Finding missing persons...

Now that the latest missing teen in my circle of friends has been found, I've removed the original text from my Facebook search post, because effective social-media calls end up accidentally lasting longer than necessary and that just confuses things.  But, in the process, I lost this text and I want to repost it because it's an important glimpse of my heart on the issue: 
 
"Odds are she's safe of her own free will, but a family's love doesn't play the odds and neither does the law when it comes to minors.  And if she's not safe, time is of the essence.  Let's get her found, then hash out the questions and family dynamics later."
 
And I stand by that.  When kids go missing (and adults too, but primarily with teens), particularly girls, there's this weird social undercurrent of "she probably just ran away, looking to gain attention with some drama." Maybe, I suppose.  Maybe not.  It doesn't matter. The odds of really bad consequences (up to and including death) are high enough that the time to question and criticize needs to be delayed, if it even has to come at all.
 
Put more bluntly: Shut up and find the kid so the family is reunited with a living person, who you can then be upset with later. Okay?
 

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