Have you seen me? (I might have questionable mental capacity)

This is not a rant about that makes-me-shudder phrase now used by newspapers and network reports to describe Someone-Who-is-not-Where-He-or-She-is-Supposed-to-be.

It's about the secrets families tell police departments when it happens to that certain Someone.

People disappear in South Florida and elsewhere. They don't GO MISSING. And they never WENT MISSING. They got lost. They left their troubled families. They vanished. They were kidnapped. They intentionally  hid. They got sucked into drug and prostitution. They wandered away. Unfortunately, sometimes, they got murdered.

When someone disappears, a family member contacts a local police department and suddenly medical privacy goes out the window. 

Here are some phrases from south Florida police department news releases about missing people:

• Deputies are looking for a missing West Park man who suffers from advanced Alzheimer’s disease. (Name redacted), 72, has been missing since just before 4 p.m. from the area of 3500 S.W. 40th Avenue in West Park
• The missing person is a twenty- year- old male that has no physical or medical conditions. He jumped into a canal after arguing with family members and then threatened to kill himself.
• The missing person is a twenty (20) year-old female that has a low mental capacity. On Saturday, July 12, 2014, at approximately 5:00 p.m., she was engaged in a heated dispute with her grandmother and fled.
• (Name redacted) was last seen at home in the early afternoon. Ms Laura suffers from Dementia, is of questionable mental capacity, and is very child like. She is not a danger to anyone in the community. (Name redacted) left home without her medication.
• The Police Department is requesting your assistance in locating this missing adult. She suffers from schizophrenia and has not taken her medication.
• The Police Department is requesting your assistance in locating this endangered child, (Name redacted) was last seen at the location above at approximately 8p.m on 07/19/2014. She was wearing an orange blouse and white short pants. (Name redacted) suffers from depression and according to the family, she has a slow mental capacity.
• And my personal favorite: The missing person suffers from an un-diagnosed mental condition. Unknown if also under the influence of drugs or alcohol.   Missing person walked away in an unknown direction.

In almost every case these alerts are regurgitated on local news...either on broadcast, digital, social media. Or all three.

And it always makes me uncomfortable.

Do we really need to throw up a photo and include the "un-diagnosed mental condition" in our script?

I think not.

Watching Women's Basketball, Musing All the While

 It was a strange Easter for John and me--the hardest thing about being Empty-Nesters?  Holidays were so much fun when the kids were little.  Hunting for the hidden baskets, then church, then a giant meal with ham as the centerpiece. 

We had none of those.  I was on call so didn't go to church at my chosen time and then, and then, and then we didn't go.

We did take a brisk walk through the woods that are greening up slowly.  We made phone calls to our loved ones.  We had a healthy lunch.  We made a late afternoon stop in the newsroom when the weather threatened.  Skytracker was up, Gary Lezak and George Waldenberger were at the ready but it was a passing cell that didn't cause much alarm.
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This cartoon is by Brian Fairrington, courtesy politicalcartoons.com.  The iPod was released this weekend.  Reviews are rolling in.  I found Jeff Jarvis' report to be most interesting, especially after seeing the list of MSM sites who've jumped on the bandwagon.

I didn't buy one.  Yet.
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Tiger Woods will talk to the media Monday at 1pm central.  That should be interesting.  I heard a soundbite from Tom Watson on the early news.  When asked what he would ask Tiger, Watson said "How are you hitting?"  My question would be "WHO are you hitting?"

Sorry.  The door was open, I ran through it.
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Tip of the hat to Commerical Appeal reporter Marc Perrusquia.  When I lived in Memphis, I always appreciated his hard work, his sources and his incredible pursuit of the truth.  Apparently, the company we work for agrees.
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And finally, a reminder that Doh!  I forgot to graduate! from a blog I love.  I,too, got into news sans a diploma.  There are times I wish I'd finished but most of the time, I'm ok with my choices.  By the way, John McIntyre is simply awesome.  You should add him to your Favorites.