To me it's about making a sacrifice for the good of society.
Coach's siren analogy is a good one, in my opinion. Sirens tell us that there's something going on that's important and we need to react accordingly;
- On the road? We check for sirens to see where they're coming from and move our vehicles if needed.
- Walking on the sidewalks? We check for sirens to see where they're coming from and don't cross the street, etc if we see one coming down the street.
- Sleeping due to day shift? We can choose to look outside and see if something's happening near us or we can roll over and go back to sleep.
We as a society have agreed that sirens are important and we also have agreed that we accept some level of discomfort if the sirens do not directly affect us in that instance. I'm not going to call the police and complain that some sirens woke me up or interrupted my 10th viewing of Titanic, as I know they'll laugh at me.
I think Amber Alert follows under the same principle. We should recognize that the system is there for the good of society and we accept that there is some level of discomfort involved, but that the positive results of the system outweigh the negative.
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