Interviewed by a radio reporter after his father was freed from captivity in the jungles of Colombia where he’d been held by FARC rebels for nearly twelve years, kidnapped while on a business trip to Bogotá sometime during the previous century, the young man expressed his gratitude, thanking the United States government, which hadn’t actually been involved in the rescue.

“This is what this country is all about,” he affirmed, though what “this” is was not clear. The young man did not attribute his father’s liberation to God, however, who frequently gets the credit in these situations – as when a man gets drunk, slams into a tree in his car while recklessly driving at a ridiculously excessive speed, and walks away with only a broken arm. God was looking out for him, he says. I wonder why God didn’t prevent him from slamming into the tree in the first place.