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Monday 5 May 2008

Fritzl Rant

Warm, humid and overcast.

AJ is at kindergarten, M is in Switzerland, B is in bed and Mama is angry.

I've been following the story of the Austrian, Fritzl, who is accused of imprisoning his own daughter in a cellar for 24 years and fathering no less than seven children on her, several of whom also remained incarcerated with her, one of whom died at birth through lack of a doctor. Today, I read that this man's lawyer (who dares represent this monster?) is declaring him insane rather than criminal and I am very angry.

Elisabeth Fritzl, the woman imprisoned since her late teens, is a couple of years younger than I am. And this started me thinking. I thought about the life I have led in the big wide world in the 24 years that she has been without daylight, without medical care, without her freedom, and with only a rapist and her children for company. I have been free to study, to travel, to find friends and to fall in love. I have been free to choose the father of my children and the place in which to raise them. I have been free while she has not. Free to eat and drink what I want, think and say what I want, to feel the sun on my face, to feel cooling water on my skin. Free to wander in the highest mountains in the world, to live on some of the most beautiful Pacific Islands imagineable, to drink the colours of India, to have wonderful adventures and to experience the strangenesses of life.

Elisabeth Fritzl has been denied all this. And I am angry for her.

I know this sounds unreconstructed, bigotted and totally un-Christian, but I want Fritzl to receive the same treatment as he meted out to his daughter and his children. I want him in a prison cell with no chance of reprieve. I want him to lack fresh air, sunshine, medical care, decent food, a friendly face. I want his freedom denied him, and most of all I want him scared for his life every time someone comes to the door.

Anyone who wishes his unspeakable crimes to go unpunished should remember what life has brought them over the last 24 years, and then perhaps they will think again.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Agreed. Heartily. And I think many people would have the same sentiments.

Anonymous said...

I agree too. I wonder how could she survive all this years (maybe for love of her children) and I wonder how will she manage to live now. How will she rebuild her life. You and I, we are going to forget her sooner or later, but will she be able to forget?

Louise | Italy said...

Even though the media will soon forget her, I very much doubt she'll be able to erase 24 such horrendous years of her life. Someone I know, now in his 90s, spent 12 years in a Russian labour camp. Changed him forever, and even though he now sometimes forgets how to get home, he never will forget those 12 years.

Monday 5 May 2008

Fritzl Rant

Warm, humid and overcast.

AJ is at kindergarten, M is in Switzerland, B is in bed and Mama is angry.

I've been following the story of the Austrian, Fritzl, who is accused of imprisoning his own daughter in a cellar for 24 years and fathering no less than seven children on her, several of whom also remained incarcerated with her, one of whom died at birth through lack of a doctor. Today, I read that this man's lawyer (who dares represent this monster?) is declaring him insane rather than criminal and I am very angry.

Elisabeth Fritzl, the woman imprisoned since her late teens, is a couple of years younger than I am. And this started me thinking. I thought about the life I have led in the big wide world in the 24 years that she has been without daylight, without medical care, without her freedom, and with only a rapist and her children for company. I have been free to study, to travel, to find friends and to fall in love. I have been free to choose the father of my children and the place in which to raise them. I have been free while she has not. Free to eat and drink what I want, think and say what I want, to feel the sun on my face, to feel cooling water on my skin. Free to wander in the highest mountains in the world, to live on some of the most beautiful Pacific Islands imagineable, to drink the colours of India, to have wonderful adventures and to experience the strangenesses of life.

Elisabeth Fritzl has been denied all this. And I am angry for her.

I know this sounds unreconstructed, bigotted and totally un-Christian, but I want Fritzl to receive the same treatment as he meted out to his daughter and his children. I want him in a prison cell with no chance of reprieve. I want him to lack fresh air, sunshine, medical care, decent food, a friendly face. I want his freedom denied him, and most of all I want him scared for his life every time someone comes to the door.

Anyone who wishes his unspeakable crimes to go unpunished should remember what life has brought them over the last 24 years, and then perhaps they will think again.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Agreed. Heartily. And I think many people would have the same sentiments.

Anonymous said...

I agree too. I wonder how could she survive all this years (maybe for love of her children) and I wonder how will she manage to live now. How will she rebuild her life. You and I, we are going to forget her sooner or later, but will she be able to forget?

Louise | Italy said...

Even though the media will soon forget her, I very much doubt she'll be able to erase 24 such horrendous years of her life. Someone I know, now in his 90s, spent 12 years in a Russian labour camp. Changed him forever, and even though he now sometimes forgets how to get home, he never will forget those 12 years.