November 25, 2024

— Sir Terry Waite

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The road to forgiveness

Today's newsletter is about what it's like to be almost completely powerless.

There's a 1987 movie about U.S. prisoners of war in Vietnam called The Hanoi Hilton. It's pretty dark, given the subject matter, and it didn't get the best reviews. But there's a scene that has stuck with me.

Toward the end, the Americans are given a Christmas meal together, and one of them is pressed into duty to give a post-meal homily. He chooses his take on the biblical story of Abraham and Isaac:

Since this is 2024, it turns out somebody has uploaded the entire 2-hour movie to YouTube, if you're interested!

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But I'm starting with it today because it's the anniversary of the release from captivity of another prisoner whose experience led to spiritual growth.

That would be Terry Waite, an envoy of the Anglican Church who traveled to Lebanon in 1987 in order to negotiate for the release of four other men who had been kidnapped -- only to have the group that had promised him safe passage back off their promise, and make him a Hezbollah hostage as well.

An experienced negotiator who had worked out the release of hostages during the 1980s in Iran and Libya as well as Lebanon, Waite wound up spending five years in very difficult captivity, including four years in complete solitary confinement.

I think I read his memoir about the experience years ago. It was chilling; details I remember were that his captors gave him almost no information on where he was, how long he'd be there, whether he'd be killed, or if anyone even knew he was alive.

They moved him around by forcing him to squeeze himself into an old refrigerator (with the shelves removed), and transporting it — I guess because it was easier to move a refrigerator around Beruit without being noticed than it would have been to move an imprisoned Englishman.

He also said that he'd basically written the entire memoir in his head while he was in captivity, as he had no other activities to occupy his mind -- and no pen or pencil or paper to write anything down.

Waite's imprisonment was something that came up in the media occasionally almost the whole time he was held, along with others he'd gone to try to free -- as well as Terry Anderson, an American Associated Press journalist who was held contemporaneously.

Finally, they were released in late 1991.

Of course, I'm writing this during a time when we have many modern-day stories of people being held hostage, starting with the roughly 60 surviving Israeli hostages thought to be held by Hamas in Gaza.

And, I always like to remind people of Austin Tice, a Georgetown University law student and former U.S. Marine officer who was abducted 12 years ago, in 2012, while covering the Syrian civil war as a freelance journalist.

As of two years ago, the Biden administration said it knew with "certainty" that Tice was alive and being held by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government.

We're all powerless sometimes. I sincerely hope that the specific example of being held hostage somewhere turns out to be entirely irrelevant to all of our lives.

But, I think you can learn a lot about to deal with tough times by hearing how these kinds of people did it -- and even found the strength sometimes to forgive their captors.

Sir Waite gets the quote of the day of course:

Did you see ...

• Now that Matt Gaetz has dropped out of the running to become attorney general, it seems all but two of Trump's prospective cabinet nominees are likely to be approved quickly, some with significant numbers of Democrats voting in favor. Two big exceptions remain: Pete Hegseth for defense and Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence. (Axios)
• Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was spotted shaking it off at a Taylor Swift concert in Toronto as Friday night as Montreal descended into chaos with anti-Israel protests sweeping the streets. Trudeau was slammed for his lack of awareness on the riots after he was seen partying at one of the final Eras gigs while anarchy gripped Montreal. (Daily Mail)
• Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday signed into law a bill banning adoption of Russian children by citizens of countries where gender transitioning is legal. The adoption ban would apply to at least 15 countries, most of them in Europe, and Australia, Argentina and Canada. Adoption of Russian children by U.S. citizens was banned in 2012. Putin also approved legislation that outlaws the spread of material that encourages people not to have children. (Associated Press)
• Two members of a Dartmouth College fraternity and a sorority have been charged in the death of a student who was found dead in a river over the summer after attending an off-campus party where alcohol was allegedly served to people who were under 21. (NPR)
• Speaking at his alma mater Princeton University former Google CEO Eric Schmidt warns that artificial intelligence will change how children learn and could shape their culture and worldview, and that "normal people ... are not ready" for how radical the change will be. "Their governments are not ready. The government processes are not ready. The doctrines are not ready. They're not ready for the arrival of this." (Business Insider)
• You may not know it by looking at sticker prices in grocery aisles, but Thanksgiving dinner is more affordable than it has been in years. The costs of this year’s holiday feast — estimated at $58.08 for a 10-person gathering, or $5.81 a head — dropped 5% since last year, the lowest level since 2021. (NBC News)
• How the happiest people spend their weekends: Treat them ‘like a vacation,’ a happiness expert says. (CNBC)