Eric Robert Rudolph: Captured

Right after I heard that Eric Rudolph was captured, I went to the FBI Most Wanted list on the web and saw that it already noted him as "captured." This caps a number of years of work but mainly watching and waiting for the right opportunity.

Most of us do not understand that not very far from the cities and beyond the "exurbs" there are wide expanses of this country that are inhabited by large numbers of self sufficient people who think government is a nuisance and they function without interference from anyone.

They are people that have lived on land that has been "owned outright" for generations and they grow their own food. They are inter-related as a community and they do not talk to outsiders. If they knew about Eric Rudolph or his whereabouts, that information would not be shared with anyone.

The police work in this case was outstanding and it points to the mundane nature of really good police work. A rookie cop noticed something unusual and responded. Many officers would ignore a vagrant in a dumpster and we may never know how many times Eric Rudolph may have made this same trip to a dumpster in various places around the region. But we cannot deny the fact that Rudolph wanted to be caught. If he did not, he would not have been taken alive.

The FBI did their job by keeping the heat up in the area. Rudolph made the decision to leave the area of comfort and make him vulnerable. After initially giving a fake name and then being confronted wit it he told the officers that he was "relieved" that it was over. Even Eric Rudolph can not live on the run forever.

Most of us would not have lasted that long in the wilderness. We cannot imagine living in a rustic surrounding where we only go in for supplies two or three times a year. We can not even imagine going with out a cell phone or an internet connection for a weekend much less 5 years.

We are not aware that there is an entire culture of Americans living a cash existence without the intrusion of progress. And we certainly will not accept that there are many people happy to live that way. In fact, travel 10 miles out of Fairmount, Georgia and the folks around there will tell you that the "city folks" are the ones living the strange life and they like their life just fine.

There are men in the progressive parts of the country that can live in both worlds. They can fix and grow things and even though they are educated in the ways of survival in the urban forest, they could live a very different kind of life. But there are those who go from their air-conditioned house to their air-conditioned car to their air-conditioned office and never see the other side. They do not want to see the other side and they could not survive in it.

We saw a glimpse of that side meshing with the urban landscape on September 11th. The real men that Peggy Noonan talked about in her Wall Street Journal piece after September 11th were the ones that made due with what they had with their skills to save those who became targets that day. Later in Afghanistan and Iraq, nameless men move flawlessly from New York hotels to the caves of the wilderness in furthering our goals to end terrorism.

In the end, police work is patience and waiting for the hunted person to make a mistake or decide that it is just not worth running anymore. An observant officer takes an opportunity and turns it into a success. It is as simple as being prepared to recognize and react to an opportunity when it happens.

Eric Robert Rudolph hid himself as long as he wanted and then he allowed himself to be captured. He will now be reintroduced in to the world he hated so much. What will the case against him be and how will it unfold are the questions ahead of us? I know we will all be watching if we are part of the "civilized" world, but in the mountains of North Carolina, Georgia and dozens of other places across this country and around the world, their lives will remain the same.

Justice will be done in this case, but it will take the same patience as it did to bring Rudolph into custody. There will be a long and protracted defense that will try to figure out the whys in this case. So now it is our turn to be patient and wait for the opportunity to bring Eric Robert Rudolph to justice.

Let me know what you think of this and other opinions expressed here. Martha Zoller is the host of her own program daily from 9-11:30 am est on WDUN Newstalk 550 in Gainesville, Ga and heard worldwide on the web at www.wdun.com. Catch her weekly on Fox5Atlanta's The Georgia Gang and regularly on CNN and The Fox News Channel.

You may email her with your comments at [email protected].