Show compassion for troubled person - LTTE

by: Kire

Sun Oct 18, 2009 at 06:38:14 PM EDT

Show compassion for troubled person
Express-Times - Tuesday, October 13, 2009

I've been thinking a lot about the man who was arrested for taking a bath in public in Belvidere. He had been living in his car outside the Warren County Courthouse for several months after he lost his house. Finally, The Express-Times reported he had had enough and tried to get the filth off of himself in public because he thought he had nowhere else to go.

I met this man over the summer, just a few weeks before the incident. So I read the article with interest. He had a sign on his car window that said he was running for Warren County surrogate because he didn't like the way Susan Dickey had handled his case after the last of his parents died. He had a genuine tin-foil helmet in his backseat.

I am not writing to continue the ridicule that this man has surely received since his face appeared on the front page of the paper under the headline, "Naked man arrested." I am sorry if this letter has that effect on him. The real intent of this letter is to encourage readers to be more compassionate to him. I certainly hope his accusations are false, but if some of them are true, I hope the officials who made the mistakes will read this and do their jobs in an exemplary manner in the future. With the economy going the way it is going, one thing is certain: We are going to encounter more cases such as this.

ERIK B. ANDERSON

Independence Township

For the record, when I sent it in via snail mail, the second sentence ended with "after he lost his house". Editor Jim Flagg promised me he would remove the extra t.

I have been looking for the article that I was referring to. It is over a month old by now, but I can't find it online. I believe that it was on the front page around Labor Day.  lehighvalleylive.com is not easy to search through, especially when I'm here at the library. If anybody can find it, please post a link. I can't even remember this gentleman's name.

Finally, the readers of this blog should be interested to know that the Warren County Surrogate Susan Dickey, like almost every other elected official in this county, is a Republican.

Have a great day, everyone.

Erik B. Anderson
The King of Funny Faces
Independence Township, New Jersey
Established 1782