The alleged kidnapper of Elizabeth Smart was brought to her home by a mother trying to be charitable to a homeless person by giving him work. I can't criticize her, but it reminds me of Christ's advice to his disciples that they should be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. We all have an internal sensor that goes off when we we're in danger or something isn't right. Too often we disregard such signals out of a misplaced desire to be kind and unbiassed. Sometimes those warnings should heeded.


Lois Smart brought at least two low-lifes into her home to do odd jobs. Richard Ricci was a suspect for a time, but there was no proof. Ricci was arrested anyway on outstanding warrants, then had a brain hemorrhage and died in jail. Obviously Mrs. Smart was trying to help the less fortunate, but one of them had a screw loose and returned to harm her family.

We live at a time and in a nation where people can be homeless without really having to. Some are mentally ill. Some just have minimal requirements and simple tastes. Some are also predators.

We can weep for Elizabeth Smart, but she had a guardian angel. Samantha Runnion and Danielle van Dam weren't so lucky, if you can call the last nine months lucky.

We have been intimidated by the likes of the ACLU and the liberal guilt of the media, and made to think that good people would reach out to street people to lift them up. Maybe it's time to relearn suspicion, and to help the poor through donations to the Salvation Army and Goodwill Industries rather than trusting them before we know them. In consequence of the evil that exists in the hearts of conspiring men . . .