Lost Cowboy
Otto Warmbier has become a household name. He was Salutatorian of his high school class at Wyoming High School in Cincinnati, a junior at the University of Virginia, and an exchange student at the London School of Economics. He was a strong student and he was involved in everything. He was “the best and the brightest” that the suburban community of Wyoming, Ohio had to offer; a town and school that prides itself on high academic and professional achievement.
Like a lot of young people, Otto wanted to travel the world. One of the places he chose to visit was North Korea, the “forbidden” country. The advertisement for the trip said; “this is the trip your parents don’t want you to take!” He went, and perhaps he made a mistake. His confession to stealing a propaganda poster can’t be reliable in a country that daily coerces and tortures its own population. The video “evidence” is pretty blurry. But even if he did steal the poster, the sentence of fifteen years hard labor was directed more at the United States then to this particular youth.
Sometime soon after his sentencing, Otto was damaged beyond repair. His brain was deprived of oxygen, and he lapsed into a “vegetative state.” After a year, they bundled his destroyed mind and body onto a plane, and sent him home to die.
As a graduate of Wyoming High School myself, I feel the loss of Otto Warmbier more keenly. I didn’t know him or his parents, but to see them in familiar buildings and streets, to share the experiences and traditions of Wyoming with them, makes his loss more intimate. I mourn for him, and I can’t imagine the pain his parents are in.
To the North Koreans, Otto was a symbol, a pawn in their great game of Russian roulette with the rest of the world. Just like intercontinental ballistic missiles and nuclear bombs, Otto was another finger in the eye of the United States: you can’t stop our missiles and bombs, and you can’t protect your people either. And they were right, we couldn’t.
So what happens next?
The North Koreans used him and threw him away. His is but one life, and I suspect both he and his parents would not want a nuclear war fought over his fate. But it is up to the United States, even with the dysfunctional government we have now, to find some appropriate means of responding to his death. It is clear that North Korea will continue to challenge the world, to put greater provocations in play, until the United States and the world react.
If there is to be any value in the loss of Otto Warmbier, let it be that we begin a world process to push North Korea back into an acceptable path. Obviously the threat and bluster of Naval Carrier Groups (real or imagined), hidden nuclear submarines and B-1 Bomber over-flights isn’t solving the problem. It will take world action, particularly involving China, and world leadership.
That would be something new and different for the current administration, but something that they must find a way to achieve. That should be the legacy of this one lost Cowboy.
Like you, I relate to this as a WHS grad. I also relate as a UVA grad. &, my son knew Otto.
I went to the memorial service. It was sad, funny, tragic, life affirming, devastatingly depressing. Otto’s two siblings spoke, & were amazing. The mutual friend who linked my son & Otto spoke, & was also quite good.
I still haven’t been able to let go of this story.
I am very proud of our home town. For the last 18 months, I have been worried that the Warmbiers felt forgotten, abandoned. At least, they know they have the love & support of their community, & virtually the entire country (lunatic fringe ultra-lib professors at the Univ of Delaware (the Univ of Delaware??? please) notwithstanding – I hope you get what you deserve too, madam).