Trouble in SmartLand

I was going to blog about this earlier, but I had other priorities at the time. More background here and here and here.

To me, there's always been something a bit creepy about Ed Smart. His voice is whiny, his personality is grating, and he is an unabashed publicity hound. Whenever he says something like "Elizabeth needs to get on with her life" you can bet you'll see her within a week at some carefully-choreographed media event with her dad. For a family that supposedly cherishes their privacy, they sure do get around.

Such publicity was essential to finally finding Elizabeth, since it was clear that she didn't really want to be found on her own. Thanks to her family's connections, Elizabeth's case stayed in the national spotlight, which eventually resulted in the tip that led to her recovery. Truth be told, if she had been some Latina from the west side of Salt Lake instead of a rich white girl from the tony Federal Heights area of east SLC, she might still be missing. But now we have the unseemly spectacle of the family fighting over who gets to control the limelight, her uncle Tom or her father.

Not that I really care. I just wish for once all the Smarts would shut up and actually do what they all say they want to do: Let Elizabeth get on with her life.