15 year old Elizabeth Smart, missing since last summer, has been found alive and healthy in a Salt Lake city suburb. But please read the rest of this post.

I hesitate to use the phrase "alive and well" because, while she is alive (and that's a Good Thing) it remains to be seen how well she is after such an ordeal. Nothing has been, nor should be in my opinion, released about what kind of treatment she received while gone, but speculation quickly turns to the worst case scenarios. We can only hope that such things are not the case.

And while we are relieved for this little girl and her family, let us not forget that so many of these cases don't have such a happy ending. Let's not forget the fates of Danielle Van Dam and others.

And most of all, let's not forget that there are dozens of other missing kids who never have their pictures on the news for weeks on end, but whose lives are just as important and whose disappearance devastates their families just as much. Please make a mental note to check the web site of The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children from time to time and do a search on your home state. Look over the pictures and try to keep an eye out. As a father, it's the least I would want someone to do if one of my kids were missing.

As Red Green says, "Remember, we're all in this together."