We need to rethink North Dakota’s ‘silver alerts’
MINOT, N.D. — On Monday night I was drifting off to sleep with a book in my face (the excellent English translation of “The Anomaly” by Hervé Le Tellier) when I was shocked back into consciousness by a loud alert from my phone.
And my wife’s phone in the living room.
And my daughter’s phone on the night table next to me where I put it after she turned it in for the evening.
Turns out, an elderly man had gone missing in Tioga. He was found , shortly after, and we can all be thankful for that, but was it necessary to send out a statewide alert?
What can I, in Minot, do about a missing person in Tioga? What can people in Fargo do, for that matter?
