MISLEADING
as used here | "Every day over 2,000 children go missing."
NATIONAL MISSING KIDS DAY Message |
FACTOID | "There are over 500,000 registered sex offenders in this country,
and 150,000 of them are missing." |
Comment made by: U.S. Rep. Mark Foley (FL) before the US House of Representatives |
| 5-25-2005 US House of Representatives:
NATIONAL MISSING KIDS DAY |
.Mr. FOLEY. Madam Speaker, as cochairman, along with the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Cramer) of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Childrens Caucus, I rise today in order to recognize National Missing Kids Day.
The numbers are stunning. Every day over 2,000 children go missing. Even though many are returned home, there are still many who remain missing to this day. If not for the efforts of the National Center For Missing and Exploited Children, signed into law by President Reagan in 1983, and thanks to the hard work of John and Reve Walsh, and many of our Nation's law enforcement and colleagues here in Congress, I am afraid many more parents would be mourning the loss of their children.
Despite our success in recent years in tracking down our missing kids, much more needs to be done. Over the years, we have heard the names: Jessica Lunsford, Jetseta Gage, Sarah Michelle Lunde, Megan Kanka, Jacob Wetterling, and Adam Walsh, all of them beautiful children carrying with them some hopes and dreams of every young child in this country. All of these children taken away from their parents and killed by sex offenders.
There are over 500,000 registered sex offenders in this country, and 150,000 of them are missing. Now we hear that Medicare may be giving them Viagra. How disgusting. How sad. How sick. We have to stop playing Russian roulette with our children.
| 5-25-2006 US House of Representatives:
NATIONAL MISSING KIDS DAY |
.Mr. FOLEY. Madam Speaker, let me associate myself with the words of the gentleman from Virginia in strong support of our team leader, Coach Hastert, Speaker Hastert, a decent, honorable man who has led this Chamber in an incredibly fair and responsible manner. Shame on those false reports.
Let me also alert our colleagues--today is National Missing Kids Day. Every day, 2,000 children go missing. Even though many are returned home safely, many are still unaccounted for. Sexual predators roam free, foisting their sickness on the most vulnerable. Despite our success in recent years of tracking down our missing kids, much more needs to be done.
If you watched recent episodes of Dateline or America's Most Wanted, online predators have a pervasive and sickening impact on our children.
There are over 5,000 [sic 500,000] registered sex offenders in this country, and 150,000 of them go without any kind of checking in or any kind of tracking. We track library books better than our sexual predators. We have to stop playing Russian roulette with our children's lives.
| NATIONAL MISSING KIDS DAY Message |
First, it is true that "Every day over 2,000 children go missing." Since Rep Foley's message was intended to be about missing children he would have actually helped reduce that number by citing proper statistics related to that problem.
For instance, NISMART: National Estimates of Missing Children: An Overview or their other studies: Children Abducted by Family Members: National Estimates & Characteristics -or- Runaway/Thrownaway Children: National Estimates and Characteristics -or- Nonfamily Abducted Children: National Estimates & Characteristics these studies would have alerted folks to the truth and what they can do to prevent the problem.
Instead Rep. Foley gives the public the appearance that the problem is caused only by registered sex offenders. That message alone places those RSOs in a false light before the public. That message places the RSOs and their families in danger, recently, in Maine and Washington, some have been murdered because of being on sex offenders registries.
Further, it is well known that "There are over 500,000 registered sex offenders in this country, and 150,000 of them are missing." is a factoid, and one needs to read the story behind that comment to extensive to put here.
Rep. Foley's message before the US House of Representatives was misleading.
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