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Title: Vibrant life ends in war zone -- Former UO exchange student Linda Norgrove, kidnapped by militants, died in a failed rescue attempt
Source:
Register Guard
URL Source: http://registerguard.com/csp/cms/si ... ie-lucile-afghanistan-dean.csp
Published: Oct 12, 2010
Author: Saul Hubbard
Post Date: 2010-10-12 15:49:17 by Ferret Mike
Keywords: None
Views: 16562
Comments: 72
When Dean and Lucile McKenzie of Eugene think back on Linda Norgrove, they remember a young woman who wanted to try everything. There was the time that Norgrove, then an exchange student from Scotland enrolled at the University of Oregon, saw climbers ascending the basalt columns at Skinner Butte Park. “I want to do that,” she said instantly. Or the time she saw a Eugene street performer juggling bowling pins. “I’ve got to give that to try,” she said. Finally, they recall the time that Norgrove set her heart on cycling across the United States with a friend. The McKenzies weren’t sure that two young women should be cycling across the country on their own. Norgrove and her friend did it anyway. “She was always doing something,” Lucile McKenzie said Monday. “Sometimes the things she wanted to do made your hair stand on end, but that was just the way she was.” In recent years, the things Norgrove wanted to do was to help the people of Afghanistan, where she had worked off and on as an aid worker since 2005. Militants abducted Norgrove and three Afghan colleagues on Sept. 26 as they drove in two unarmored cars through Kunar province, which borders Pakistan. The Afghan captives were freed last week, but the Taliban-aligned Islamic militants held Norgrove, 36, at a compound in eastern Afghanistan’s mountains. On Friday, Norgrove was killed in a failed rescue attempt led by the U.S. military. After consulting with British officials, the U.S. military ordered the rescue mission after concluding that Norgrove was in danger of being spirited into Pakistan and turned over to even more recalcitrant insurgents. On Monday, reports surfaced that Norgrove may have been killed by friendly fire — an American grenade — and not by an insurgent’s explosive device as initially reported. The U.S. Army has begun a high-level investigation into her death. The McKenzies first learned of Norgrove’s death, along with most of the world, over the weekend. “I don’t think either of us has even recovered from the news yet,” Lucile McKenzie said Monday. “It doesn’t seem real. She was so alive and vibrant, it’s hard to imagine her dead. We’re just devastated.” If it’s true that Norgrove was killed by friendly fire, “it definitely makes me mad,” McKenzie said. “You have to wonder about the (necessity of a) rescue mission,” Dean McKenzie added. “The kidnappers aren’t dumb. They weren’t going to kill their most famous abductee.” Norgrove was only 19 when she came to Eugene to study biology at the UO in the fall of 1993. Although she lived in the university dorms, the McKenzies acted as her host family — as they have done with many international students over the years — and helped her to adjust to life in Oregon. “We’d see her about two or three times a month,” Dean McKenzie said. “She’d come over for dinner or we’d take a day trip together.” The McKenzies still have photographs of themselves and Norgrove visiting the ghost town of Jawbone Flats and skiing at Willamette Pass. She was always a friendly, charming girl, they say, and they stayed close to her in the years after she left Oregon. In 1999, they met up with Norgrove in London during a trip to Europe. They also remained in frequent correspondence with Norgrove and read about a life path that took her to Peru, Uganda, Laos and Afghanistan. Norgrove’s letters to the McKenzies are full of life and verve. In one, she describes participating in the Maralal International Camel Derby in Kenya, a 10-kilometer camel race. “Riding at a run on a camel is just like doing rising trot on a horse,” she wrote. In the same letter, she describes bringing Legos to a school and the children’s joyful reaction. “My only concern that I have is that they might be so treasured that they’ll be set aside on display and no one be allowed to play with them,” she wrote. Her letters are dotted with excited exclamation marks, and she seemed always to have more to say than space on the paper. Although she wasn’t impractical or foolhardy, Norgrove never seemed fearful despite the inherent risks of her lifestyle, Lucile McKenzie said. She remembers Norgrove getting mugged and having her backpack stolen in Africa, but as she recalls it, Norgrove was more upset about the research notes she lost than scared by the incident. The most recent letter the McKenzies received from Norgrove is dated Nov. 12, 2007, and was sent from Kabul. It is far less cheerful in tone than the others. Toward the end of the letter, she explained that she was glad she was taking Afghan language classes. “It is very nice to be able to have basic conversation with women although it really saddens me to see the lives they lead confined to their houses and with less than minimal freedom. Changes are really occurring too slowly for them,” she wrote. Lucile McKenzie said she thinks Norgrove would have stayed in Afghanistan as long as she could because she liked the country and loved its people. “She loved Afghanistan so much and wanted to make it a better country,” Lucile McKenzie said. “I think if she had had her choice of places to die, she probably would have chosen Afghanistan.” McClatchy-Tribune news service contributed to this report.
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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 26.
#13. To: Ferret Mike (#0)
She had no business being there. Had she just got married and had children everything would have been better.
She was following her heart and doing what she wanted to do. Not every woman is wed and bed material. Just as many men aren't.
Most are. Sorry, but I'm correct, her life would have been happier had she not thought she was a man.
I don't see many things a man can do and does do a woman can't do. Women aren't just here to breed. They are human beings who should be allowed and encouraged to follow their dreams and hearts anywhere they take them.
#29. To: Ferret Mike (#26)
Agreed. Unfortunately, she failed to use a modicum of common sense, in the pursuit of her "dream," and it resulted in her needless death. Like a young kid wanting to ride really fast on a motorcycle, and splattering himself on a retaining wall... He was just 'following his dream,' dontcha' know...
Well we finally agree on something. They're also here to do the laundry and iron, cook (after checking with her man on what he wants), clean the bathroom (especially the toilet), wash and put away the dishes, vacuum, dust, darn socks, gather the firewood, give back-rubs (and foot massages), complement their man on a great golf shot (whether it's really "great" or not), fetch the TV remote, grocery shop, make sure the bed ALWAYS has clean sheets (especially after...well...you know), keep the kids quiet while hubby is napping, not get jealous when her man's girlfriend is prettier than she is, (did I mention shine her man's shoes while she's waiting for the laundry to dry?), and like you say, while breeding is not their ONLY function, it is high on the list (as is "practice" in that regard), and lastly: be able to manage all that so that bringing her man a cold beer is at the top of the list and doesn't interfere with her other reasons for being here (innumerated above) Ya putz.
Not saying,"They can't", asking is it wise? I say no. If a man can do the job, send him. His life is worth less than a woman's in the long-run.
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#16. To: Nebuchadnezzar (#13)
#23. To: Ferret Mike (#16)
She was following her heart and doing what she wanted to do. Not every woman is wed and bed material. Just as many men aren't.
#26. To: Nebuchadnezzar (#23)
Replies to Comment # 26. Women aren't just here to breed. They are human beings who should be allowed and encouraged to follow their dreams and hearts anywhere they take them.
#31. To: Ferret Mike, Nebuchadnezzar (#26)
Women aren't just here to breed.
#33. To: Ferret Mike (#26)
I don't see many things a man can do and does do a woman can't do. Women aren't just here to breed. They are human beings who should be allowed and encouraged to follow their dreams and hearts anywhere they take them.
End Trace Mode for Comment # 26.
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