The second in a five-part series on a Mississippi man being held hostage in Lebanon (click for link)
By Walker Harris
This week marks five months that Michael Wells has been held in captivity in Lebanon. Late last year, the Vicksburg native was captured in Beirut and has been held for ransom by a radical extremist group.
For the duration of is captivity, his wife, Lainie Wells, has held on to the hope that her husband would be freed - that his time would come. From her home in the Audubon Hills area of Vicksburg, she described what the ordeal has been like. "I seldom get any information," she said, "and everyone is doing their job, but it is not making any difference."
Lainie has spent her adult life observing nature, and the preternatural stillness that she has developed as a wildlife biologist is on full display during the interview. As a seasoned journalist, I have to admit that it is a little unnerving to hold a conversation with someone who moves in such a way as to avoid startling her subject.
Even in her stillness and silence, there is an intensity to her observation that makes you think that her eyes see more than you intended to show.
"I work in the marsh. Warblers, mostly. I watch them." As a wildlife biologist in the employ of ERDC's Environmental laboratory, Lainie has watched the social interactions of animals in the wild, and she sees some of the same forces at work in the myriad international negotiations related to her husband's captivity.
In fact, every time she described her situation, she used metaphors from biology - predation, parasitism, mutualism, symbiosis - to explain her relationship with the nations, religious factions, politicians and journalists with whom she has come in contact.
With each statement, however, Lainie's attention goes back to the place where her husband sits - chained in a small room at an unknown location halfway around the world. She wonders aloud whether he is blindfolded, chained, or tortured, and occasionally explodes with frustration.... then falls silent yet again, mourning her loss; a loss that seems to occasion little comment from the representatives of the greatest nation on earth. Repeated attempts to request comment on this story were rebuffed by senior officials at the US State Department. "We only communicate directly through the families, not to the press, related to ongoing hostage situations," one senior official stated.
But for Lainie, the information provided by this administration has been both infrequent and sparse. Details on Michael have only come after significant changes happen - other captives taken or released, reactionary threats from rival military groups in Lebanon, or responses to proposals to cut aid funding - these events provoked responses first reported by the press, then provided to the families of the victims.
Meanwhile, those family members who are left behind are required to sit and wait, in hope that their loved ones will be prioritized enough for the US to ask for their safe return.
Lainie Walker has been waiting 149 days.
By Walker Harris
This week marks five months that Michael Wells has been held in captivity in Lebanon. Late last year, the Vicksburg native was captured in Beirut and has been held for ransom by a radical extremist group.
For the duration of is captivity, his wife, Lainie Wells, has held on to the hope that her husband would be freed - that his time would come. From her home in the Audubon Hills area of Vicksburg, she described what the ordeal has been like. "I seldom get any information," she said, "and everyone is doing their job, but it is not making any difference."
Lainie has spent her adult life observing nature, and the preternatural stillness that she has developed as a wildlife biologist is on full display during the interview. As a seasoned journalist, I have to admit that it is a little unnerving to hold a conversation with someone who moves in such a way as to avoid startling her subject.
Even in her stillness and silence, there is an intensity to her observation that makes you think that her eyes see more than you intended to show.
"I work in the marsh. Warblers, mostly. I watch them." As a wildlife biologist in the employ of ERDC's Environmental laboratory, Lainie has watched the social interactions of animals in the wild, and she sees some of the same forces at work in the myriad international negotiations related to her husband's captivity.
In fact, every time she described her situation, she used metaphors from biology - predation, parasitism, mutualism, symbiosis - to explain her relationship with the nations, religious factions, politicians and journalists with whom she has come in contact.
With each statement, however, Lainie's attention goes back to the place where her husband sits - chained in a small room at an unknown location halfway around the world. She wonders aloud whether he is blindfolded, chained, or tortured, and occasionally explodes with frustration.... then falls silent yet again, mourning her loss; a loss that seems to occasion little comment from the representatives of the greatest nation on earth. Repeated attempts to request comment on this story were rebuffed by senior officials at the US State Department. "We only communicate directly through the families, not to the press, related to ongoing hostage situations," one senior official stated.
But for Lainie, the information provided by this administration has been both infrequent and sparse. Details on Michael have only come after significant changes happen - other captives taken or released, reactionary threats from rival military groups in Lebanon, or responses to proposals to cut aid funding - these events provoked responses first reported by the press, then provided to the families of the victims.
Meanwhile, those family members who are left behind are required to sit and wait, in hope that their loved ones will be prioritized enough for the US to ask for their safe return.
Lainie Walker has been waiting 149 days.
Comments
Post a Comment