The shame game

I am writing at 5.15 p.m. on Election Day. The tension and excitement are palpable. The community pulses races. Which one of the three boy mayor candidates will become the boy mayor of Pittsburgh?

What about those judicial retention contests? And how can we wait to hear who has been elected to Commonwealth Court? For that matter, can the write-in candidate in Ward 2 of Sewickley borough beat the incumbent councilman? (Not if my vote has anything to do with it).

Ho hum! Yawn! While we wait for the results, let us discuss the so-called shaming penalty for the woman who stole from a 9-year-old girl on her birthday - and was made to hold a sign to that effect outside the Bedford CountyCourthouse today. The story is posted on the PG Web site.

Not to confirm every stereotype about liberals, but I am opposed to such penalties. Oh, yes, she did a bad thing, but if she did a bad thing then she should be jailed. This sort of penalty is not far removed from the stocks - and is demeaning both to the perpetrator and to passers-by who rejoice in her humiliation.

In fact, I am not sure this treatment doesn't do her a favor. I am not sure you can humiliate someone who would steal from a child on her birthday. In the picture on the Web site, she looks grumpy but not humiliated or contrite.

What say you, oh wise Reg-ulators?

And, by the way, did any of you go to the Tom Wolfe lecture last night? My wife did and she said he stunk. As she says this sometimes about me, I would be grateful for other opinions.