Posted on 03/17/2005 6:32:05 PM PST by paulat
"I'd say she did a fine job of negotiating."
Yes, you put it very well. I think the fact that he waved a white flag indicates your assessement is correct, he was in a different mind set.
And, that's a good thing, based on where he was before.
I'm really a bad tempered Irish person (happy St. Patrick's day all), but for all my raging only once in my life did I have an actual, in my heart, desire to murder someone. It was a very revealing moment, and a very bad place to be. So, this woman got this man out of that place, where he had been for longer than the fleeting moment I was there.
She is absolutely a hero.
Let's face it, she's a hero to him, she saved his life, if no other, because without what she did his chances of going down in a hail of bullets was pretty darn good.
Now, he may get the death penalty, and be executed, and he would well deserve it, but he will have some life for a time. And that is good, if he strives to make amends for what he did, and repent his sins.
Let's not forget repentance and forgiveness, because without them, we are just animals; and PETA don't care about our kind.
Oh how sweet, another dull useless term.
You, Chieftain and Deguello remind me of George Costanza--when the apartment caught on fire during the kids' birthday party. If I'm ever in trouble, I hope that none of you "men" are in the vicinity. I'd rather fight alone.
Read your own post again. You are talking nonsense about someone whom you have never met.
" I am not sure I find Ashley Smith a Hero in the real sense."
Me neither,
Should Jessica Lynch have forfeited her freedom and run back to her Iraqi captors to read aloud from A Purpose Driven Life ?
Should Elizabeth Smart have done the same thing ?
Once you are the victim of a kidnapping and have the opportunity to escape- take it.
Don't trust your kidnapper and hope to convert him by reading scripture.
You can still be a good Christian by escaping and alerting the authorities to the location of your abductor.
Your concept of 'christian' is just too sophisticated for we mere Christians.
Born & bred in the Cimmaron country near the panhandle: a wampum, red-dirt Okie. Now a corn-fed Hoosier.
Me neither
Okay, Wild Irish Rogue...get rid of the IRA and I'll believe you are a REAL man...after all...you KNOW what to do in EVERY adverse situation....
I have read the book, "THE PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE", and I do believe in miracles, but I must admit that with this story becoming ONLY about HER WITNESS to HIM and HIS conversion, and somehow I am to rejoice in this, WHILE completely ignoring the VICTIMS, then I am not yet ready for the purpose driven life.
Did you forget the HERO, Thomas Hammel, went back to his captures in Iraq the first time he escaped....He realized he didn't have a chance that time.....Very intelligent thing to do....He survived......So did she.
Oh, yeah. The victims. How true. I believe in miracles but I'm not sure this is one. If Ms. Smith's recitation of the facts is true, and I have no reason to believe it's not, she was gutsy and very lucky. Lucky that the situation didn't turn out differently when they got back to the apartment, for her, others living close by or anyone else who may have crossed his path. After all, this animal is a RAPIST AND QUADRUPLE MURDERER!
I firmly believe that that this cowardly psychopath saw that he had a sure way out of not getting wasted and it was to get Ashley to turn him in and to surrender, on tv if possible. It worked. Now he can live on our dime and manipulate the system.
If he shows remorse, lives a virtuous life in prison and accepts the justice he deserves, then I may change my mind and see this as a miracle, but I think I'll defer judgment until he takes a well deserved dirt nap.
I was talking about your analysis, which is loaded with psychological jargon. It seems that rape was the last thing on this guy's mind.
And I was talking about victim stress, not a rape especially.
He didn't rape her, shoot her or even hit her apparently, but tie her up with something (I forget what..) after putting a gun into her back.
When someone else has control you might do things you wouldn't normally do. He DID in fact establish control right from the second he put that gun into her back.
It's not psychological jargon. It's just the truth.
This woman offered him a way out. If she had been a different person , he might have just continued down the path he had followed.
Except that he was not in control. If her testimony is correct, she controlled the situation without ever trying to, maybe because she didn't try to.
Nichols hasn't repented, he is an evil psychopath. He has the blood of four people and countless others done irreparable harm on his hands. The concept of "repentance" is being so cheapened in this case and it sickens me. It's so easy for all these Christians to swoon over the story of his heart being opened - well, they are not the ones who have to "forgive" a murdered husband or mom or son or friend or colleague. Yes, God can forgive anyone and anything when He chooses, but He says by our fruits they will know us. He also has a Hell for people like Nichols. Let's send him there as soon as possible.
Okay Robby.
He hasn't shown himself to be a Ted Bundy yet. If he hasn't repented, time will tell.
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