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Rantings of a Crazed Soccer Mom
Tuesday, 28 June 2005
We Only Care About The Pretty Ones

Guess what? There’s another young pretty white woman missing. This time it’s Natalie Holloway, an 18 year old girl from Alabama who disappeared during a graduation trip to Aruba. She’s been missing since May 30 and so far, it looks like half the male population of Aruba has been arrested or held for questioning.

Across the country, hundreds of thousands of people are reported missing every year. Like Ana Luisa Aceveda Galeano or Tia Anderson. They are both young. But Ms. Galeano is Hispanic and Ms. Anderson is African American.

By the way, Ms. Galeano is a local girl, from just up the road in Castle Hayne, NC. I remember some segments about her on Channel 6, when she disappeared in January, but not a word in months. The networks didn’t even bother with this story. Ms. Galeano is not pretty, she doesn’t play the harp and her parents are not wealthy enough to keep her name in the news.

Sometimes I wish the news anchors would be honest and say “Out of the thousands of missing girls out there, we’re going to focus on this one. The pretty white one.”

Now Ms. Holloway did happen to disappear in exotic Aruba. I’m sure that has something to do with the amount of airplay she’s getting.

Which brings me to what is really bothering me about her disappearance. I want to know what possessed the parents of 136 graduating high school seniors to allow these kids to go to Aruba. Alabama is part of the Bible belt, for God’s sake! I can see a trip to Six Flags Over Georgia or Disney World, but Aruba? If it were my daughter, the answer would be “Not in this lifetime, sweetie.”

And it’s not because I’m paranoid about her being abducted and murdered by person or persons unknown. I’m concerned about more mundane tragedies, like alcohol poisoning, or date rape, or finding out three months later that she’s cavorting half naked in the newest “Girls Gone Wild” video.

Okay, there were chaperones. Seven of them. Do the math and that’s 19.4 kids per chaperone. Ever try to keep track of 19.4 teen-agers? In Aruba? They’d be off clubbing as soon as your back was turned. Now, Ms. Holloway’s mother says she does not blame the chaperones for her daughter’s disappearance. In fact, all the kids on the trip signed waivers saying they would behave responsibly and if anything bad happened it was their own damn fault. Most of them were 18, legally adults.

I’m sure there are hundreds of trips like this, considered a reward for high school seniors who’ve worked hard and deserve to let off a little steam. But maybe Ms. Holloway’s disappearance will cause a few changes, like more chaperones and less bar hopping.

How about a nice little trip to Cypress Gardens?

Posted by judy5cents at 12:41 AM EDT
Updated: Tuesday, 28 June 2005 12:47 AM EDT
Post Comment | View Comments (2) | Permalink

Tuesday, 28 June 2005 - 9:10 AM EDT

Name: Bob Mueller
Home Page: http://bob.ravensbeak.com

There's another word for 18-year-old teenagers: adult. There's not much the chaperones can do if a legal adult wants to do something that's legal. Lots of people are making a big deal about the number of chaperones, but most of the people on the trip were legal adults.

That said, I agree with you about the MSM coverage of the whole thing. Let's face it. She's missing from an island the size of Washington, DC, with a population of 72,000 people. She's almost certainly dead. Give the parents some space, and move on. There's nothing to see here, and there are plenty of other missing people out there.

Wednesday, 29 June 2005 - 1:09 AM EDT

Name: judy5cents

Yes, they're adults. But to their parents, they're still kids. I'm willing to bet the parents felt a lot safer putting their children on the plane to Aruba because it was an organized trip and there were chaperones. And despite being of age, I'm sure most of the students had to ask mom & dad for permission, as well as the money to pay for the trip.

I'm wondering if anybody's dad said, "You live under my roof, you follow my rules. Nobody goes to Aruba until they have a full time job with two weeks vacation. Whatever happened to saving your money, piling into an old Buick Le Sabre and driving 24 hours straight to Ft. Lauderdale so you could share a cheap motel room with six other people? Now that's fun!"



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