Tragic. The whole damn thing.

So, the news of the moment here in Britain is still Madeline McCann. I assume that the World Cup took over for that particular weekend,when I signed on to aol.co.uk this AM, I was greeted with a sketch from an unnamed artist of what the kidnapper might have looked like had anyone seen anything. Apparently, a friend who dined with the McCanns the evening that they gave their children Calpol (like children's Tylenol) in excess and went to dinner out of the building and didn't have a babysitter or even a monitor and drank several bottles of wine with their 6 other pals- saw a man walking away from the McCann's apartment at some point. The friend said she didn't know the significance of what she was seeing at the time... or any time since until now apparently. I'm sorry... you saw a "greasy, straggly haired man striding away" from an apartment carrying a sleeping, blonde child and didn't think about it?!?!

OK... obviously, I have an opinion on this case. I don't believe sleeping children should be left alone. EVER! And that statement gets stronger the younger the children get. 3 sleeping toddlers? EVER! I don't believe that intentionally giving a child a larger dose of a medicine will ever excuse leaving them. I don't believe that 7 or 8 drunk adults had the wherewithal to check on the children they left alone, in a room, in Portugal every 15 minutes. And I think that there are hundreds of thousands of missing children out there (that have gone missing before and after Madeline) that are being left alone because they are not adorable and from wealth. How fast can you say JonBenet Ramsey?? The first thing I discussed with the three children I am a major influence on was a) how sad and scary and b) how we need to take responsibility for those things that should be most precious to us by NEVER leaving them alone.

For the record, if my child was missing, I would be rabid in my attempts to get that child back. My life would serve no other purpose. I get that. What upsets me is societies ability to latch onto a project as if to redeem itself from those projects that have been shelved. Which is fine if we are talking about cross stitch. And to place a sketch of what a nondescript man would look like carrying a child in her pajamas... How is this helpful? To anyone. Least of all that lovely little missing child? There is a giant lesson in this case and it isn't the danger lurking from nondescript men in foreign countries. And I only hope that the McCanns realize it before their twins get any older.