Amber Alert

Sammy's safe and sound. After his father apparently killed his mother, questions regarding the two-year-old boy's whereabouts prompted an Amber Alert. Sammy was found at his grandfather's apartment, and Daddy, who was in a Toronto court today, wasn't the one who dropped him off there. So as it turns out, the child was in no danger. But I suppose he could have been.

And that's what the Amber Alert's for. Named after Amber Hagerman, a nine-year-old girl who was abducted in Texas in 1996, the Amber Alert has since become an acronym for America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response. When a child under 18 years old is reported missing, radio and television stations are alerted immediately. The next five hours see information about the child, the abductor, and suspect vehicles blink across highway signs, lottery terminals, and even cellphones. Ontario launched Amber Alerts in March 2002, and saw them fall short with Holly Jones and Cecilia Zhang in 2003.

Why do these things happen? It makes me sick.