What would you say to CA and GA if you were given the opportunity to speak with them one on one?
I have thought about this from just about every possible angle and this is what I have come up with....
Life is a mysterious catechism of events that can knock us to our knees, suspend us in air, or slam us farther into the ground than we could have ever imagined. You are in a dark place full of muck and unforgiving snares. You have made rash decisions, poor calculated choices, and stretched your physical and emotional abilities to the max. Do I believe that you had anything to do with your granddaughter vanishing? The answer is no, your initial reactions told a story of innocence on your part, but your reactions and ill will toward those trying to aid you tell a different story. You just like the rest of us are not exempt from speculation, information, or intuition. However, you do have one thing that no one else has. You know your daughter better than anyone could and that gives you a perspective that is uniquely yours.
I suppose as a bystander my initial confusion is why would you so avidly protect your daughter who is grown rather than placing the same energy on finding the truth about what happened to Caylee? I realize this is a difficult if not impossible thing to answer, being that you know in your heart that Caylee is gone and despite the horror of it all your duty to protect your daughter has kicked in, in full force. If you did not have uncomfortable suspicions you would have never searched for Casey and so frantically questioned her in the first place. You werent content with the idea of Caylee being under her own mothers supervision, red flags were up before you even had a clue that Caylee was in danger.
Parents all over the world have children that do things that are not only disgraceful and embarrassing, but things that force an entire family unit to make decisions that are hard and life changing. I understand that you feel an obligation to stand up for your offspring, but the reality is being supportive and being enabling are two different things. Perhaps you made some mistakes and you feel partly responsible for the way Casey has turned out, but dont put your pride before your precious granddaughter. Casey is no longer a child and as a result of you coddling her she has no respect for you, she is intentionally using you to fulfill a sadistic need to inflict misery on others.
You have the keys to unlock the Pandoras Box that is Caseys mind; you have the power to end this freak show. My first impression could be that you are gaining a sense of inner justice from this; you are the American family facing the tragedy. But its not fun anymore and the tragedy has become a game and you have begun to play it and your losing. No one likes to be wrong, no one wants to be told they are wrong, but the one place to never tell a lie is to a news reporter. This is stressful and we are all entitled to say and do wrong things, but when those things are a deliberate attempt to fool the very people who live to support you, it takes on a whole new face.
This is what it is, and it is going where it is going, and you are cutting your life lines away. The poison that is lurking inside your home is going to work its way into your lives to the extent that it will erode everything you have thats good. Denial is one this but a blatant disregard for facts is another. Since when have you ever known Casey to tell the truth, and I implore you to give me one good reason you are choosing now to believe her. If it were someone elses daughter on national television with a calloused face deliberately misleading law enforcement, would you feel sorry for her? The true answer to that would be no. You may think you are protecting your family or your rights, but in the end youre only feeding a forest fire that is replacing your lives with ashes.
I know you lie awake at night listening to the protesters call you every name under the sun, and beneath it all you know there is truth to some of their words, but you also know the pain of facing that truth is far worse than maintaining the lie. You have not spent any of your time out searching with the hundreds who have dedicated their time to you, you have not looked at the situation for every angle and everyone does in a situation like this. Perhaps Caylee is alive but wouldnt you want to be the first to know if she wasnt? Searching for a dead Caylee is still searching and if you cant go where the tips are you may as well aid in the local effort.
I am not perfect nor could I say what I would do in your shoes, but I can tell you this, you have the right and the responsibility to stand up for your granddaughter, even if it means telling Casey exactly how she has affected your life. She has been waiting 22 years for one of you to set her straight and just like any child her respect and ability to be honest can only be derived by it being expected. Our children only reach the potential we set for them and now is the time to raise the bar. You may feel like hope is lost, but there are a lot of people who would stand proudly by your side if you just faced reality. Don't allow her to completely destroy your lives, it will get better and you will put it back together but that is if you can resign yourselves from the obligation to defend and begin your journey to a legitimate end.