YOU CAN'T FIX STUPID

YOU CAN’T FIX STUPID

Apparently North Korea is preparing three American hostages, which they have held for several years, for release back to us. It has been announced that this is an effort to curry favor in the upcoming negotiations with President Trump. These hostages either traveled to North Korea for jobs as teachers, missionaries, or just as tourists.

(Update: The 3 hostages have been released and are due back in this country on May 10, 2018.)

I have a question. Wouldn’t you think an individual smart enough to teach at university level would be smart enough to know what happens to Americans who travel to that hell hole? In some cases, individuals who are just tourists are arrested and sentenced to long terms at hard labor for any charge North Korea wishes to impose. They don’t have to break any law as we know it. They just have to be available to serve as bargaining chips for Little Kim.

Why on earth would anybody want to travel to that God forsaken mud hole for any reason, let alone a vacation in the first place? North Korea is the home of scared and desperate people who are starving for the most basics, food and water. It has been said that in North Korea, grass is considered a vegetable and you never see a stray dog. One can be arrested for any reason or for no reason. Little Kim kills anybody he chooses to kill with impunity, even his own relatives. He is also the only North Korean who is overweight.

When someone decides to put themselves in mortal danger that is usually just their problem. But, when they put their entire country in danger, it is everybody’s problem. Why is it so hard to understand that by traveling to places like North Korea or Iran they are putting themselves in a position of serving as bargaining chips or maybe as shields against an attack by our forces or anybody’s forces? The North Koreans see them as useful idiots and will try to trade them for concessions.

We, as a country, must now decide whether or not to take into consideration the lives of those who went there and put themselves in that position. I know what I would do. I don’t believe you can fix stupid. I believe if someone decides to park his brain at the door and go into the lion’s den, they are choosing for themselves how and when they want to die. Why would I get in the way of that decision?

Fortunately for these people who find themselves at the mercy of an insane dictator, we probably will take their lives into consideration when we negotiate or before we attack. I’m pretty sure the North Koreans are figuring on this.

If and when we do get them back in this country, we should make an example of their stupidity. We should make it crystal clear that future such idiotic travelers to places like North Korea, will be abandoned in the same way they abandoned their own country. We have travel advisories for very good reasons. We have travel restrictions for the same reasons. If you just have a death wish, don’t include your whole country in your selfish fantasy.

As Trump enters into talks with this little dictator there are certainly no guarantees that anything positive will come of it. But, remember the reason North Korea is agreeing to the summit. They have figured out that they absolutely have to decide to co-exist in the twenty-first century or else they will surely perish. The ball is in Little Kim’s court. As I said, you can’t fix stupid. We will just have to see if they get on board.

Ron Scarbro