Letter - Franson should've thought before posting

To the editor:

Your March 7 report on the Representative Mary Franson food stamp fracas concluded with a finger wagging by Douglas County Sheriff Chief Deputy Brad Lake. Deputy Lake said that people can be held responsible for what they put out on e-mail, FaceBook and Twitter.

Deputy Lake was referring to the bozos who allegedly wrote threatening e-mails to Representative Franson. Threatening remarks via e-mail, or via any communication means, should be taken seriously. Law enforcement, and the rest of the community, should hold anybody who uses threatening words accountable for what they say. It seems to me that Deputy Lake's finger wagging should apply to Representative Franson also. She put a video in cyberspace where she juxtaposes alleged food stamp dependency with wildlife food handout dependency. Then, when she got some heat for her comments, she said she didn't really mean what she said. People misunderstood her, she said. Besides, she said, she didn't even write those words. Somebody else did. Her excuses make it clear she just doesn't want to be held accountable for what she said.

I'm not sure Deputy Lake will accept that kind of excuse from the person, or persons, who allegedly sent Representative Franson threatening e-mails. Should the public accept those kinds of excuses from those who are responsible for governing our state? At the very least, Representative Franson deserves a big finger wagging for posting foolish and harmful material on the Internet. As an elected representative of the people of Minnesota, Representative Franson should have thought before she posted to the Internet.

Tim King

Long Prairie, MN

Tags: opinion, letters