Imagine my surprise when I looked at the front page of the newspaper Wednesday to find a story about an elderly person shoplifting. Is this what passes for news nowadays? If the subject matter weren’t bad enough, the tone of the article shocked me. The entire thing was written to try and portray the woman as a victim. This poor, defenseless, elderly woman (with a sick husband) simply made a mistake, and the big mean corporations are trying to take her for all she’s worth!
She broke the law. She tried to leave a business without paying for something that she had in her possession. It was concealed, and it was stealing. Whether she meant to or not, it’s still against the law.
Consider this: if a 15-year-old girl had done the same thing, would there have been a story on the front page? Would it have been written in the same sanctimonious tone? Of course not.
Perhaps the worst part of the article was the comment by Rep. Hans Dunshee, D-Snohomish, “We’re not going to allow them to bust little old ladies who made a mistake.” Isn’t this man supposed to be upholding the law? But forget it, she’s old: she’s above the law. Laws don’t apply to old people, because they can make mistakes. I mean, if it were one of those dirty teenagers, then obviously it was done only for profit. Lord knows that as you get older, you’re less educated about the world and more likely to make mistakes, not the other way around.
Dan Herman
Lake Stevens
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