Before I comment any further, I want to state clearly that John deserves whatever punishment is meted out to him. What he did is not excusable by any standards. He had choices, like the rest of us, and made the wrong ones. He will live with the consequences

As I watched the interview of John Walker’s father and neighbor, on CNN last night, I found myself angry and saddened, by what I heard. Angry, because of the complete lack of responsibility that Johns father showed in this mess, and saddened, because, at least for me, it became abundantly clear why this happened. Before I comment any further, I want to state clearly that John deserves whatever punishment is meted out to him. What he did is not excusable by any standards. He had choices, like the rest of us, and made the wrong ones. He will live with the consequences.


As for the senior Mr. Walker, what parent in their right mind, allows a 17 year old boy, to travel across the world to a country like Yemen, a known terrorist supported state? Alone. Why didn’t the State Department question the reasons for this young, untried boy going there? Mr. Walker was an attorney for the Department of Justice. He is not naďve nor uneducated. He had to have known this was not a wise or prudent course for his son to be taking. John was still a minor, under parental control. It doesn’t make sense to me. As a parent of 2 boys, I would have used every means at my disposal to prevent my son or sons from going.


Mr. Walker has stated his son experimented and tried many different things. Raised Catholic, he was allowed to convert to Islam, while still in his mid teens. He went to an alternative school where he chose his own course studies. It appears he was allowed to express himself any way he chose, to enhance his journey towards adulthood. It is this that resonates so strongly in me. This boy had very few boundaries. The teen years are when our children need us the most, and it appears John had little to no parenting or guidance. Left to make his own choices, he made them based on books and his own need to fit in the world somewhere. And so, the seeds of his own destructive decisions were planted.



I strongly believe Mr. Walker should be held accountable in some way for John’s actions in this. If he had acted as a parent, using reasonable judgment, this may not have happened. He is just as guilty as his son, if not more so, given his background and education. By his own admission, he kept sending John money and they talked by phone, until May 2001. He did NOT say, he contacted American Embassies or the State Department, for help in bringing his son home. In May, John asked for and received $1200. from Mr. Walker. When John failed to contact him in the ensuing months, did Mr. Walker contact the press? Ask for help? His neighbor states he was frantic with worry. Oh really?


The results of this “benign” parental neglect speak for themselves. I think it can be inferred from the Presidents statements, that John was in fact fighting for and with Al Qaeda, not the Taliban. Most likely he met up with them in Yemen, and was then sent to Pakistan for further training. By then, an already hardened soldier ready to kill Americans in the name of the rubbish they espouse as being “true ” Islam. Mr. Walker states he had a little Father son discussion over the bombing of the Cole. Already, John was showing Daddy his true colors. And “Daddy” showed us his, in failing to act as a responsible citizen and parent would. If he had, his son may have had a chance to be removed and shown the error of his thinking. Maybe not, but it does bear thinking about.