"Public Safety for Sale" or "So the rich kids get found first."

Today I was grocery shopping with the Domestic Nemesis when we were stopped at the entrance to a store by a woman proclaiming to be "helping neighborhood kids". I stopped and asked her what her program was about, and she said that she had been contacted by the local sheriff's department to do a demonstration. She made sure to mention the recent disappearance/murder of a local student, as well as many other disturbing accounts from around the nation. She definitely had my attention when she talked about her product - a national ID card for kids which can be updated every six months. Basically, the kit contains a home DNA collection kit (in which to keep your kid's hair), a booklet, and a CD onto which I was to keep an updated file of all of Isaac's information. With the purchase of the kit, I was entitled to an ID card/medical release card that would be updated every six months until Isaac is 18.

Hmmm. Good idea, I thought. Then I asked how the information would help in the event that Isaac was kidnapped - she explained that all I would have to do is hand over the CD to the law enforcement office and they would have Isaac's name and picture up on an Amber Alert within 2 hours. (Otherwise it can take "up to 48 hours".)

All for only $80. But today it's on special for only $30.

When I told the Domestic Nemesis about it, she said, "So now the rich kids get found first, too?" Yowch. I was too caught up in her play on my mama-bear-protecting-my-cub instinct and didn't realize that I had been played. Capitalism 0. Domestic Nemesis 1.