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Oct. 28, 2005 Is the protective bubble that has sheltered some of Mountain Brook’s own for far too long destined to be burst by the harsh glare of public scrutiny? The good (and perhaps goodly gulled) residents of Mountain Brook, Alabama,--some of whom likely acquiesced to the Twitty family’s requests that they were “not to talk to the media” in the spirit of neighborliness and community cohesion--may find some unwelcome attention coming their way soon. Should the ever-increasing clamour for clarification continue unabated, it could attract to their tree-lined streets those hordes of cameramen and talking heads which peopled Oranjestad in those heady days before the deeply-discounted, satellite-linkage rate of $8,088 reverted back the prevanishing fee of $43,730 per year. Far away from the chauffeured co-mingling with Condoleeza Rice, the Columbus, Ohio, luncheon, and mainland America's celebrity circuits, Police Commissioner Dompig craftily continues to raise public awareness of Aruba’s no-holds-barred (but with hands tied by the absence of Beth) efforts to forge ahead and revitalize the derailed investigation into the five-month-old mystery surrounding the vanished-from-Aruba Natalee Holloway, the daughter of the media-maven-loving Beth Holloway-Twitty. Mr. Dompig’s careful tweaking of public opinion seems to be bearing fruit (no, Beth and no-show Joe are not on Aruba, lol). On October 27, perhaps as a harbinger of the mindset change at FOX, Greta van Susteren’s moderated Gretawire blog (we can be assured that someone very carefully screens a post before allowing it to pop up—and that's assuming that they haven't primed the pump by penning it themselves) permitted the following to go out on a well-viewed FOX website: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,173666,00.html "Finally, they are going to question Natalee's friends, as let's face it they know a lot more than they have said. There had to be plenty of those kids on the beach partying that same night that she was supposed to have been there. It was the night before coming home from a week of partying and I cannot believe no one was out having their last night of fun at that time. It is about time her friends and former classmates were questioned, as I am sure that they know much more about this situation than they have come forth and said. Who was the male in their room they shared with Natalee that used her toothbrush and left DNA on, that we never heard any more about? What was Natalee really like, was she a party person? What did they do all week in Aruba other than that one night at Charlie's Bar? Why did her friends leave for home without her, never heard of friends doing that, you just wouldn't go flying off and leaving your best friend behind, if you have any character or are a true friend. It is time now after all these months to come forth and start telling the public just what was going on while they were all having a ball in Aruba. They don't want to say anything, well, they have to so this can be settled and shed some light on just what was going on while on this so-called party vacation." Once the genii is allowed out of the bottle on prime-time television, it’s nigh impossible to put it back in. Can America look forward to a continuing series of nightly Fireside Chats, directed especially at the thousands of Americans who contributed heavily to the HollowayMedia Inc. donation campaigns and who will then nightly question the timing (and source) of that Tundra wonder? Mountain Brook may be a gated community but, in this age of instantaneous communications, it will be difficult to keep the outraged feeling of having been used from trickling in (and what of those 100 away-from-home graduates who might now face further unwelcome questioning and attention from fellow students?). Most people learn early not to foul their own nests, never mind fouling the nests of their neighbours. Should blame be apportioned, will some of it fall upon Debbie Cleghorn (another mother who took time out from her busy keyboarding tasks to suggest ‘that no one makes fun of me or mine without getting a response’) who brashly boasted, on September 1, 2005, on Aruba.com, of running a three-dozen-employee-strong Internet operation: “Author: debbie (---.mc.at.cox.net) Date: 09-01-05 14:27 Dayo, why don't you just address the post and not make it your business to remind posters where they work. I have 36 people in my office right now, and I could walk up to any one of them and they might be reading the paper on line, or shopping. They work hard, they do their job and we have restricted inappropriate sites, and I don't have a problem with it at all. But more to the point what do you care? Debbie” Mountain Brook homeowners will have to wait to see if sustained and unrestrained media attention (as was directed at Aruba’s residents) will adversely affect local property prices—however, the neighbourly calls made over backyard fences could end up having a bit more bite to them in the short term, and that’s even before they do the DNA testing on the toothbrush (and it always comes back to that toothbrush). In the meantime, Velcro Joe might want to look to his reputation, as some present-day associations and expressions of support might not be explainable in the future as being just the product of delayed-childhood exuberance. ------------ About the author: Dayo Gould is a frequent visitor to Aruba, and is a volunteer ESL teacher in a Christian school. Email: ed_asp@hotmail.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
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