Amber Alert Cancelled For Hailey Owens

The Amber Alert from Missouri that was initiated last night for Hailey Owens has been cancelled. It took me awhile to figure out how to write about this, since it she never needed to disappear in the first place, but it seems that the driver of the gold Ford Ranger, Craig Wood, was an athletic coach and a para at Hailey's school. Now; where, in the entire vicinity of the televised airings of the amber alert, have we heard about something like this happening? Just one hop across the state and a couple of hours travel, and Frankfort High School can be observed supplying the same type of school employee with a paycheck for similar dereliction of duty. Granted, the child who was abandoned and left to her own devices on a dirt road in an isolated area four miles away from the nearest town was extremely lucky, and lived to tell about it. Hailey was not so lucky. The Ford Ranger belonged to a school employee, and as soon as it was located at the address to which it was registered, a search warrant was obtained for that residence. Then, Hailey was found; unfortunately, deceased. Why?

There have been rumors that Craig Wood had used different names in the past, but I have seen no real evidence of this. Even so, a school can still conduct a decent background check. Women often change their names when they marry, and many marry more than once. Reasonably accurate background checks are carried out in those circumstances every day. I have even done background checks on potential employees whose backgrounds were mostly not national, and I even had to speak to providers of references in other languages on a few occasions concerning applicants who have not always used surnames. There was no problem, in any instance, performing the background checks. And none of the three companies for whom I did this had any reason as important as teaching or childcare for checking applicants' references. 

Checking references of school employees and weeding out the ones whose past histories contraindicate contact with children is a no-brainer and a requirement on paper in most states and counties. Why aren't we doing it? Why does a teacher with politically well connected parents have free reign to endanger children with impunity? Why does a teacher who graduated from the same school where he abuses and neglects remain employed at that school? Why do "friends" feel like they are doing him a favor by protecting him? Only the shadow knows! And how did a para and athletic coach with drug problems that were unearthed in a matter of minutes by journalists fly under the radar of whoever checked references and ran background checks at the Missouri school? 

Several people have commented about this, stating that the school should not be held responsible in any way. I disagree. Hailey was, most likely, encouraged to trust and respect authority. Children are rarely taught to question authority anymore. Parents who teach their children that valuable lesson are stigmatized and marginalized by "good, upstanding" koolaide drinking school administrators. Life is often hell for the parent who loves his children enough to tell them that teachers, principals, coaches, guidance counselors, and para professionals do not always have their best interests at heart. But; while life is often hell, it would be more hellish to have to say goodbye to a beloved son or daughter because the lesson of questioning authority had not been taught.

Amber Alert In Antioch Saves A Child

Here's a story about a creep who noticed a mom with a seven year old girl at a Walmart in Antioch, California. He tried to grab the little girl at Walmart, but was unsuccessful, so he followed the girl and her mom home. At that point, he did successfully grab the little girl, and an Amber Alert was issued. What isn't being clearly stated is what he told the little girl in order to gain her cooperation, and what he told the mom in order to threaten and intimidate. He told the little girl that he was from Child Protective Services, and told the mom he had authority to take her child because he was a social worker! Unfortunately, real social workers and cops often pull similar stunts on vulnerable victims who do not know their rights, and this is why the creep chose to pose as one. While the mom most likely was not convinced, all it takes, for a stranger abduction, is a moment's distraction on the part of a child who has not been taught to question authority. If someone claiming to work with Child Protective Services tells you they are taking your child anywhere; please, please, make them get a warrant. Don't ever let anyone into your home just because they either are a government official wanting to conduct a rampage of your property, or claim to be a government official wanting to conduct a rampage of your property. The Fourth Amendment guarantees you the right privacy in your own home. Use it, and teach your children to question authority and not to talk to strangers.

David Allen Douglas is now in custody, thanks to a young lady who didn't mind following the car that matched the description in the Amber Alert, and calling the cops when it parked. The little girl was found safe.

