Elizabeth Smart spoke to a women's conference in California recently not to discuss details of her 9-month ordeal at the hands of two psychotic kidnappers, but to give other women a heartfelt message: You can move on.
It is well known that Smart, kidnapped at age 14 and subjected to daily tortures and abuse, has kept her own counsel for the last six years regarding that harrowing experience. Unbelievably, she has been criticized for that decision. In 2006, Smart had to put in her place an interviewer who tried to pry such information from her. The news media, in its vulgar scramble to be the first in line to adulterate news headlines with issues that titillate rather than educate, seem to have a sense of entitlement when it comes to other people's personal lives.
In a society where teenagers whine when their first car is a used model rather than new, this brave young woman certainly stands out. She decided, on her own, when to break her silence and refused to be pressured to do so before she was ready. When she did speak, it was not to play the victim or make millions selling her story; it was to deliver a message of hope to others who may not have the innate strength she apparently has. No matter what she does after this, she deserves kudos for giving her first words to those who needed to hear that there is life after living "the unimaginable".
It is well known that Smart, kidnapped at age 14 and subjected to daily tortures and abuse, has kept her own counsel for the last six years regarding that harrowing experience. Unbelievably, she has been criticized for that decision. In 2006, Smart had to put in her place an interviewer who tried to pry such information from her. The news media, in its vulgar scramble to be the first in line to adulterate news headlines with issues that titillate rather than educate, seem to have a sense of entitlement when it comes to other people's personal lives.
In a society where teenagers whine when their first car is a used model rather than new, this brave young woman certainly stands out. She decided, on her own, when to break her silence and refused to be pressured to do so before she was ready. When she did speak, it was not to play the victim or make millions selling her story; it was to deliver a message of hope to others who may not have the innate strength she apparently has. No matter what she does after this, she deserves kudos for giving her first words to those who needed to hear that there is life after living "the unimaginable".
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