Today I woke up, and I was tired. Really tired. More tired than I usually am, thanks to being woken up at 3am by an Amber Alert. I don’t say “thanks” to be miserable, I say “thanks” because I am grateful. Grateful because due to Amber Alerts, a little girl is now safe and out of harms way.
Although the technology to have Amber Alerts sent to cell phones has been in place since April 2018, it seems we’ve been getting them much more frequently in just the past few months. And yes, it seems like they are always being sent to us in the wee hours of the morning. But because of those alerts, children have been found. We haven’t always been able to see a happy ending but these children are being found.
And in the cases when the children are luckily being found safe and sound, the good news is often marred by the follow up news reports of people clogging up the 911 lines to complain about being woken up by the Amber Alerts. I really have trouble putting into words (or at least words I can include in this post) how messed up this is.
Even if you aren’t a parent, how can you not understand the pain and heartache these families are currently going through? How is your sleep so much more important than that child’s life? How can you justify clogging up phone lines that could be potentially needed to save that child’s life?
Yes, I am a terrible sleeper and getting woken up suddenly in the middle of the night results in a multi-coffee, feeling extra tired kind of day but really, it’s the price I am more than happy to pay if it helps save a child. Sure, when I am in my bed at 3am, I am probably not going to be of any help finding this child, but someone who does receive it could be that one call to find that missing child.
Recently a petition has been created to bring about people that call 911 to complain about the Amber Alerts waking them up to be fined. It’s something I fully support. It may not make me popular with some people, but I am not here to win a popularity contest. As a parent, if god-forbid it ever happened to my child, I would want every resource available put into finding my child. If that means waking every person in the province, so be it.
If you are one of those people that want to complain, use your social media – your Facebook, your Twitter, your Instagram. I’m sure all your friends and followers want to know what is really important in your life. But good God, don’t be wasting the valuable resources of the 911 system.
If you don’t appreciate my rant, move on, unfollow, what have you but I am going to continue my day with yet another coffee in hand and be thankful a little girl is safe and sound this morning thanks to a 3am wake up call.
cathyunfiltered.com 