BY DONNA WESTFALL

I recently received an email from change.org claiming that recently 50 million users used their site worldwide.  Here’s one example: In India, Laxmi – a young woman who survived a brutal acid attack – won her Change.org campaign to regulate the sale of acid nationwide. Her petition was one of a flood of powerful campaigns started by survivors and families to protect India’s women from abuse.

Remember the film, NORMA RAE?  Sally Field starred, won an Oscar, on this “based on a true story” to unionize the garment industry.

In Fresno, California, 1992, beautiful, 18 year old Kimber Reynolds was killed.  She was murdered in cold blood for resisting purse snatchers with a long history of crime.  Her father, Mike Reynolds, ushered in an era of the 3 strikes law.  If I had been him, I might have done the same thing.

EXCEPT that it has upset the apple cart.  The California budget, mostly in the toilet, has been spending more on warehousing prisoners than on educating our children.

Also, according to criminologists, what has been found to be the precursor of crime is alcohol and unemployment.

Another issue to think about.