I’m glad Michael Auberry is safe. As it turns out, I do know Kent Auberry, as he was a legal source of mine when I worked for the now-defunct Triad Business News.
Yesterday, with Cone called out two local bloggers who “indulged in what I found to be cruel and irresponsible speculation about what might have caused the boy to wander off. I left comments about my concerns beneath the posts, and both posts soon disappeared.” The comments reveal the identity of one of those bloggers.
Then there’s The Meck Deck’s Jeff Taylor, who says Michael needs a whuppin’:
Sorry, someone has to say it.
The kid basically threw a fit, disobeyed his Scout masters, not to mention his parents, and ran off into the woods to hitchhike home because a friend did not come with him to camp. It is great his poor decision did not turn into a tragedy, but our delight in that outcome should not obscure the initial problem.
Frankly, I question the judgment and awareness of Michael’s parents in sending him on this trip. They were manifestly unaware of his emotional state and his potential to act out.
Indeed, this this pre-trip conversation between father and son doesn’t cast Michael in the greatest light:
Rescuers interviewed his parents for hints about how he would react to the stress of being lost in the woods. His father told them that his son had been reluctant to go on the weekend camping trip, partly because some of his friends were staying home.
“I’m not sure I’m going to have fun,” he told his dad. “Do I have to go?”
“I said, ‘Well, Michael, there are some new Scouts, one of them might be your next best friend,'” his father said.
“If I go and I don’t have fun, will you give me $5?” Michael asked.
“I don’t know about that,” his father said. “But if you don’t have fun, we’ll do something fun Sunday.”
Like I said, I’m just happy the kid’s safe. The final judgment on his action will be carried out in his father’s court. Dad’s a lawyer, too. I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing.
