A'Kiera Burrell Sledge Found Safe

A'Kiera Burrell Sledge, the teen who went missing in Kansas City, Missouri sometime during the last week of November, was finally found over the weekend by her mom. This is the best news I've heard in a long time concerning a missing child. Especially a missing child whose status as such went largely unnoticed and unheralded by the venues we count on to report these matters and update the public concerning any progress made in searches. In fact, the media has not reported that she is safe; that is why I am unable to include a link to reference this information. I checked Facebook and found the news, and heaved a sigh of relief.

This brings me to something that is really quite disturbing. When A'Kiera first disappeared, she was not living at home, and those charged with her care did not bother to inform law  enforcement or her parents. When they finally did inform A'Kiera's mother, in order to avoid an awkward moment during a scheduled meeting with mother and daughter, as daughter was AWOL, they had no information except that they thought she might have "run away" with another teenage girl. To date, the name and picture of the other young lady has yet to surface in the news. It would appear, sadly, that no one is looking for her. In and of itself, that is an injustice beyond comprehension, but I will save that for another post. A'Kiera got a small amount of coverage from local media sources, but law enforcement in Kansas City Missouri did nothing but impede the process of finding her by refusing to take a missing persons report from her mom and never giving A'Kiera's information to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children for circulation. Crittenton Childrens Center, in Kansas City, Missouri, from where A'Kiera initially disappeared, was first to drop the ball by not reporting her absence to law enforcement. The court apparently wasn't too concerned, either. When A'Kiera's mother found out and tried to get the police involved, they literally wouldn't cooperate. Much of the information circulating about this whole situation was unofficial.

It is a miracle and a blessing that A'Kiera made it home safely, but suppose she had ended up somewhere across the country, outside of the circle of friends and Facebook friends within her local community? Getting found, in a case like that, could depend upon mass photo circulation. Also, why would a police department in another state even begin to suspect that a missing child is truly missing when no Amber Alert, or other alert, has been issued? Since Crittenton Childrens Center refused to turn over the twenty-four hour surveillance video from last day A'Kiera was seen on the campus, an Amber Alert would have been difficult to issue, since no involved vehicle could be identified without viewing the video footage. But.....Kansas City Police were okay with not having the surveillance video. This is no way to conduct an investigation and find a missing child. It is also unacceptable.

Any business advertising in any of the local media or major media should be aware that many of us care a lot more about children who disappear than we do about the drivel that normally gets covered in the news. I honestly don't care about Governor Brownback's latest hypocritical and fake public prayer performance, or about tractor pulls, or about the latest moron to get arrested for shoplifting or hiding ten garbage bags of homegrown in his garage. All that stuff really isn't important to me. If I happen to read it, I read it, but I am not going to go out of my way to look for it. I am, however; going to go out of my way to find out if a missing child has been located, and to see if there is anywhere that I can circulate the pictures and information, in order to get that child home, safe, as soon as possible. That's what's important to me, and it is a big disappointment that none of the newspapers or their online counterparts prioritize missing children, particularly ethnic missing children, at all. Seriously, advertisers; I hope you are listening.

Stuff The Marysville Advocate Didn't Mention

The Marysville Advocate, the major publication of Marshall County Kansas, the virtual definition of the statement, "nice is different than good", occasionally leaves it's readers in the dark about the more important items that either happen in Marshall County Kansas, or directly affect Marshall County. This week, since most of the public schools in Marshall County started again for the fall so recently, the fact that many Northeast Kansas schools, Marshall County's schools included, started without insurance due to the change in Kansas law in July of this year, allowing teachers to take guns to school, should have been of great interest to parents. If nothing else, a notification, or a complete article about this, should be enough to start a conversation in Marshall County about how to make public schools safer, and insurable! A lot of Marshall County teachers don't even know that their workplaces are not properly insured anymore. It seems that underwriters would prefer prying pencils from warm live hands, rather than guns from cold dead hands! Go figure!

The discussion of the uninsurable state of Kansas public schools, of course, would lead to the mention of alternatives, of which there are quite a few. Private schools and homeschooling are usually among a parent's first choices, but there is also the online option, with better textbooks, lower cost, (almost free) and more updated curriculums. The Marysville Advocate was extremely quiet about that, as well. Many parents in Kansas have opted to enroll their children in virtual schools this year. It makes sense, as it is a lot safer than sending a child to a school where guns are permitted. One Marshall County parent was threatened with arrest for choosing not to enroll her children in public school, but the principal of Frankfort School, who made this threat, was encouraged to sit down, shut up, and leave everyone alone. No arrests have been made as of yet over the choices of different schools!

One more interesting piece of news that suspiciously did not get much attention in the Marysville Advocate is that our very own Laura McNish, the county prosecutor, tried a case before a jury last week, something that rarely happens in Marshall County, and something she rarely does by herself. She usually has to have help from someone with actual trial experience! She lost, and the defendant won, after an entire day of deliberations, posturing, namecalling, (on McNish's part) and powerpoint charts consisting of none other than the same words McNish said verbally! She used a pointer to point to the words as she talked. How this swallowed nine hours of time, for a misdemeanor, is anyone's guess, but the outcome of a jury trial, tried solo by Laura McNish, should interest Marshall County. Her constituents may enjoy knowing more about her abilities and her understanding of the law and of our Constitution. At this point, your writer tries very hard to keep a straight face, nonetheless; it was unusual enough to merit mention in the headlines.

"Nice", innocuous news is nice, but not terribly informative. Why can't the Marysville Advocate take a chance with real news and actual headlines? Advertisers might be pleasantly surprised by the volume of attention this would bring to their advertised products.

 

 

I'm Impressed With Rush Limbaugh's Former Sponsors

My day just got better! Hearing that seven advertisers, and counting, are pulling their ads out of Rush Limbaugh's show after he got on the air and called a law student a slut because she wants contraception and other healthcare for women to be covered by insurance companies made me very happy. Watching other Americans sit back and simply coexist with people like Rush Limbaugh, and various other conservatives and assorted nuts had gotton me a bit sad, lately. But now I can see that there is hope. The seven companies who no longer wish to be associated with Rush Limbaugh are Quicken Loans, Legal Zoom, Sleep Number, Sleep Train, Citrix Systems, Carbonite, and Pro Flowers.

Update: The count of advertisers who no longer wish to be associated with Rush Limbaugh is now at forty-two, and counting!