Missing Boy

Ask any parent - the horror over all horrors is a missing child. Imagine not knowing where - and how - your child is, day after day, wich stretches into month after month?

When I was growing up in Maryland, there was the story of two missing siblings, abducted from a mall and never found. Now, I am following the case of the little boy from Oregon, whose father, looking tirelessly for his son and cooperating fully with investigators, just separated from his step-mother, and has taken his eigtheen-month old sibling with him. Sad. Where are you, little boy?

It serves as a harsh reminder that when I am at the amusement park, at a mall, anywhere with my youngest son (the older two are grown) you can never be too watchful. Restrooms ar potentially unsafe, and so is that stranger pulling over to ask for directions.

Please God, let this family know, finally, what has happened to this little boy and if possible, bring him home.

D.

Obama and McChrystal

Whew, it's been a long tme since I've blogged! We have moved into a new home, and settling in takes all my energy.

Some thoughts about the Prez's decision on the loose-lipped General and his firing: I think he did the right thing, and I loved the statement post-meeting yesterday. However, the reasons I agree with it are less than encouraging; Obama has so much that is going poorly right now, if he doesn't show some leadership, he could be doomed. This, with McChyrstal, was his chance, and he pulled the trigger. He has the oil spill, doctors dropping out of Medicare, the economy, and world-wide tensions on his plate, and nothing seems to be going right. His speeches are more and more hollow, and that is his strongest skill - soaring rhetoric.

So, he did the right thing. Now, on to un-packing another box.

The pictures of the wildlife being killed, harmed, or forever changed due to the oil slick are making most of us just heartsick.  The reaction of most people to not only the wildlife but the people of the gulf coast, and what they have been through, is spontaneous, immediate, and sincere.

Why has the President, as a man and a human being, not had that reaction?  Why does it take polls and public outrage to get him to care?  This troubles me almost more than anything else about him - just as many were troubled by Bush not going directly to aftermath of Katrina.  Obama, however, has the advantage of learning from his predecessor's mistakes, and still it takes pressure and polls to get him out there.  I'm sure he thinks back to the healthcare debates as the good ol' days.

Mr. President, get a hotel room at the gulf and stay awhile.  Pull an over-nighter.  And change the pressed white shirt for a workshirt, for Pete's sake.