Alabama Governor calls for Aruba boycott

[gtalum]

From CNN.com:

MONTGOMERY, Alabama (AP) -- Gov. Bob Riley called for a nationwide travel boycott of Aruba on Tuesday until authorities on the Dutch Caribbean island cooperate more fully with the family of a teenager who has been missing since May.

Riley asked the governors of the other 49 states to join him in urging a boycott of Aruba on behalf of the family of Natalee Holloway, the 18-year-old Mountain Brook High graduate last seen on the island on May 30.

Thanks Bob! You just made my decision easier. I've been on the fence about booking a cruise for next year, and I just picked one wioth Aruba in the itinerary because of your ignorant boycott.

I sure hope you call for a boycott of every US city that has unsolved kidnapping/murder cases, to avoid looking like a hypocrite. I wonder if Alabama has any unsolved cases?

[Brent]

This state is such a mess.

I fail to see what good a boycott will do.

[gtalum]

I fail to see what good a boycott will do.

Ineffective gestures like this appeal to his closed-minded and easily riled political base.

[Brent]

I fail to see what good a boycott will do.

Ineffective gestures like this appeal to his closed-minded and easily riled political base.

He doesn't have much of a base... I supported him in 2002, but I just don't know about next year. No one that is going to be running against him makes me want to go out and vote for them though.

*shrug*

[nholley]

What an ignorant thing to say. Why penalize innocent people who depend on tourism? Sure the pace of life is a little slower over there, but what does he want them to do...make up some evidence so everyone can live in denial?

If they want it solved it seems the best thing is for Fox News and that Twitty woman to leave and never go back. While I cannot imagine what the poor woman is going through she really seems to have made things worse.

[streetsoldier]

What an ignorant thing to say. Why penalize innocent people who depend on tourism? Sure the pace of life is a little slower over there, but what does he want them to do...make up some evidence so everyone can live in denial?

If they want it solved it seems the best thing is for Fox News and that Twitty woman to leave and never go back. While I cannot imagine what the poor woman is going through she really seems to have made things worse.

If Natalee were YOUR daughter, would you "go away"?

[O Town]

I see both your points. I would not "go away" if it were one of my 3 little girls. No way!! But I don't think a boycott is called for. Sounds pretty ignorant to me as well. Like gtalum said, Are you gonna boycott travel to all states or cities with unsloved missing person cases? No. It just may be that they will not find the person responsible for her murder, or abduction. And sometimes it takes years to solve these cases. I do feel for the mom, for that is the worst thing that can happen to a parent is to lose your child. But the Gov. is wrong in trying to promote a boycott to the island, IMO.

[JQ Public]

This is dumb. Why punish the poor people of Aruba b/c of the way their police acted...they make all their money from tourism

[nholley]

[/quote] If Natalee were YOUR daughter, would you "go away"?[/quote]

I would hope if she were my daughter then I wouldn't have acted the way Twitty has. She went in there taking an American attitude into a Dutch/ Carribean enviroment. Saying what she did the way she did, encouraging Fox to say what they did (not that Fox needs any encouragement) is not the way to get them to go that extra mile to solve the case.

I am in no way trying to lessen what has happened, but she did nothing to help the cause.

[Terrell]

I fall on the side against the boycott. I doubt it'll make the case be solved any quicker if it's solved at all.

[wx247]

While I sympathize with the family of Natalee... I do not believe a boycott will do any good.