Pubdate: Tue, 26 Feb 2002 Source: Surrey Leader (CN BC) Copyright: 2002 Surrey Leader Contact: http://www.surreyleader.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1236 Author: Meredith Cooper WOMEN ARE MISSING BECAUSE OF 'OWN STUPID CHOICES IN LIFE' The Editor, Re: "'If they're dead, they don't require help any more,'" The Now letters, Feb. 16. I can't believe the abuse being heaped on V. Jaremko's head simply because he/she wrote what was basically a sensible letter. For others to say that the missing women ended up in the Downtown Eastside through no fault of their own is bollocks and simply parrots the current politically correct "victimspeak" that people use these days to blame everybody and everything else for their own stupid choices in life. If I, with no more luck or advantage than the average person, made the choice to triumph over a background that had me considering suicide by age 13, I see no reason why I should feel sympathetic toward someone who chose to waste their life and become a drug addict and a prostitute. I'm tired of the rhetoric that lays the blame for the situation those women were in everywhere but squarely at their feet where it belongs. You're either part of the solution or you're part of the problem. There was help available and those women chose not to accept it. Meredith Cooper Surrey - --- MAP posted-by: Josh