letter to editor on "Colton Harris-Moore"

Today, I'd like to discuss with readers the case of "the bare-foot bandit:" Colton Harris-Moore. He's attracted quite a bit of interest and sympathy from many people around the world, and this has in-turn been misinterpreted and used by others as a self-righteous soap-box. This is just the sort of well-heeled, self-righteous soap-boxing my generation is sick of... and thus many of us are taking up "Free Colton" as a cause celebre.
Colton was an American teenager who needed counseling, education, and psychiatric help. Instead, he was thrown in a prison-for-teenagers as our nation couldn't afford a social-safety net, although it was spending more on our military than the-rest-of-the-world-combined were spending on theirs. Homeless and at odds with our society, he took up a crusade of property crime... during which he showed verve and remarkable resourcefulness, thus attracting a powerful media spot-light which led to his capture. But if we throw him in prison in the U.S.A., he'll join the largest percentile prison population in the entire world(most of are racial minorities, most of whom would not be there if we had a real social safety net.)
No, we'll extend the golden rule to Colton, and do our best to get him out of jail.