Doing Our Part To Protect Our Future

So, who here is watching the election? What do you think of the war in Iraq? How about all the nasty weather in the midwest?

The election has gotten to its normal nasty bickering on both sides, which is nothing new. Bad weather is typical during the spring with cold and warm fronts hitting together. But what about protecting our future by fighting the war at home?

So you are saying now, What war at home? Well the war at home is the kidnapping and abuse of our children from their own homes, sidewalks and with the aid of the internet. Over 100,000 children go missing each year. About 50% of them are family or family-friend abductions, but what are the other 50%. Well the others are non-family abductions and runaways. The scariest of ones is the non-family abductions. Now, not that runaways or family abductions arn't scary, the abduction of any child is a sad thing and should never happen. But with non-family abductions you normally have no clues, reasons, ideas if your child is save or alive. Online predators have become a cause for alarm lureing our kids online and as you have seen on NBCs To Catch a Predator, they are willing to travel far to have sex with young boys and girls.

But, now these predators are becoming even more brazen then ever before. In 2002, while riding his bike on his own road, just a few hundred feet from his home, Shawn Hornbeck was abducted at gun point and taken by M. Devlin to Kirkwoods, MO where he kept Shawn for 4 1/2 years abusing him and keeping him confined for 2 months after the initial abduction. No clues were ever found and no trace of Shawn was ever found. Police were helpless and gave up after 6 days of searching the woods and nearby locations. Shawns parents started the Shawn Hornbeck Foundation in order to keep the search for Shawn alive and to help other families with missing children. In a miracle, in Jan 2007, Shawn was found in Kirkwoods along with another recently abducted boy Ben Ownby. After being found the horrible news of what each boy had endured came out. Also news that Shawn had been stopped by police many times, had profiles online, and Devlin posted pictures of the boy on his xbox profile. Yet for 4 1/2 years nobody knew that Shawn Devlin, as he was forced to call himself, was really Shawn Hornbeck.

This lack of attention and horrible crime has lead to a new site that offers education for families and a place for people to submit tips with information on cases to help law enforcement do their job and find the missing faster. The site, http://www.operationcybertip.org/, offers live updating case information from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children as well as updated discussion boards on open cases and pending court trials. Operation Cyber Tip is full of resources for teaching and preparing children for the dangers not only on the internet but in the real world. There is also an Education page with stats and details about online predators. We recommend you signup as a member and get involved. Even if you submit a tip and you dont want to identify yourself, they offer completely anonymous tips and uploading of files for cases. Its important we keep the world aware of what is going on. Our future depends on my generation and my generation (11-25) is dieing slowly at the hands of predators. It is due to the lack of evidence and tips that many cases, even if solved end with the perp walking free to abuse again. Lets do our part and help. You can also suggest cases to Operation Cyber Tip for posting and research. The site is dedicated to Shawn Hornbeck, Ben Ownby, Johnny Gosch, Jacob Wetterling, Arlin Henderson and the many others who are still missing today. Lets all do our part and help our children and put away those who hurt them for the rest of their lives.