State sex offenders
shouldn't be anonymous

Copyright © 2006 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.

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I can't believe people are even questioning whether we should have sex offenders' addresses online. Have the public and our law makers forgotten the definition of sex offender? They prey on the unsuspecting and most innocent in our communities. Are we really ready to give up the knowledge of a sex offender's presence in our neighborhoods to protect his right to live more safely? Am I the only one seeing the irony in this?

I certainly would not condone vigilante violence against anyone, but we have one incident of which the details we are uncertain and, all of a sudden, people are ready to give up years of hard work to pass laws protecting our children from these violent and unstable people so that we can better protect the offenders' addresses and privacy. Isn't that the whole point of knowing the offenders' addresses ... so that the public knows where they live for our safety? You can't have it both ways. You either protect our children or the sex offenders. Our children didn't ask to be targeted, sex offenders did.

Rebecca Lambert

Mount Vernon

Lambert@pivot.net