Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 25, 1993 TAG: 9303250312
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
EX-HOSTAGE: SEE THE WORLD
Tom Sutherland believes Americans - especially government officials and university faculty - should travel the world, even to countries in turmoil.Sutherland was dean of agricultural and food sciences at the American University of Beirut in 1985 when he was kidnapped and held by the Islamic Jihad for more than 6 1/2 years.
When he came out of isolation, he said, he felt that the United States itself was in danger of going into isolation.
"We were saying, `To heck with abroad.' "
Soon after his release, Sutherland started working to spread a different message.
"I feel that the United States is in an undisputed position of leadership in the world," he said Wednesday at Virginia Tech.
"Everywhere I've gone, I've found that most people look up to Americans. They want examples of democracy and freedom. They want technology and they want American leadership."
America should not withdraw into itself, he said.
Sutherland seemed comfortable in a crowd. He spoke eagerly, smiling, as if he's used to talking to large groups instead of having quiet conversations with Terry Anderson, or others in the small group of hostages that moved around Lebanon for 77 months.
It took him "three milliseconds" to readjust to a life of freedom, he said.
His wife, Jean, who stayed in Lebanon at the American University of Beirut during the months her husband was in captivity, has stayed close as Sutherland has traveled the country during his 15 months of freedom.
She shares his feelings about the need for Americans to go abroad, and at a news conference Wednesday afternoon she gently reminded her husband to mention "people-to-people programs," like the Peace Corps.
The couple will give a presentation on Americans abroad at a conference in Jerusalem next month.
When Sutherland was taken captive, he said, "I was angry and frustrated. I prayed so hard to get out."
But Anderson told him he was using the wrong prayer.
"He told me to pray for strength."
Sutherland found that strength through understanding.
He said he has come to understand that his captors had been hired by Iran and were almost hostages themselves.
Getting angry is futile, he said, like getting angry at an earthquake or a flood.
Jean Sutherland, too, seemed forgiving.
She received support from the Lebanese, she said, many of whom seemed ashamed that her husband had been kidnapped.
"It's over," Tom Sutherland said, a Scottish brogue still with him after years in America and abroad. "Let's go ahead."
His memory of the past, though, remains vivid. He remembers each of the 16 locations where he was held - 10 above ground, six below.
He remembers the trunk and make of each car that carried him around Lebanon.
He remembers the beatings, dinners of pita bread and processed cheese, and days and nights of conversations with Anderson about chess and bridge, journalism and animal science, the French language and Japanese culture.
He remembers the new underwear and cardigan sweater that were waiting for him when his captors announced he was free.
And he remembers to respect and love things he had didn't see for six years: sunshine, fresh air, green grass, green leaves.
"I learned to have patience," he said. "And especially the value of an education. Terry Anderson and I had lots of time together with no books, no radio, no Bible - only what was in our heads. If we'd had nothing there, we would have suffered a great deal more."