Death by Sue-U-Cide

Death by Sue-U-Cide

Dear Editor:

You read about Elizabeth Joice, teacher at Sunrise Mountain High School in Peoria, AZ, who was legally threatened by the parents of the failing student and their attorney Stan Massad. They demanded that she be given another chance to pass her exam and graduate.

The parents of this student have not only abused Ms. Joice, they have done a grave disservice to their daughter. They have taught her that you don't have to work for and earn success in life, you only need to get a lawyer and threaten the person holding the symbol of success and you can have it. They have shown her that a diploma is nothing but a worthless piece of paper that any lazy, indolent person can get if he will just employ a ruthless attorney to intimidate the teacher. They have validated her refusal to do her work, attend her classes or take and pass her tests. They are a classic case of parents who have not yet learned the meaning of raising a child to be a responsible adult.

The attorney should surely be nominated for the "Most Disgusting Lawyer" of the year. He typifies the low level to which America's legal profession has sunk.

When a future Edward Gibbons writes, The Decline and Fall of the American Republic, high on his list of causal factors will be a ruthless, out-of-control, legal profession that for personal gain, was willing to use the law to attack and destroy anything or anybody. Their eagerness to sue for money has destroyed our tradition of neighborliness.

People are afraid to help their neighbors for fear of being sued. It is unsafe to invite people to your home, lest you be sued.

Folks are afraid to stop and render aid to victims of accidents lest they be sued.

It is no longer wise to volunteer to work with kids, the aged or handicapped because of the likelihood of being sued.

Doctors are leaving the medical careers for the same cause.

Drug firms refuse to undertake new experimental medicines because of the lawsuits that will surely come.

Eventually such irresponsible litigation will bring large segments of our civic life to a standstill.

As our society withers and dies the diagnosis will be "sue-you-cide."

Those who live by the Golden Rule of Christ (Mathew 7:12) will treat others as they wish to be treated - that does not include suing for every petty grievance, or in order to force others to grant your every wish.

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