 

Keep Questioning Authority

This is an interesting video of an encounter between a law student and a police officer. The law student carried a handgun, not concealed, as permitted by law. The police officer harassed him. He did not give his name to the police officer, and gave information about various court cases, instead. Eventually, the officer was obliged to give him back his gun, and stop unlawfully detaining him.

Unless a police officer is arresting a person, that person is under no obligation to reveal a name, or any other information. And if a person is under arrest, a name is all that's required; not a social security number, not even an address.
 

Question So Called Authority

Don't allow questions to go unanswered by those who should have answers, but refuse to share them. And don't be part of what deserves protest by failing to protest, and turning a blind eye to injustice.

 

 

Wrong Diagnosis

I noticed this item on Yahoo News today about Herlinda Garcia, from Texas, who was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer. After going through seven or eight rounds of chemo, it was discovered that her illness was benign, not malignant, and she never actually had cancer at all! She sued, and a jury awarded her 367,000. After her ordeal with pain and suffering and side effects from the chemo, that does not sound like anywhere near enough.

A few years ago, I lost quite a bit of weight in a short time, lost almost all the color in my complexion, (I looked like a wannabe Goth!...dark hair, very pale) and developed horrible stomach problems. Horrible. Nothing I ate agreed with me. Also, I could eat and eat and eat and eat and never feel as if I had eaten anything, and never gain a pound. In fact, I lost so much weight, while inhaling somewhere between twelve and fifteen thousand calories a day, that I became dangerously underweight. I finally went to a doctor, and after hearing about my stomach problems, he decided that it MUST be colon cancer. The fact that I was also severely anemic (hemoglobin down to 6.5) seemed to be all the proof he needed. I argued that the problem with anemia had been with me for my entire life, although not always as severe, and that cancer usually kills it's victims in a much shorter span of time than I had tolerated these symptoms. Even the stomach problems were not new; albeit they were progressive: they had gotten worse over time, especially after pregnancy.

Three colonoscopies later, no one had been able to find any type of colon cancer or stomach cancer in any part of my soma; not even an ulcer. So what did the clinic recommend? That I undergo chemo, even though I did not have cancer! Outrageous! I said no. I was told I was going to die. I still said no. I researched stomach problems and found something called celiac disease, which is an autoimmune disease caused by intolerance to gluten; and is also hereditary. I was told that before insurance would approve the tests for celiac, which are almost prohibitively expensive, I would have to prove that it ran in my family! Unfortunately, most of my Dad's family had been deceased for quite some time, and no one had been diagnosed with celiac disease. There had been a "mystery stomach problem" that affected many of them, but without the diagnosis of a first degree relative, insurance would not cover the labwork. It would, however; cover chemo.

Eventually, the director of the clinic got tired of watching me suffer, and we did some genealogical research (a hobby of his) on some family members and ancestors of mine whose obituaries were either online or otherwise available to me. From those, he extracted and constructed enough of a family history consisting of a likelihood of gluten intolerance caused by celiac disease to convince insurance to cover the labwork. The results came back positive, and we also discovered that the type of anemia I have is hereditary as well, and is not the result of iron deficiency. Chemo and massive doses of iron would never have helped.

The moral of this story is that one should always question authority. Had I failed to question authority, I would have had chemo, stayed anemic, lost my hair for nothing, and still have been sick when it was all over, had I been lucky enough to survive. Because I questioned authority, the appropriate diagnosis was made, and I eventually recovered, much to chagrin of my ex husband! As an added bonus, my children are aware of hereditary autoimmune diseases, and of celiac disease, and if they, or any of their children ever develop symptoms, they will not have to suffer. Of course, pharmaceutical companies do not make money through celiac disease, as there are no medications or cures for it, other than carefully avoiding any food containing gluten. Health food stores, garden supply stores, and manufacturers of cookware are the businesses that make money because of it. That, I believe, is the real reason that insurance companies almost always refuse to cover the tests for celiac disease.

Hopefully, Herlinda Garcia can recover. Even winning a lawsuit is no substitute for simply being told from the very beginning that she did not have cancer.