[ OUR OPINION ]
WOVEN into Ed Smart's joyous words about the safe return home to Salt Lake City of his 14-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, were expressions of frustration and anger aimed at a Wisconsin congressman who has stalled creation of a national Amber Alert system to save missing -- often kidnapped -- children. Hawaii is among 38 states that have such systems, but the pending legislation would establish national coordination and federal financial assistance. Smart's harsh words are deserving and should put needed pressure on Congress to enact the simple legislation. Congress should pass
simple Amber Alert bill
THE ISSUE Elizabeth Smart, a 14-year-old girl abducted from her Salt Lake City home nine months ago, has been rescued and returned home.
The Amber Alert is named after 9-year-old Amber Hagerman, who was kidnapped and murdered in Texas six years ago, and has been turned into an acronym for America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response. In Hawaii, the Maile Alert was initiated by the Honolulu Police Department in December. It was named after Maile Gilbert, a 6-year-old Kailua girl who was abducted and murdered in 1986, and stands for Minor Abducted In Life-threatening Emergency. About 4,600 children are abducted each year by strangers, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
The Senate passed a bill last summer that would create an Amber Alert system. It would provide $25 million to help communities set up their own systems and quickly link law enforcement across state lines. The systems consist of bulletins conveyed by highway signs and by media enthusiastic about spreading the word of a child's abduction in the first hours, which are considered critical.
The House bill, introduced by Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., would do the same thing as the Senate bill and much more, earning it the description of an omnibus judiciary bill. His bill includes provisions covering expansion of the death penalty, mandatory sentences and sexual offenders. The controversial provisions have caused the bill to stall in the House.
Ed Smart pleaded in a Washington news conference last month for Sensenbrenner to speed things up by getting rid of the extraneous, controversial provisions and create a free-standing Amber Alert bill to replicate the Senate bill. Elizabeth's recent recovery has not lessened her father's resolve.
"His unwillingness to let the Amber Alert pass on its own is hurting children. He is hurting children," Smart said of Sensenbrenner. "I am calling on House leadership to, this day, bring the Amber bill to the floor and pass it. Show us that there is some House leadership."
Sensenbrenner insists that "there is more to this issue than the Amber Alert." That is only because he wants it that way, so he can use the popular legislation as a vehicle to attach less popular provisions. He realizes that the measures he has tacked on to the Amber Alert bill would not be enacted by themselves. That is shameful legislating.
BACK TO TOP
Published by Oahu Publications Inc., a subsidiary of Black Press.Don Kendall, Publisher
Frank Bridgewater, Editor 529-4791; fbridgewater@starbulletin.com
Michael Rovner, Assistant Editor 529-4768; mrovner@starbulletin.com
Lucy Young-Oda, Assistant Editor 529-4762; lyoungoda@starbulletin.comMary Poole, Editorial Page Editor, 529-4748; mpoole@starbulletin.com
The Honolulu Star-Bulletin (USPS 249460) is published daily by
Oahu Publications at 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 7-500, Honolulu, Hawaii 96813.
Periodicals postage paid at Honolulu, Hawaii. Postmaster: Send address changes to
Star-Bulletin, P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu, Hawaii 96802.
