ACTION NEEDED to Educate a Syndicated Columnist
Amy Dickinson is a newspaper columnist who writes the syndicated advice column Ask Amy. She has also appeared as a social commentator on ABC’ s Good Morning America and NBC’s The Today Show.
Ms. Dickinson recently made some disturbing comments in her column:
- “Failure to register as a convicted sex offender is a serious crime in every state.”
- Anyone on the registry who fails to register is arrogant or irresponsible.
- Implies that having a romantic relationship with anyone on the registry is a mistake.
Yes, there are some dangerous people on the registry, but Ms. Dickinson is unaware that this subgroup is in the minority. We need to educate her in a cordial manner that the majority of people with a past sex offense are law-abiding citizens. She needs to hear from a LOT of us so that she will hopefully make a retraction soon in her column.
Ms. Dickinson can be reached at: [email protected] and Twitter@askingamy.
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I just read this. Doesn’t seem that bad to me.
It is true that “Failure to register as a convicted sex offender is a serious crime in every state.” It is a felony everywhere that I have seen. Of course, it should not be a crime at all, but that doesn’t change the truth of that statement. I would tell Amy that. It should not be a crime and the Hit Lists obviously shouldn’t exist at all. Duh. All informed people know that.
She said, “… he is too arrogant — or irresponsible — to register.” That doesn’t seem exceptionally far off either. Personally, I think that PFRs who intentionally do not Register are heroes. If they disappear forever, that is the most perfect scenario. But other than that, the Hit Lists are war. One of the weapons of the criminal regimes is to arrest people for FTR. So it is somewhat irresponsible to not Register unless you are doing it on purpose for some reason. At the very least, not Registering adds chaos to your life. I like the people in my life to be very solid and strong, not chaotic. Just saying.
The synopsis above said Amy “Implies that having a romantic relationship with anyone on the registry is a mistake.” I don’t think she really implied that to much of any degree. I thought her response of “Please, accept the fact that they cannot endorse this situation” was fairly measured. It would be healthy for the writer (C) to accept that, if it’s true. Doesn’t mean you have to change anything about any relationship. But you should understand how people feel about it. Personally, I might choose to get away from those people. Or not, depending.
Amy also said, “Now that your fiance is behind bars, you will need your friends and family to be in your corner.” Now THAT, is not true at all. The writer said, “I’ve lost friends and a few family members because they are not happy with my choice.” You don’t want those kinds of friends and family in your corner. I’d thank the Hit Lists for showing me what those people are about and not “rebuild the relationships” (as Amy suggested). I would find new, real friends and avoid family who are trouble.
One of the best things about the Hit Lists is that it exposes scumbags, fake “friends”, bad “neighbors”, and lame family members. Believe it when you see what they are.
Just to add to my last comment
So shouldn’t we be addressing our comments to Good Morning America rather than to Amy , and demanding she be fired just as Whoopi was for making false statements.
Well she is definitely not providing factual and informative information. She’s only providing misleading and in some cases misinformation. She’s trying to exacerbate our entire situation. Provoking more ostracizing and fear mongering from society. She is mostly full of judgemental and anecdotal opinion.