Tie One On

Many of our students are sporting yellow ribbons on their smart, navy KA blazers this week. Our community service leaders inaugurated a coin drive, hoping to raise many, many piasters to add to the coffers of the King Hussein Cancer Fund. (For those who need a brush-up on Jordanian history, King Hussein was king of Jordan for 46 years, from 1953 to 1999, father of the current king, and the husband of Arab-American co-ed, Queen Noor. King Hussein’s name still causes people to weep for all he did for Jordan—what a beloved man in Jordan, and a man who struggled with cancer.) We have heard several people offer personal testimonies about the plague of cancer and a plea for monies to help eradicate the disease. On Monday afternoon, King Hussein’s sister, Princess Dima, will come to the school and we will gather at the Spiritual Center to lay out the coins in long lines, seeing which class’s (freshman, sophomore, and junior) collection of change will create the longest, snakiest line. The students fastened the yellow ribbons next to the school’s logo on the blazer to remind each and everyone of KA’s commitment to community service.

Those of us old enough to remember 1980 will always associate that year with yellow ribbons. (Well, that, and of course, the year I dated three young women named Lori). Iranian students had taken 52 Americans hostage at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in November, 1979, and for the next 444 days, the country was riveted by the hostages’ ordeal. Each night, venerable newscaster Walter Cronkite ended his CBS News broadcast by telling us how many days the American hostages had been held. Seemingly everyone wore yellow ribbons pinned on their clothes. I don’t know the derivation of the “yellow ribbon” but maybe it had something to do with the 1970s Tony Orlando & Dawn hit song, “Tie a Yellow Ribbon ‘Round the Old Oak Tree.” I was too young in the 1970s—and there were no Loris in my life yet—to know much about that yellow ribbon then.

Earlier this week I was thinking about our yellow ribbons at KA, and the yellow ribbons from 1980, and the national watching-and-waiting, and I was reminded of a story I read about this past July, and an absence of yellow ribbons.

This past July, in fact, right in the week of our Independence Day holiday merry-making, a group of hostages were liberated after five years in captivity. I read the story, and it struck me as odd then, but then it came back to me this week with my fixation on the yellow ribbons. Where were the yellow ribbons for the American hostages of the 21st century? Three Americans—Marc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes, and Keith Stansell—were held by the Colombian rebel group FARC for more than five years. The three, civilian defense contractors, were on a routine surveillance flight over Colombia in 2003, looking for cocaine labs, when their plane went down and they were taken hostage. Their captivity was among the longest in American history, yet most of us have never heard of them. When I read the story of their release, I wondered why were these names so unknown to me?

There are, of course, enormous differences between the two dramas. The Iranian attack on the U.S. Embassy was an act of war, a national humiliation for the country and for President Carter, and an unprecedented international crisis. The capture of the defense contractors, by contrast, can be seen as a simple act of thuggery by a drug gang. But why was there not outrage over this? Are we just so fixated on Britney Spears’ parenting skills and who is dancing with the stars? (By the way, that is not a dig at my beloved sister who loves the show.) I just wondered a little more.

President Bush has listed the FARC as a terrorist group, and he has famously declared the United States to be at war with terrorists. So why was this not a more high-profile story in line with this intense 21st century battle against terror? Why wasn’t Bush’s inability for five years to rescue the hostages just as damaging as Carter’s was to him? I am jumping on a soapbox for a second—isn’t that what blogs are for??? But, if we are truly at war with all terrorists, then Gonsalves, Howes and Stansell are innocent victims of that war who deserve to be remembered. If not, then the “war on terror” slogan is just empty propaganda.

My wondering is not partisan-based. I’ll lambaste the other side too. I remember vividly in the fall of 1997 when an article in The New York Times announced that President Clinton was “opening a year-long conversation on race,” and the editorialists praised this important step, and perhaps painful step, in race relations. I remember all this because I brought the articles into my 20th Century History class and said, “All right, let’s watch what happens. Let’s see how this conversation goes.” The fanfare was exciting, but even with our eyes and ears on the media, we never heard from this “conversation” again. It had somehow gone mute! Or, dumb.

So I guess I am just musing about presidential hopes and promises and hype and neglect. I am disappointed when such noble pursuits, or noble words are merely hollow, and bravery turns yellow.

But as we display our yellow ribbons here at KA, I am putting on my metaphorical yellow ribbon, late to be sure, on behalf of Marc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes, and Keith Stansell. Here is an excerpt of an article from the United States Army upon the release of the hostages in July:

Marc Gonsalves, Keith Stansell and Thomas Howes), freed July 2 after more than five years of captivity in Colombia, [offer these words:] "First, we want to assure everyone that we're all doing fine. Words alone can never possibly express the thrill and excitement we feel to be back home in the United States of America with our families at our side.

Next, we want to offer our heartfelt thanks to the Government and the Armed Forces of Colombia. The operation they conducted to rescue us was one for the history books-something we will never forget for the rest of our lives. Colombia is a great nation with a great people, and the struggle they have endured with the FARC for more than 40 years is a shining testament to their great spirit: like the loved ones here with us now, they never gave up in the belief that human kindness and decency would ultimately prevail. To all those still held in captivity, our prayers and our thoughts are with you and your loved ones. We haven't forgotten you, and we never will.

Finally, we want to recognize our own United States Government who never forgot us, as evidenced by the tireless efforts of the superb team of men and women in the United States Embassy, Bogotá, Colombia. We understand that a lot of people are eager to see and hear from us, and they will. But right now, more than anything, we just want to be with our loved ones. We ask that the media respect our privacy as we reunite with our families. Rest assured, we will respond to your questions in the near future.

Today, in the United States of America, it is the Fourth of July: the day when Americans everywhere celebrate our independence. We can't think of a better time to thank our fellow citizens for never giving up on us, for never forgetting us, for always believing that we would, one day, return home to the country we love.

From the three of us and from our families, Happy Fourth of July."