http://cbs4boston.com/topstories/local_story_010163912.html

I hesitated to post a thread on this because I did not personally know Ms. Carroll.  Carroll and I both graduated from the UMass journalism program.  However, Carroll was in the program after I was a student.  Though we were never enrolled at the same time, we had some of the same professors. 
Carroll also wrote for the University newspaper, The Daily Collegian.  Their offices are adjacent to the offices and studios of the UMass radio station WMUA.  I started working as a program producer, music director, and music librarian for WMUA as soon as I transferred to UMass in the early '90s.  I remained living in the area after I finally graduated in an official capicity in '96.  To this day I host and produce a weekly radio program there and volunteer for other duties around the station.  Thus, when I saw more pictures of Carroll on the news I realized I passed by her in the corridors numerous times and exchanged hellos.
I knew nothing about Carroll and her stellar career in journalism since her graduation.  I mean, to the unitiated, it may not look all that impressive, but journalism is a tough row to hoe.  Lots of us who graduate with journalism degrees opt not to go into the field because it's too d@mn hard to get started. 
Jill Carroll had talent, guts, and determination.  She was young and idealistic and wanted to make a difference.  God bless her for that.  Unfortunately, she covered some of the most dangerous areas in Baghdad and was on her way to interview a Sunni politico in the embattled depths of the Iraqi capital when she was kidnapped.
I can't be sure, but I'm guessing they murdered her interpreter and the driver of the car because they were Middle Eastern ethnics and useless to the goals of the kidnappers.  Carroll's abductors are demanding the release of female Iraqi prisoners within a few days, or they will murder Jill Carroll.
When the war comes home this way, it all feels more tangible and more frightening.  Even though I never formally met Carroll, and only know her second-hand, I have a pervasive feeling of pain and helplessness.  I try not to speculate on what her abductors may be doing to her because it starts me to feel enraged.
:\'( >:(

This doesn't change my political persuasions about the war in Iraq nor the so-called war on terror.  If anything it affirms them.

BTW, the woman you see in the lower picture on the linked page, Martry Pappas, is somebody I have seen day in and day out since 1993, but never met formally either.  That's just how it works in the workplace sometimes.

I hope so dearly those bastards release Jill Carroll unharmed!

This is terrible. I'm sorry it's hit so close to home.

On a side note, you seem to have an interesting career, Max. I'd love to hear more about at a more appropriate time.

This is terrible. I'm sorry it's hit so close to home.

On a side note, you seem to have an interesting career, Max. I'd love to hear more about at a more appropriate time.

Thanks, McD.  The whole ordeal gives me a new perspective on the war.  Once you know somebody injured, killed, or kidnapped--even if you know them only second-had--the war goes from abstract to concrete!

I have been following this one too, Max.  The fact that I also attended UMass(Boston), and that she works for the Boston based Christian Science Monitor, brings the story closer to home.  We can only pray that the devils who have her let her go, safely and unharmed.