It’s a quiet Sunday afternoon. I’m feeling at ease after a pleasant midday repast and a quiet snooze as I settle in for some diversion- maybe a ball game or a movie on demand. But no repose for me.
As my mind drifts to neutral, my phone shrieks like a banshee being ravaged. I panic, wide awake again.
I’ve never heard this sound before and I sure as the dickens never want to hear it again. But, right now I can’t make it stop. It is out of my control. It won’t stop whatever I try.
This sound is no ring tone that I can ignore or answer. It’s a siren that I can’t silence and it certainly won’t let me do anything else until it stops. I fumble with my phone but nothing helps. Then I look at the screen and find—-It is an amber alert. WTF!
Somewhere, in a Texas town I’ve never heard of a silver Honda has done something bad and I am supposed to do something about it. What that that ‘bad thing’ is or how I am going to find the Honda in my living room doesn’t matter to the powers that control this klaxon- I assume this means the state government or some damn bureaucrat because nobody else feels entitled to annoy me. They damn well want me to know that they are pissed about that ‘bad thing’ done by the silver Honda and since they are pissed, they want me to be pissed as well. They succeeded- I am but much pissed but more at the government than the Honda.
Texas takes these phone alerts seriously but clearly not rationally. They don’t seem to care about whether a particular alert matters to me or if I am in any location or activity where I might be able to do something about it. They just let it rip and not just once. They keep doing it- again and again….and again. They won’t give up until I find that Honda for them – unless I go crazy first.
Back in California I don’t remember ever getting amber alerts on my phone. They had message boards on the freeways for that purpose. And those message boards didn’t make a sound. Here in more primitive Texas, it seems necessary to put them on my phone. They come in like a phone text message but with a very loud and irritating sound. It’s apparently designed to get my attention and it does that very well. I can do nothing until it stops but nothing makes it stop. to shut it off. I don’t have any control over the volume or any ability to make it go away. Until they give up.
You might expect that these would be local alerts where you at least have the possibility of helping someone but so far the location has been someplace other than where I am. Furthermore sending a text message to my phone for my help makes no sense. It seems quite unlikely that I will spot the vehicle from my living room or office if I am not driving. Even if I am driving, there is no way I can legally read the message on the phone assuming that I didn’t lose control of my car from the noise in the first place. Which leaves the question. What do they expect to accomplish by sending an annoying and ear-splitting messages on my phone?
It is quite clear that the intent is only to make sure that the bureaucrat is not the only one pissed about that silver Honda because no matter what I might be doing, I am in no position to know what the alert is about or make that Honda behave. And did I mention that it repeats?
I am not opposed to catching criminals- particularly in the act of doing bad things. I am even willing to help. Still since we tax ourselves to fund trained professionals enforcing our laws and bring criminals to justice why spend so much effort forcing amateurs to take the lead?
I continue to believe that the world is a safer place when amateurs like me mind their own business and let trained police do their jobs. And along the way how about firing the bureaucrats? Spend the money on more cops.
