Thursday, August 20, 2009

Paying a Price for Mistrust and Misinformation

NIMBY (Not in My Back Yard) is unfortunately alive and well. Bravo to Minnesota Disability Law Center for looking into whether there is a violation of federal or state fair housing law.

CENTERVILLE, MINN. -- The tidy foreclosed house on Hunters Trail in Centerville will remain vacant for now. Someday in the not-too-distant future, a family will likely snap it up, welcomed no doubt with cookies and smiles by grateful neighbors. Such a better scenario than the four sexual predators who almost lived there.
Except that sexual predators were never coming.
The villains of this piece were not the four teenagers, none of whom is a sex offender. Instead, they are the same shadowy figures who seem to be showing up with frustrating regularity at most public debates now: Small-mindedness, mistrust and misinformation.
And, as usual, the biggest losers are the most vulnerable. In this case, the four teenaged boys with developmental disabilities who craved, and deserved, a chance to move into adulthood nearer to their families.

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