Wild Boys

Interesting story and the government should not interfere unless they are a danger to others. The young boy would have been dead and so be it. We don’t need to waste money time or effort. This is a learning lesson for many. Let them go and definitely don’t give money

This was a crazy story. I loved the follow up, ending was terrific.

First and foremost I want to applaud Tammy for her compassion, energy and willingness to act. We need more Tammys in the world and it makes me sad that she felt embarrassed to tell her story or be revealed as naive. Yes, the truth was not what she first believed but it was very clear she may well have saved a young man’s life and I refuse to believe the lesson would be not to intervene or help. The truth is always more complicated and those in need don’t need to be unflawed to be deserving of compassion and a helping hand. While there’s still many unanswered questions for me around some of the family dynamics and Kyle more specifically I also appreciated Sam’s empathetic approach. I don’t think he would have gotten as far with the Horn family interviews had he taken a hawkish journalistic approach. It was interesting learning about the family and their willingness to discuss their fringe beliefs and dynamics. It’s easy to “other” someone when they espouse conspiracy theories but we have to see them as whole people with families they love and big fears they are wrestling with.

There seems to be a lot of dislike for the boys and their family in these reviews but I really appreciated the amount of empathy Sam Mullins showed for everyone involved. Yes, the family is a bit woo-woo and believes in a lot of far out conspiracy theories. But they were also a family very worried about their son/brother not getting the help he needed. I battled an eating disorder while in high school in the mid-1990s in the U.S. and my (wonderful) therapist worked very hard to keep me out of the hospital for the very same reasons Roan ran away in the first place. I really empathized with him as he described the treatment he received in the U.S. hospital as opposed to the one in Canada. I’m glad he finally received the help he needed and was able to recover.