May 25, 2005
If You Have Kids, If You Know Kids, If You Were EVER A Kid
Mike at Ex Scientia, Veritas brought to my attention National Missing Children's Day an effort of The National Center For Missing And Exploited Children. They offer a lot of links, but this one for resources for parent's and guardian's is important
I can imagine no worse feeling than having a loved child missing. I've lost to death, over the years, many beloved family members; my sister, grandparents, parents, my first wife, my brother in law. Each brought a great deal of grief, pain and sometimes even anger. But in my heart of hearts, I can only imagine the pain of not knowing where your child is; what happened to them, are they hurt, are they in pain, are they dead?
A friend once said that when you lose your parents, you are an orphan, when you lose your spouse you are a widower, however when you lose a child, we have no word for that.
Thanks Mike for bringing this to our collective attention!
Posted by GM Roper at May 25, 2005 09:57 AM | TrackBackIn the Reagan era there was lots of hype about 'missing children' that sociologists like Joel Best investigated only to find that, as expected, it was a lotta hype, panic about a problem that is pretty small in scale. The famous milk carton pictures, which thankfully are a thing of the past, were in many many instances runaways, not 'missing' in any serious sense of the word.
http://www.tegenwicht.org/26_peril/two_reviews.htm
http://www.strugglingteens.com/archives/2003/10/culturefearbr.html
Posted by steve at May 25, 2005 11:01 AM
Steve, you are quite correct and at the same time quite incorrect. True, many "missing" kids were in fact, runaways. That does not in the least bit take away from the fear, grief and angst of a parent whose child is missing.
Having said that, I wonder why it is important to you to "puncture" the issue? Do you feel the same way about the "hype" surrounding the homeless. That many are homeless by choice, or mentally ill, or addicted, or through their own stupidity doesn't detract from those that are homeless through no fault of their own.
Please, if you are going to make comment, at least make comments that make sense. Not just comments that are solely aimed at puncturing a posting from someone on the right. Oh, and while we are at it... welcome and Go Red Sox!
Posted by GM Roper at May 25, 2005 11:08 AM
Of course not GM, homelessness is a real issue and the numbers are there to show it. not only big, but increasing in number as inequality gaps increase.
Missing children are a sad fact , surely. But the organizations you cite have a record of exaggarating their numbers in order to shore up their poltical influence in Washington. I reject their contribution to panics about there being 'epidemics' that justify all kinds of security measures, spending, unnecessary laws...to address.
I guess if you think that's 'puncturing' it is, but actually it's just casting a skeptical eye on those organizations--not actual missing children [whose needs aren't and can't be addressed by their agendas]
Posted by steve at May 25, 2005 11:19 AM
