Free the Hikers

Shane Bauer, Josh Fattal and Sarah Shourd have been held captive since July 31, 2009. They are 3 friends that share a love for other cultures and religion. They have a love of the outdoors and all graduated from the University of California at Berkley. They were in the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan, a peaceful region of Iraq that has become popular to western tourists. They were thought to have accidentally crossed an unmarked line in the mountains and were soon captured and taken to captivity.
Shane, Josh, and Sarah have had absolutely zero contact with their family or anybody in the outside world. How scary would that be? To be in a country you know we are in war with and then get captured and not hear from anybody that can help you? Who knows what their living conditions are like? Are they getting fed or not? The big question is, are they even alive or not since no one has heard from them since they disappeared.
I was watching Good Morning America on Wednesday morning and the mothers of all three hikers were on there to make a plea to the president of the Iranian capital, Tehran, which is where they are believed to being held. The mothers stated that all they were doing was hiking the beautiful mountains and living and learning about the culture and that crossing the border was a “regrettable mistake.” Now, I am not sure I would have ventured out in a country that we are not very friendly with at the moment, just to see and hike some beautiful mountains and scenery. I lived in Bozeman, Montana for almost two years and there were some mountains that were pretty enough to look at and hike for my blood. Sure, there would be some culture lacking but if you get deep enough into the woods I am sure it would be just as eventful enough. I am sure this is what the hikers themselves are thinking, If only we would have went some place else?
On the homepage of the website for the hikers called Freethehikers.com, you can follow the updates on the hikers by joining their support either on twitter or on Facebook. They already have 544 fans on their Facebook group and I am sure it will keep growing the more their captivity is publicized. I did not even hear about their capture until I watched Good Morning America on Wednesday and saw what their mothers had to say.
There is also a count of days in captivity down to the minute and this is what it read when I left the website:
48 days, 15 hours, and 30 minutes