[scaredkat]

Okay, I have read a lot about what is being said of utahs shelter life. Here are my thoughts.

The problem with most things about Utah-Salt lake Valley is people think this is a small community of LDS living here and are all tight and do what they are told. This isn't true.

Yes there are of LDS members here compared to anywhere else in the world. I wouldn't say however here it is the majority, maybe in prove by the BYU college. The Salt lake Valley has change greatly with the growth. If you lived her ten years ago or more you have no idea how it has changed and is still changing. We have had a lot of people moving in from California, Nevada and Wyoming. I have always wondered why seeing how it has nothing to do with the church. I worked in a large corporation here it. The room that I worked in had 200 people working in there. Of that 200 hundred people guess how many were LDS, One me. So don't tell me LDS rules the roast around. They only thing the have is that it is were the Church Head Quarters are located. Our wonderful Catholic friends Cathedral is very big and beautiful, did you know it was up and running before our own religion got our buildings up and running. The church my have founded this place but they were NOT the only religion that did.

What Ed Smart said about not locking his house because he thought he was safe (or something like that) He is lieing! He and anyone else that lives here knows this. I have never heard such a lead on. Where he lives, you know that they lock there doors. Why did he have an alarm put in if he felt so safe

As for mormons let me give you a hint about something.
I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.-LDS- I do not refer to myself as a mormon. Mormon is a nick name give to the church by non-members. There are however people in the church that are mormons they conduct themselves as a mormon, meaning they act just like you thought they would being a nonmember. There are those that call themselves LDS they are what any God fearing member of the church would try to act, like other religions a Christian. With these two explanation now you think to yourselve which have you seen in people, there truely is a difference and any member of the church that would disagree with this tells you what side of the fence they are on or at least they don't listen to their General Conferences.

I have been outside of Utah alot of times so I know what its like out there. It is just as wonderful out there as it is in Utah. There is all walks of life on this great earth and this is what we need to keep the world going. We all have our own way of saying things and doing things but 90% of the people are all striving for the same thing. To have and to hold our own loving families. To protect and serve rather it be our families, community, or our nieghbors on the otherside of the world.

Rollins states he hasn't live here for 20 years, well theres your answer. He doesn't have a clue. He does bring up good points but, I like Devil-Anse reference that he isn't a very good journalist. He should be reporting the news not using a soap box to spread his oppinion.

[ChocChipCookie]

Scared, what do you think of Ed Smart's statements about ES not being interested in boys, just wanting to spend time with her family, etc.? I would think that at 14 years old and in a public school, it's naive to believe that she wouldn't have the same interests as her peers.

[jo6pac]

He should be reporting the news not using a soap box to spread his oppinion.

Tim is not claiming to be a journalist. He is a pundit. He writes opinion columns for political internet sites (eg OpinionNet and The American Partisan).

[Devil_Anse]

Thanks for your perspective, Scaredkat. I find the insights of you, and other Utahns, to be far more valuable in trying to understand the background of this case, than I find Mr. Rollins' opinions. This is not to say that Tim Rollins' columns are not interesting or worth reading, it's just that he can't possibly have the ability to have any greater understanding of this case than some other non-Utahn, such as myself.

About Chocolate Chip Cookie's question to you, about Ed's insistence that Elizabeth had not yet developed an interest in boys, my opinion is that she probably certainly did have an interest in them. But a father is just going to find thinking of his daughter's sexuality distasteful. Some people react to this by ignoring it. And a girl is probably not going to reveal such feelings to her father anyway. I don't think it unnatural that Ed denied that Elizabeth was interested in boys. Besides, even if she was interested in boys (which she surely was) doesn't mean that she had acted on that interest quite yet. Not every 14-yr--old girl is "fast." (BTW, I consider even the "fast" 14-yr-old girls to be quite innocent. They think they know a lot, but they don't.)

Suppose Ed were somehow involved in Elizabeth's disappearance. Wouldn't he want to direct suspicion away from him? Seems to me if he had some guilty secret, he would be more than happy to jump on the "runaway theory" bandwagon. But he didn't.

I got the feeling that you guys preferred LDS to Mormon. I use both terms sometimes; don't intend any insult, it's just laziness. There are only a few where I live.

[varina davis]

He does bring up good points but, I like Devil-Anse reference that he isn't a very good journalist.

Very good post, scaredkat, except for the above. Rollins was writing a COLUMN, not a NEWS STORY. There is a vast difference. Columns are for expression opinions. News stories are for reporting the news. Many readers mistake one for the other, unfortunately.

[FR_addict]

What Ed Smart said about not locking his house because he thought he was safe (or something like that) He is lieing! He and anyone else that lives here knows this. I have never heard such a lead on. Where he lives, you know that they lock there doors. Why did he have an alarm put in if he felt so safe

Above you said that Ed Smart was lying. I was wondering if you have heard from your sources about any other lies that Ed may have told?