[Azred]

Originally posted by LordKathen: I am furious with the attention this is getting, especially when its 90% speculation.

I can understand why you feel that way, especially when there are plenty of cases of missing children that are still open. However, if this one case can generate a lot of fresh attention to the problem of child abductions and something gets done because of the attention (something like a national Amber Alert program) then the end result will be positive. No, we'll never save them all, but we can certainly save as many as humanly possible.

Originally posted by LordKathen: Nobody knows what happened, and frankly its nobody's business.

I will respectfully disagree with this statement. One missing child is everyone's business.

Originally posted by LordKathen: The only reason we all know details about the Smart family, at all, is because they have money. ***** Don't listen to everything you hear on TV and radio, please. Its only part of the story, and to speculate on part of the story, well...I have said enough.

Now that we have a statewide Amber Alert program in Texas any child abduction--even a suspected abduction--gets immediate attention, regardless of the ethnic or economic background of the family. As soon as a report comes in, every television and radio station breaks into their programming schedule to give all facts available at that time, even if the information is highly probable speculation. Every piece of information, even speculative information, is important because the first 24 hours makes all the difference.