I have never seen so much posted about the money spent searching for any missing child until now. Sickening!
In today's economy, it is something that must be considered.
I have a friend in Portland who was laid off her state funded job several months ago. Her job was counselling teenagers who had been the victims of sexual abuse and were now in trouble with the law. Her job reviews were excellent, the metrics of her results were excellent (her client reviews were great, the number of her clients who stayed out of trouble was much higher than average, etc) but her agency suffered a big cut in funding and someone (several someones, actually) had to go.
My friend was devastated. Her job wasn't like working in a widget factory, where someone else could take over and there would be no difference in the end result. It typically took her many months to gain the trust of her clients, who'd already been given every reason not to trust any human being. Building a healthy therapeutic relationship with her was the first step in teaching these kids how to build healthy relationships with other people.
When she was ripped out of their lives, it set them back by months, years or permanently.
All across the state of Oregon (and the nation), government funded agencies are having to make heartwrenching decisions like that.
I cannot say which is more important: finding Kyron or helping 400 sexually abused teens at high risk for criminal activity (a million dollars would pay for approximately 10 counsellors). I don't know that there really is an answer.
But I do think it has to be talked out openly, so that we, as a nation, don't just blunder along spending money here and there as various crises catch our attention, until the money is gone and we suddenly realise we wish we'd spent it differently.
