I wanted to comment on how a crime can have long-term effects on victims. Maybe we need, as a state or country, to protect these victims from having to be victimized even more because of their vulnerable situation.

Take, for instance, my wife and step-mother-in-law. My father-in-law was Theodore (Ted) Woodward. He was killed last year by two criminals trying to steal from his business. He was also the main breadwinner of the family. As the family tries to get over this tragic event and my mother-in-law tries to increase her hours at her job to make ends meet, she is told by Elkhart County that since she does not have her taxes paid, she could lose everything.

To my wife, it is a family home that her grandfather built that she could see taken by the county. Of course, this to me seems like two victims being victimized again. The first time was by two thugs who cared nothing about another's life; the second by a county that cares nothing about this widow's or her family's lives.

CARL BLACK

Battle Ground, Ind.