A First

When you get to be a half-century plus, there aren't a whole lot of firsts left in life. (I think my first time to go snow skiing isn't going to happen now.) Last evening, I got a phone call that was a first. I could tell that it was going to be a recorded message, something I got way too many of during the primary and run-off elections, and expect to get more of come November. But the recording began with, "This is Cobb County 911 Emergency Services." Now that will sort of get a person's attention. It went on to describe a missing girl who was last seen several hours earlier at an intersection a couple of miles from our house. Now I knew that enhanced 911 meant that Emergency Services could pinpoint a location based on caller ID, but I never thought about it working in reverse... them calling us. On second thought, I vaguely remember a request from the county to give them all our contact numbers to make it easier for them to let us know of an emergency situation in our area, but I expected it to be something like telling us to evacuate if there were a wildfire or flood in the area. "Big Brother" is definitely watching us, but I guess I'm OK with it if a missing child is found safe. And in this age of technology, is there really any choice but to acknowledge Big Brother's existence?