The View from Hailey Idaho

They've bloomed unnaturally in the high desert sun, a second spring of yellow ribbons along main street holding fast in the canyon winds. Bright yellow signs have appeared in store front windows like reflections off main street reading "Bring Bowe Home" or "Get Bowe Back." This time it wasn't the descension of the uber elite, or a frenzy of fans suffocating Lebron James, but a small town guy plucked by the Taliban that parked the satellite trucks in town.

I write in the coffee shop now as if seeking shelter from a storm. Framed in the plate glass window of Zaney's coffee house are cameras, tripods, microphones, extension cords and reflective flash shields, as if it were picture day at a high school. The familiar boredom of a story in limbo surrounds the press folk, milling about their humming trucks, sucking down coffee, one foot in the passenger side one on the dirt.

Hailey's reaction has been one of solidarity, awe, and measured response. For a town used to shrugging its shoulders at the antics of Sun Valley, the wealthy cousin to the North, you would be tempted to think attentions might last as long as the roar of a private jet coming in for the Allentown meeting. But this is a home town boy, held captive in a land that may as well be Mars. Seeing the ribbons trembling in a mirage of heat, I wonder what can you do? Do we march on Afghanistan? Do we create a stir, turn ourselves into a caricature of the small town pleading for the return of its sons and daughters? No. Instead the family of Bowe has taken a track revealing they're no stranger to the news. They've decided to remain unidentified, releasing no comments, no video pleas, no CNN interviews. They've opted out of anything that may confound the matter. How can you blame them? The people of Hailey know there's a much bigger world beyond the sagebrush hills, a world tough to affect. In a nation that has seen it all before, reacted with every aspect of outrage and grief, maybe keeping quiet, letting yellow do the talking, is the latest weapon in an increasingly tired fight.