to someone - that he was kidnapped or his real name. ALSO - he posted a comment on his parents website that stated something like, "How long will you continue to search for your son? - Shawn Devlin" I find that stupid - basically. Why not say something more encouraging like - "your son is alive.... look for your son at this address...." So, in a nut shell - what was wrong with this kid? I mean internet access.... you have the world at your finger tips. Phone???? HELLO! E.T. Phone home!! Maybe the kid didn't want to go home. Couldn't that be a possibility? Or, what was wrong with the parents that they didn't teach him enough that he would have courage to try to get away. That's just too odd for me to wrap my brain around. AND LAST - if he really was abducted....held for 4 years.... WHAT PARENTS AFTER welcoming their surely traumatized son home would then put him on the Oprah show? What child after being abducted....held for 4 years... would after less than a week want to go on the Oprah show? I am not knocking the Oprah show but as a parent my first response would be let's start counseling. "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark." ~Shakespeare~

Now, just to give the other side a fair hearing. I am not sure that I totally buy this guy's comments but here you go.... You decide. Tell me what you think. Dr. Clint Van Zandt is a former FBI profiler, an MSNBC analyst and the author of the book Facing Down Evil. (He was on the Oprah show also.) He says the bottom line is if you're 11 or 13 and you've got a potentially 6-foot-4, 300-pound aggressor…you do what you have to do to survive sometimes," Clint says. During Ben and Shawn's healing process, Clint says it's imperative not to ask one simple question. "What we don't want to do is say, 'Why?' Why didn't you call? Why didn't you pick up the phone?" Clint says. "Because he was traumatized. Because he was frightened. Because he was in a survival mode. There are emotional handcuffs. There are psychological prisons we can be in without bars."Clint also says to give these boys time. "We need to give these two kids some slack and let them have time to find themselves," Clint says. "Let them create new memories."

Have a great day!