Wednesday, September 10, 2008
After first showing clips of Elizabeth Smart's story of being abducted from her home in 2002 at the age of 14, Oprah welcomed her back to the show to talk about her experience and her life since returning home. Elizabeth is now 20 and in her third year at BYU.
Elizabeth described a conversation she had with her mother about a week after returning home in which her mom explained to her that what happened was an act of evil and dwelling on the situation will give her abductors power over her life - Elizabeth described trying to live with that idea in mind through her life.
Getting back into a normal routine was something Elizabeth shared that she was able to do rather quickly. Saying that her parents were always available to talk, she never attended regular therapy to deal with her experience. Finding a positive way to look at what happened, Elizabeth commented that the experience made her more aware of the world and changed her from the sheltered girl she once was.
Elizabeth's abductors were found to be incompetent and sentenced to a mental health facility, but Elizabeth stated that she feels they knew exactly what they were doing and should be held accountable.
Clips were shown of Elizabeth the way she lives life now - shopping with her sister, attending school, playing her harp, spending time with her family - she doesn't live in fear and even lives off campus in an apartment near her college. Elizabeth's sister, Mary Katherine, is now 16 and had been referred to as Elizabeth's hero for tipping police off to the possible suspect.
While Elizabeth remembered being threatened with her life and her family's lives, she shared that is was because of her family and her faith that she couldn't give up - she knew that she was her parent's daughter and they couldn't take that away.
Ed Smart, Elizabeth's father, joined the stage to talk about his work since Elizabeth returned home - advocating for child safety issues. It is important to Ed that Elizabeth and other children in similar situations know that no one has the right to do something like that to you.
Elizabeth never knew when she was taken if there were others involved or how much weight the threats actually had - she was taken at knife-point out of her home and always knew that she needed to do whatever it took to survive.
Ed's motto: "Be Prepared Not Scared" through radkids.org (resist aggression defensively) is the only thing he wishes he had done differently - prepare his children better for what to do in threatening situations. Ed recommends that parents teach their children to say no, empowering them to trust their instincts and defend themselves.
Ed is currently working on online pornography legislation called the Child Exploitation Act. Help support the bill by heading to Oprah.com. Ed and Elizabeth also have a book called You're Not Alone that is available to download online.
The story of JonBenet Ramsey has been in and out of the news since she was first found murdered in her home in 1996 and has hit the news again that father John Ramsey has been exonerated as a suspect in the still unsolved case.
John joined Oprah onstage for his first national television interview since being cleared. His wife Patsy passed away from cancer in 2006 before ever having her name fully cleared. John started out by saying that the new DNA testing that cleared him felt like progress, that there is something solid to go on now to find his daughter's killer.
The district attorney that cleared John's name sent him a letter of apology that Oprah read a piece of on the show. John explained how the media was cruel and immediately jumped to conclusions and painted he and Patsy out to be completely responsible for their daughter's death. John shared that he forgives the media, not wanting to hold anger moving on. He was shocked to see during the coverage that even reputable news sources were quoting tabloids during the case.
Oprah asked if John regrets that Patsy didn't live to see their names cleared, and she shared that he feels confident that she knows what's going on. Patsy lived believing that they would find the killer and even traveled with a blue dress (because it looks best on TV) incase they would be contacted while she was away with news of a captured suspect.
John tried to be polite during the interview but expressed that the police force was inexperienced and arrogant, a negative combination. John didn't argue for authorities not to investigate them, but to not stop with the parents, which they did.
John and Patsy had to try to move on with their lives for the sake of their son who was 9 at the time of his sister's death. The picture the media painted of the family was rather negative, partially because of the idea that they pressured their daughter to compete in beauty pageants.
The pictures and footage that were constantly shown in the media were just a fragment of JonBenet's actual life according to her father - the footage didn't even belong to them, but to the pageant she was competing in. Being that there were no images of her doing other things, their image was hurt.
Oprah commented that when pictures of JonBenet were shown during the interview that John turned away and he expressed that the reference to his daughter as a beauty queen is not what she was to him - he has his own pictures of her on his dresser of how he likes to remember her.
John Ramsey - DNA Legislation:
John is trying to get awareness out about getting legislation to form a national DNA database since many people believe that one already exists. This would require felons in every state to have recorded DNA. Contact your state representative to support such legislation.
Shawn Hornbeck - An Update:
Oprah first interviewed Shawn Hornbeck and his parents in 2007 when he returned home after over 4 years missing. Shawn was held captive in an apartment by Michael Devlin and was only found when another boy went missing and authorities were led to Devlin's home.
Shawn is now 17 and his parents shared that he is becoming more comfortable with being able to keep his head up and look people in the eye; something he wouldn't do when her first went home. The family is in both individual and group therapy working through the events and emotions of those 4 years. The family is happy to see Shawn participating in sports and attending high school and support him dealing with his experience in his own time.
