Free Speech - by Patricia 7

Tonight I witnessed first hand the power of an Amber Alert. It was the typical scenario (if any child abduction could be described as "typical"). Two children were abducted when their parents’ car was stolen. Thankfully, it didn’t have the all too tragic and common ending, and the children were found just two hours later with the abandoned car - most likely because the perpetrator heard the Amber Alert on the radio and knew he was toast. This was the first time I saw the Amber Alert in action and I was impressed with its power.

For those who have never heard of the Amber Alert, it was born out of the tragic abduction of nine-year old Amber Hagerman. On January 12, 1996, Amber was riding her bike just two blocks away from her grandparent’s house with her five-year old brother, Ricky. Her brother left Amber to return to their grandparent’s house, because they were told to only be gone for one ride around the block. When he got back to the house his grandfather asked him to go back and get Amber. Ricky came back and said he couldn’t find her. Her grandfather, alarmed, jumped into his vehicle to find her. When he got where she was last seen riding her bike he was met by a police officer and the sight of Amber’s bike, without Amber. Keep in mind, just eight minutes had gone by since Amber went for her bike ride. Eight minutes.

"That was it," she said. "Eight minutes—eight minutes from the time she rode away on her bicycle until that man called 911. People have to know that this is how fast these things can happen" said Glenda Whitson, Amber’s Grandmother.

The man who called 911 was Jim Kevil. "I saw her riding up and down [the vacant lot]," he told reporters. "She was by herself. I saw this pickup. He pulled up, jumped out and grabbed her...When she screamed, I figured the police ought to know about it, so I called them. I wish I had known more. I done all I could do." Police think it was a crime of opportunity; he (the abductor) waited until Amber’s brother left her alone and in those mere seconds he snatched her.

Her body was found four days later in a creek bed. Her throat had been slashed. Police say she was kept alive for a few days before she was murdered. Her killer remains at large and the case is still open. This January will mark the twelve-year anniversary of her abduction.

After Amber’s body was found a man called into a local radio station and made a suggestion: “When a child is abducted and each minute matters, why can't the police and the media get together to inform the public with the same urgency of, say, a weather warning about a tornado or a hurricane?” Texas adopted it and the US Department of Justice followed suit. It is now utilized in all fifty U.S. states.

Glenda Whitson says of the Amber Alert: "My heart drops down to my shoes," she says, "because I know just what those people (the parents) are going through." "It feels good when some child is brought home and our baby helped," says Mrs. Whitson. "You just look up to heaven and say, 'You did it again, baby'...Of course I know sometimes it doesn't turn out good, but the Amber Alert gives them something more to go on from the very start."

Well… she did it again.

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Illegal Immigration in the United States

December 5th 2007 20:55

What should be done about the burgeoning illegal immigration problem in the United States?

Here's an idea...come down on the banks who issue them credit cards, provide them with mortgages, and allow them to open accounts. Come down on them hard.

Hit corporations that hire them with huge penalties. Hit them hard.

Use said proceeds from banks and corporations to deport them back to their homeland.

Illegal aliens are just that - illegal; therefore, so are the actions of the corporations who employ them and the banks that serve them - they are complicit in a federal crime and should be subject to paying for their crimes.

Let the President of the United States make a foreign policy statement that we will not tolerate people entering our country illegally, and that anyone who does so will be dealt with strictly; read, deported immediately.

We just need to take a hard line stance and stick to it, but no politicians want to offend the corporations or the banks, because it always comes down to the almighty dollar, which is crashing, but that's another story. People say, 'We can't deport them, because it would cost too much." But it's not that we don't have the money to do it - it's that politicians and the powers that be don't want to lose money from the banking industry and big corporations, aka the people that back them.

Here's a final idea: Let's not vote for someone unless they vow to implement a plan like this one.

Free Speech - by Patricia 7

Free Speech

Amber Alert

Illegal Immigration in the United States

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