Being a hostage

[Sela]

HI all:

The first thing I heard as I awoke this morning was the news broadcaster, from the speaker in my radio, saying that the two Canadian and one British hostages have been rescued and are now freed, being checked out in hospital.

Praise be!!!  I'm so happy to hear that!    What a miracle that they've been found alive!!  (I had pretty well given up hope that they would escape alive, after all these months and especially after the American hostage, the fourth hostage, had been found dead recently  ).

All of that got me thinking.  Imagine being a hostage?  Well......actually......some of us don't really have to imagine so much, to a certain extent, because we've had experiences that mimic that kind of situation.  Still, these were peaceful people who were taken and held hostage for a number of months, under what we can only imagine conditions.   Kind of how it might have felt for some of us while we were growing up eh, only it went on for years?

I wonder how traumatized those hostages are now? (the ones just rescued).   How did they cope?  How well will they re cooperate and how long will it take?  What relief, even joy, they must have experienced when those rescuers came raiding their way into where they were being held!!  What stories they could tell us!

Maybe it's one way to look at seriously messed up childhood experiences/relationships with N's?  As if those of our parents/partners were like our hostage takers and now we are free!!   We don't have to listen to their garbage, nor take their orders and they can not longer forcefully harm us.  We can get help to fix ourselves up practically good as new and go out into the world and live peaceful, happy, respectful lives, which those hostage takers will never know about or have a clue about.  And we can learn and grow and virtually turn away from them and their backward, suffocating, disgraceful, immobile ways and pray for their pathetic state/or send whatever good wishes we can.

In many ways, being involved with people who behave like N's is a lot like being a hostage until we finally rescue ourselves eh?

At any rate, I'm sure there is much celebration going on for those 3 hostages who have survived what I bet was a very nasty ordeal!  I feel very glad for them and their families!      Oh I love hearing good news!!

  Sela

[Portia]

Yay Sela I felt real joy at that news today

And yesterday, the Spanish organisation ETA said that they’re announcing a permanent ceasefire which really got me smiling. No more bombs from ETA.

Good news!

Was it Alice or another one I read who said something like: the concentration camp prisoners were free to hate their persecutors. Children don’t have that benefit. Little children can’t afford to hate their parents. BUT (I say) as adults we can revisit our little children and see things through knowing eyes. We can do better than survive.

[Hop guest]

That is so wonderful.
Sad twinge, too, since my daughter's friend's father was the fourth.
He was killed because he's American.

(He was a deeply pacifist activist totally opposed to the invasion, and working to help Iraqui detainee's families... I guess they couldn't see him as human.)

Wow. I am so glad for the three, though.

Wonderful news from Spain too (though Jon Stewart had a funny riff on their press conference: "If you're not gonna be terrorists any more, guys, take off the hoods!"

 

Hops

[Portia]

Oh Hops I should watch the news instead of listening to it. They wore hoods to announce this? Who are they afraid of – their own members not agreeing with them maybe? Rhetorical question.

[moonlight52]

                                       When will mankind stop banging its head on this wall ?
                                          moon

[pennyplant]

There was a picture on the internet with the newstory I read on ETA.  I was struck by how scary they looked in their get-ups.  But probably they are the scared ones--I suppose they could now be subject to reprisals or arrest.  If the terror really is over--well, it won't be over with for the victims for a long time.

PP

[Sela]

Hey P:  I'm cautiously happy about the ETA's announcement because they've made promises to ceasefire in the past and not kept them but they've not said they would permanently ceasefire before, so that is new.  I hope it's true, I really do.

Hops:  I'm so sorry for the death of your d's friend's father.  It's so sad that he was killed simply because he is American.  Although, it's as good an excuse as any for terrorists.  I hope they are caught and prosecuted for their crimes.

Ha!  Just dawned on me....another couple of things many of our abusers did/do.....like terrorists and which keep people hostage:

1.  Make/made promises but never kept them.

2.  Were never caught or prosecuted for their crimes.

Sela

[pennyplant]

Did anyone see that Jill Carroll has been released?  She said she was treated well.  I remember how scared she seemed in the video where she was crying.  So, I suppose there was a lot going on that one can't just sum up with a microphone held up to you after you get out of the car on your first day of freedom.  She was treated well.  I guess maybe we will have to wait and see just what that means.

Pennyplant

[moonlight52]

Hi PennyP   I also saw her release I feel hopeful .What makes for some hostages being released an others are not I do not understand , I DO PRAY FOR MANKIND'S UNDERSTANDING EVERY DAY. Hopefully one day we will all lay the weapons down.
moonlight

[pennyplant]

What makes for some hostages being released an others are not I do not understand , I DO PRAY FOR MANKIND'S UNDERSTANDING EVERY DAY. Hopefully one day we will all lay the weapons down.

I would like to think the kidnappers learned something from her.  She and her entire family were open-minded and loving to the Iraqi people and I like to think that made a difference.  I will be very interested to hear what she has to say about all of this.

PP