The Eyes of the Missing Look Back At Us


With the case of Mollie Tibbetts, the young woman who disappeared in Iowa, on people's minds, I find that I keep turning my gaze to the mailer from Harbor Freight.

Bear with me.

Harbor Freight, the California based hardware store, sends out pretty regular mailers.  They advertise their specials, contain the 20% off one item super-coupon, and also the small, free items you can obtain with the purchase of something else.  Pretty fun place to shop.

At the bottom of the mailers, at least in the Chattanooga area, there are pictures of missing people.  Never the same ones.  And each time I get one in the mail or in the paper, I find that I am drawn to the faces at the bottom.  Because beside each face is information about when and where they were last seen.

Some have been missing for over twenty years.  Some were just infants when they disappeared.  Some were children.  Some were in college.  What do they all have in common?  They are gone.  Missing.  Lost.

From time to time social media, television, and the country come together to find people that disappear.  Not often enough, though.  And one only need to watch an episode or two of Law & Order SVU to begin to realize that the realities of what these missing people might be facing are too horrible to truly comprehend.  

I look at these faces from all over the country and wonder if I have actually seen any of them in passing.  If they simply ran away to start a new life.  Or if they fell afoul of the worst kind of people out there.  I wonder how their parents or family feel about them.  Especially after such a long, long time.  

And I shudder.

People just disappear.  It should not be so.  And it should be that when one disappears, we do all that we can.  But we don't often know what to do, or how to help.  Meanwhile, those who are left to contend with the fact of their absence move into the world of a half-life: going through the motions while waiting for and wondering if life will ever bring resolution.

I don't have any larger point here, nor some long essay.  I just look out into the night and wonder: where are they?

Here are some sites if you know of any information or need to contact an expert:
https://www.justice.gov/actioncenter/report-and-identify-missing-persons
http://www.missingkids.com/gethelpnow/cybertipline/hotline

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