Colorado justice system...

It's things like this that give me contempt for morons in this country and the justice system that all too often allows them to stay morons. Two teenage girls in Colorado decided that instead of going to a dance one weekend, they wanted to bake cookies for their neighbors.

Two things about this case piss me off.

First, this woman files the lawsuit. Ok, so the girls were out "late" on the weekend, but since when did 10:30 pm become too late?? Tell that to all the people I met at Raul's last night latin dancing. Or the group of 10 or so of us that watched The Grudge before going latin dancing at 1:00am. Living in a college town, I can assure you our actions were not out of the ordinary nor incredibly late. I pose this question: If instead, one of these girls had gone to the dance, and on the way home was beaten, raped and left for dead, and then crawled to this neighbor's door for help, would this neighbor have filed suit for the shock and possible heart attach she would suffer at seeing a young, 17 year old girl lying bloody and naked on her front porch??

Second, the court put its "seal of approval" that this type of lawsuit is ok to file by ruling in favor of the plaintiff. The two girls, obviously not acting maliciously, paid the fine and walked off. If it was I, there would be an appeal and countersuit for legal fees. But then, I wasn't nice enough to bake cookies for my neighbors last night. Now nobody in Durango, CO will ever have anything good done for them again. You never know when a surprise washing the neighbor's car will result in $1000 in fines and legal fees. Goodbye to the good ole' fashioned neighborhood where people looked out for each other. A real community.

Props to the two girls, who should hold their heads up high for doing a good thing and proving to me that they are the more mature of the two parties. I will make a note to never allow my children to do anything nice for our neighbors.

N.B. fyi, I do have real experience on the service issue. As a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints serving the Vietnamese population in Orange County, I would participate in surprise service acts for church members and other aquaintences on a daily basis. The missionary who thought up the idea, Benjamin Hamatake, coined it SWAT: Service Without A Trace. Every time, in two years of serving the Vietnamese, a SWAT was rewarded with a smile, thank you, and stronger bond of love and friendship. Wouldn't it be a great day when Ben's brainchild became commonplace??