(My uncle Mike Treder)
Last Saturday I checked my email and found an inbox full of worried emails from my extended family. To give a little background, this is not unusual with my family. We live spread around the U.S. and we love debating, arguing, joking, etc. about everything from politics to transhumanism to astronomy to religion to baseball (as I make this list it seems almost redundant), and we do this all through email. What made this string of emails unsettling was the subject line, which read simply: Mike still missing. I began to feel uneasy and that feeling grew as I read that my uncle, Mike, was in Detroit for a few days and apparently hadn't gotten back home. When some resourceful family members had done some digging we found that he checked into his hotel in Detroit on Wednesday 14 March, checked out on the 16th although it appears this was done automatically as nobody remembers him actually doing it, and it was confirmed by Delta that he did not board his flight home to Brooklyn.
So far we have a few theories, but really we don't know anything. When something like this happens people often say the hardest part is not knowing. That's not exactly true for me. For me the hardest part is not doing. When I read these emails Saturday night, I didn't know what to do. I didn't respond. I didn't even tell my wife. I sat there knowing that there was nothing I could do for Mike or the family. Some people suggested using social media such as Twitter or Facebook to get the word out there, but I felt like even that was pointless for me. I only have 20 followers on Twitter and I had no idea what to do with Facebook. I continued with my Saturday night, very normal for the most part. I went out with friends and got dessert, but the whole time this specter loomed over me. I had fun, but I felt like I was betraying Mike by having fun. Sunday we got more information. Due to the efforts of people much more resourceful than I, we found someone living in Detroit who was willing to be our pointman in the city. Others contacted news outlets and got this story to run on the local FoxNews station: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-VQc-5x2AQ. For those of you who read this who don't know, Mike is possibly my most liberal acquaintance. He protested with OccupyWallStreet before it was considered a movement. The picture below ran in the New York Times. Mike is holding the very prominent sign.
(click on the picture to read the NYTimes article)
Mike works with the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies on the Transhumanism front (nanobots, cyborgs, etc.). To put it shortly, we never thought Mike would make it on FoxNews. Finally, after the initial shock had worn off and others had paved the way, I decided to get involved. I posted on Facebook, Google+, Tumblr, and Twitter. Still I felt like I really wasn't doing much, but then I had an idea. I decided to send tweets about this directly to celebrities I follow. I felt like this was a bit intrusive, but what could I do. I have 20 followers, they have millions. Luckily, one of the mighty celebrities took pity on me and retweeted my tweet (10 years ago that sentence would have gotten me committed) to over one million people. Lots of people jumped on it and started retweeting. It was quite amazing to me that something like this is possible. We still have to see if it helps at all, but even the emotional comfort of knowing that there are people out there willing to help has been very helpful for me personally. I still feel completely unable to help in any significant way, but at least I can do this. I'll end this post with the latest email I received from my mother. She sums up my feeling very well.
We are still looking; there is a friend of Mike's who lives in Detroit who is our guy on the ground; he seems very capable. The police are now on the case. We know what hotel, what room, are talking to everyone involved, and getting leads although they generally go nowhere.
Honestly, it seems like the outcome will not be what we want. But there are lots of good people figuring this out so we feel good about that.
