Lorentsen Family Update

The missing family of this post, Rebecka Lorentsen and her two children, have been located. They had merely moved, but had not informed anyone, and were living in a different town.

Brake Light Pentacles

Grrr....what will Fundamentalist Christians think of complaining about next? Here, we have a school bus in Tennessee, with working, and perfectly legal brake lights. We have children getting on and off the bus at the appropriate stops, sitting down in their seats while riding. We have a sober bus driver, who, prior to meeting the fundy christian parent, was unstressed.

This good Christian parent apparently has concerns that the school bus will take her children to Hell, instead of to school. In order to prevent this, she wants the brake lights on the entire fleet of buses replaced, either with crosses, or no design. There is no reflection on the school's curriculum or activities involving her children; the parent just can't stand to see a five pointed star.

Stars are used as symbols for many different things, as are crosses. To date, no Pagan or Satanist has contacted Tennessee Public Schools to complain about sacrilege, so why isn't this woman shutting up and counting her blessings that it wasn't her holy symbol that was used for brake lights? It isn't as if Christian children actually behaved like angels, or as if Christians actually place any value on teaching children to act as if they believed in responsible citizenship or abiding by the law.

Update: Jaylen Jones Is Found Safe

There was some good news on KAKE News this morning, and that is that young Jaylen Jones was found safe in Rice County, Kansas. Something your blogger finds interesting is that Jaylen was missing for several weeks while his case was given no attention, because he had been deemed a "runaway", and therefore not important; but when his story aired in KAKE, he was suddenly located. Can this be dismissed as coincidence? Your blogger thinks not. Runaways need to be found just as much as those who disappear involuntarily need to be found, and most of the victims of human traffickers in America are actually teens who have run away from home.

Nomei Velazquez Found Safe

Nomei Velazquez, for whom an Amber Alert was issued several days ago, has been found sae in Lubbock, Texas. She was, indeed, taken against her will. She did not run away from home, as some people had suspected. Her mother had initially thought, when she did not come home from school, that she was participating in an extracurricular activity, but in reality, she was missing. Isn't that interesting, Tom Schroeder?

The suspect has been charged in this case and is now in custody. Thank the Gods for a happy ending this time.

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.

Safe Trick-Or-Treating, Everyone!

Message From Obama

To everyone on the East Coast, this is very important. Please pay attention to this and be safe.

 

Another Wonderful What I Did Last Summer Story

Dylan McCoy accidently fell into a well, while jumping on plywood covering the well. Then, he ended up floating in ten feet of water. Instead of waiting for the fire department, his dad, Jason, jumped right in after him. Now Jason and Dylan are both safe. Pretty cool.

I always love a story with a happy ending.

Update, Eaven Is Found

Thank the Gods! Eaven Reisen was found safe! Apparently, she rode her bike to a friend's house, played all day there, ate dinner with the family, and spent the night! Only no one phoned home to let Mom and Dad know...........................I wish every missing kid case could end this happily.

While it wasn't the most attentive thing a parent could do, no parent is perfect, and Kansas parents all over the state are just as permissive with their children as Eaven's parents were yesterday. You can argue with me all you want........I have gone to the trouble of collecting data. Now; social services has taken the  unusual and perhaps overly punitive step of removing Eaven from her parents' home over this! I cannot help but wonder if this is overkill. Is this what foster care is truly for? Do Eaven's parents need an attorney now? How often do children go missing from foster care? (ahem......remember Adam Herrman?)
When almost all parents and foster parents in Kansas parent this way, just what is the state hoping to accomplish by removing this child from her home? Can the government parent better than parents can can parent?

I sincerely hope that Kansas has done a better job of vetting Eaven's new foster parents than they did with Adam Herrman's foster/adoptive parents.