As an American woman who was once an American girl and a mother who raised an adolescent in LA (I am pleased and relieved to report that he is currently a really cool young man, thank God) I feel great sympathy toward Lindsay Lohan. Thrust into the spotlight as a tender tween of 11 thanks to talent, looks (and maybe stage-parents?) after starring in the remake of Disney’s “Parent Trap” she has spent some of the most trying years of anyone’s life in the public eye while her parents’ lives took unnerving twists that would negatively impact even the most level-headed and private teen.
But…
Personal sympathy aside, we are in the midst of an economic crisis here and while we are in recovery (okay, a tangent here, what exactly is a jobless recovery and why doesn’t it inspire me to do a jig to the tune of “Happy Days are Here Again”?) government budgets are being slashed on every level. Thus, I must question the wisdom of our fair city’s judiciary in spending valuable time and money to prosecute a troubled young woman for vulgar behavior. Yes, it is important for all to realize that no one is above the law but over a necklace? Can’t we prove this point with something a little more….
And now that the (sadly) tabloid mainstay has been found guilty, why must we pay for her room and board by jailing her? Can’t we make her punishment fit her crime? Make her forgo necklaces — maybe even forever?
Yes, it is morally wrong to take a loaner – a common Hollywood deal where a connected business lends a famous or infamous person an extraordinary bobble/dress/valuable whatever in exchange for the publicity value received by maker/seller from you, attention-getting person wearing/carrying/mentioning it – and call it a gift when the deal was apparently a loan. But, should these sorts of ‘deals gone bad’ be the stuff that crowds the docket of an already over-burdened, furlough-day-delayed court system?
I say no. I want my tax dollars going toward fixing potholes, putting people who are truly dangerous to me and others who live here away, in jail so that they no longer endanger citizens. And, I want our city’s judicial bodies to spend the time — and accompanying money to make damned sure that we are actually depriving the truly, beyond-reasonable-doubt-folks of their liberties in jail and not just winging those pesky innocent or guilty details because that bitchin’ babe named Lindsay is in the building.
The white dress Ms Lohan wore to court sold out within hours (what does that say about our value system? This is a story for another day) and the store from when the necklace in question came is now setting up a website featuring the surveillance video of said crime (okay, maybe the loaner issue is moot, misguided, whatever?) which leads me to believe that private money exchanged between the parties should put this matter to rest — without spending any more of our public funds.
What do you think?
