Natalee Halloway--A Middle Earth Journal Rant

I wasn't going to write anymore on the Natalee Halloway story but the fact that I'm still getting 30 to 50 hits a day for my previous post combined with the events of today have brought on a rant. Once again on the cable news tabloid channels it was nearly wall to wall Natalee Halloway. Every time I turned on the TV I saw Natalee's mother whining about the fact that the two brothers were released. I would like to remind the mother that to the best of our knowledge this is a missing persons case not a crime. I would like to remind her that in the United States none of these people would have been incarcerated at all.

With all of the coverage I see no blame placed on the parents of Natalee Halloway. Yes they are to blame as are all of the parents who not only allow but pay for their high school seniors to go on these trips. It is irresponsible parenting to allow a recent high school graduate to take off unsupervised to an exotic location at the time in their life when they are most likely to do something irresponsible and stupid. An unsupervised 17 or 18 year old in a location where alcohol and even drugs are readily available is courting disaster.

My message to Natalee's mother is this. While I feel your pain and sympathize with you, do something constructive. Admit that it was a mistake to allow her to take the trip and tell the parents of future high school seniors of the dangers of such irresponsible decisions.