Missing
It's not often I hear about my hometown on the news around here. In fact, I think tonight was only the second time.
The first was with regard to an independent documentary film, The Education of Shelby Knox, produced by a high school student starting in 2001 about to the failure of abstinence-only sex education programs to improve Lubbock's standings near the bottom of the rankings of worst US cities for teen pregnancy. I still haven't seen the film, but would like to find a copy on video at some point.
The second time my town appeared on television was tonight. I was sitting at the dinner table with the significant other and her mother (rhyme unintentional) when I overheard from the other room the phrase, "Lubbock Avalanche Journal," which is my hometown's newspaper (a subject of frequent jokes regarding the "avalanche" part of the name — the only thing in West Texas of high enough altitude to pose any risk of dislodged snow is a person's own rooftop, assuming the town ever received more than a couple of inches of snow at a time to begin with). I immediately perked up, and this time it was a program about missing persons which was highlighting a breakthrough in the case of a disappearance of Joanna Rogers, a high school girl who vanished in Lubbock in 2004.
I can't help thinking that perhaps the people who know me are starting to put together a somewhat sensationalized picture of what life in West Texas is all about. On the other hand, perhaps they're more right than I initially thought.
The other thing that really made an impression on me was a quirk of the structure of the television program. Periodically throughout each segment, as a reminder to anyone who might have just tuned in, the program would show a splash screen with the name and photo of the missing child or teenager in question, along with age, date missing, and the reward being offered.
What struck me most was that the rewards differed by a huge factor and had a fairly direct correlation with the apparent affluence of the child's family. The reward for the second girl in the program, a beautiful wealthy cheerleader with dozens of friends and orthodontically perfected teeth: $200,000. The reward for poor Joanna, whose family seemed ashamed to even show themselves on television: a meager $15,000.
At any rate, I'm on my way back there on Monday, and I can only pray that it will be a controversy and missing-persons-free excursion.
The first was with regard to an independent documentary film, The Education of Shelby Knox, produced by a high school student starting in 2001 about to the failure of abstinence-only sex education programs to improve Lubbock's standings near the bottom of the rankings of worst US cities for teen pregnancy. I still haven't seen the film, but would like to find a copy on video at some point.
The second time my town appeared on television was tonight. I was sitting at the dinner table with the significant other and her mother (rhyme unintentional) when I overheard from the other room the phrase, "Lubbock Avalanche Journal," which is my hometown's newspaper (a subject of frequent jokes regarding the "avalanche" part of the name — the only thing in West Texas of high enough altitude to pose any risk of dislodged snow is a person's own rooftop, assuming the town ever received more than a couple of inches of snow at a time to begin with). I immediately perked up, and this time it was a program about missing persons which was highlighting a breakthrough in the case of a disappearance of Joanna Rogers, a high school girl who vanished in Lubbock in 2004.
I can't help thinking that perhaps the people who know me are starting to put together a somewhat sensationalized picture of what life in West Texas is all about. On the other hand, perhaps they're more right than I initially thought.
The other thing that really made an impression on me was a quirk of the structure of the television program. Periodically throughout each segment, as a reminder to anyone who might have just tuned in, the program would show a splash screen with the name and photo of the missing child or teenager in question, along with age, date missing, and the reward being offered.
What struck me most was that the rewards differed by a huge factor and had a fairly direct correlation with the apparent affluence of the child's family. The reward for the second girl in the program, a beautiful wealthy cheerleader with dozens of friends and orthodontically perfected teeth: $200,000. The reward for poor Joanna, whose family seemed ashamed to even show themselves on television: a meager $15,000.
At any rate, I'm on my way back there on Monday, and I can only pray that it will be a controversy and missing-persons-free excursion.