Looks like an intelligent young lady.
Posted on 05/01/2009 7:35:13 AM PDT by lady lawyer
Elizabeth Smart vividly remembers being awakened in the middle of the night by "feeling something cold and sharp to my neck."
She awoke to a bearded man armed with a knife who was wearing a stocking cap and whom she thought she had never seen before. He told her, "Don't make a sound. Get up out of bed quickly."
Speaking Thursday at the annual Crime Victims Conference at the Capitol, Smart talked for the first time in detail about portions of her nine-month kidnapping in 2002, including an experience in San Diego where she was so weak from starvation that she couldn't move after going a week without food.
. . . .
Just because one bad incident happens in your life, she said, you don't have to live the rest of your life around it. Smart recalled her mother telling her after she returned home, "They took nine months from you. Make sure you don't give any more to them."
. . . .
Last year, Smart participated in the preparation of a pamphlet released by the U.S. Justice Department entitled, "You Are Not Alone, The Journey From Abduction to Empowerment." The 63-page book tells of several kidnapping cases, with the survivors saying what they want to in their own words.
The pamphlet has been called a survivor's guide for kidnap victims. Smart hopes it will help others realize they don't have to be victims forever.
"Miracles happen. You can be happy and have a wonderful and beautiful life," was her message to survivors.
. . . .
(Excerpt) Read more at deseretnews.com ...
Don't bring transients to your home!!!!
Is it just me?
Godspeed Elizabeth.
bttt
You are correct, sir.
Her parents were trying to be kind, giving work instead of a handout. In retrospect, it was a very stupid thing.
But, I’ve often thought as I have looked at the crews brought into my home by contractors doing remodels, relandscaping, etc., that I don’t have a clue who these people are. They could be as bad as Mitchell.
What a beautiful and courageous young woman. I hope her story helps someone. One of the most damaging things that comes out of any traumatic incident like this, such as rape, domestic violence, abduction, etc. is that, as Smart’s mother rightly said, the victim is often robbed of years of their life because they are mired in the memories, suffer from PTSD, etc.
Good luck to Elizabeth.
(And I never understood those people who blamed her for this ordeal)
"The road to hell is paved with good intentions"
The Smarts have certainly been to hell and back.
“I’m glad to help you; but if you go anywhere near my daughter, your regrets will be sharp, bitter, and brief.”
Exactly. People come into/onto our homes/property all the time - the UPS driver, the substitute mail carrier, the water meter reader, the contractor or repairman (as you stated) and so on. And none of us know what kind of people they are so to blame the parents for this seems ridiculous. Who would think the guy was going to come through a window and kidnap the kid from their home?
Meanwhile, you might even live next door to the psycho who is watching and waiting for “his” moment.
Me either - or blaming her parents either. “There but for the grace of God...” I always love these people who think nothing will ever happen to them because they are somehow smarter, better, keener, etc.
Boy that was a dark read. She seems to be doing well.
I thought it odd, that they went to the White House not long after her return. It invited everyone to wonder about her sexual abuse.
I think I know where at least some of that “blame” was coming from. I remember comment after comment when it happened to the effect that she was a Mormon, so there was clearly some dark and nefarious happening and her family was in on it. Her father had probably sold her off to some polygamous cult.
Others said she posed as a nice Mormon girl, but that no 14 year old is that good. My response was, my neighborhood is full of really good little teenage girls whom I know well from constant contact with them.
That was years before the presidential campaign, but it was the first time I realized there were some really deep and ugly anti-Mormon strains on FR.
My mother grew up in a little Utah town on the rail line. Her mother would give work to hobos in exchange for food. If the Smarts’ Utah Mormonism had anything to do with what happened, it may have been a naive belief in the fundamental goodness and dignity of everyone.
Private industry doesn't want to hire these criminals, so the construction industry hires them and puts them to work in private homes. Any prison teaching inmates to "clean carpets" or any other work that's done in private homes should be nuked.
To bring to your home a complete stranger with no ID or history, where you have a wife and beautiful kids is not only poor judgment, but horrible survival skills.
A man who has a family has an obligation to protect them. Comparing your UPS guy to strange bum on the street is....(trying to be nice)...not a good comparison.
The guy you give change to on the busy street corner is most likely a convicted felon with a horrible history of crimes that would make you roll up and lock if you only knew. Of course, there are exceptions, but are you willing to risk it as did Mr. and Mrs. Smart?
Absolutely, they have. But I’m sure they now pass the downtown panhandlers without feeling any obligation to help. I think they were very naive. They aren’t stupid. They are very successful people, in their work and in their family life. But they were certainly naive.
Yeah, maybe it was the anti Mormon thing. (And it didn’t help that her dad was a dork.)
Anyway, godspeed to Elizabeth and her family.
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