Ingrid Betancourt & the Newly Freed Prisoners

We're all so interested in the status of these released hostages from earlier in the week. "How will they re-adapt to life outside?" - "What is their mental state?" -
"When will we be able to find out more?!?" -

If I can say anything about this, it's from my own personal experience as I had a similar lapse in my life, it would be leave them the hell alone! While we all may be so totally fascinated for our own self-aggrandized opinions of our high-minded political activism, I can guarantee you that most of the tens of thousands who are blogging about Columbian anti-corruption activist prisoners and whispering about their mental state today had no idea about who Ingrid Betancourt or any of these others even were a week ago.

So why don't we all take a deep breath, hold on to our joysticks, and try to imagine for just a second what being a prisoner is like, for any amount of time, least of all six or ten years.

While my situation was nothing this lengthy, I share a small insight. I was a passenger in a car accident which left me paralyzed and unconscious for three weeks. When I awoke, it was a little disarming having all these people I hadn't seen or spoken to in so long; faces I didn't even recognize; hovering over my bed. While I appreciated the attention, I was ill equipped to handle it. And when all the attention died down, my health had stabilized, and most of these people disappeared; down the river; off to their next conquest of self-aggrandizement, I didn't know how to handle that either.

So I know that this woman, Ingrid Betancourt is a politician and is probably used to fair weather friends, but maybe for some perspective you should call Arizona Senator and presumptive Republican Presidential Nominee John McCain. Ask him about being held captive for years and years and ask him what we all could do to help this woman. I haven't read any of the good Senators words on this matter, but I can almost guarantee that he would say something to the effect of "leave her alone." Because it's probably how he felt then and it was definitely the way I felt.