Tragedy?

A 93-year-old WWi veteran was found frozen to death in his Michigan home in January. His electricity had been reduced, and then shut off by a device called a limiter, because he owed more than $1000 on his electric bill.

A neighbor who lives down the street called Schur's death "unforgivable."

"This can't be allowed to happen in this country," said Jerome Anderson.

Walworth said he believes his uncle's death was "preventable."

Certainly we all would have sympathy for a poor old man who was preyed upon by the evil electric company. But lost in the outrage would be questions:

• Why, when the power went out, did he not bother to call the electric company? The limiter device can be reset by the occupant in the event a shut-off is triggered.
• Why didn't he call 911 or anyone else, for that matter, once he started to get cold?
• Why was this 93-year-old man living alone? Where was the nephew and neighbors? If he couldn't figure out to call the power company or 911, then he should never have been left alone by his family, friends, and neighbors. Shame should fall on those people, too.
  

and most importantly

• Why didn't he just pay his power bill? After all, he apparently had $600,000 in savings--money that was left to a local hospital.

Seen in this light, the situation changes somewhat. It's still sad that he died, but it was indeed entirely preventable. By him.

In a similar vein, we have the case of a Georgia woman whose house burned down. As was covered by the national press and, she claimed it was racially motivated and was specifically because she was an Obama supporter--her house was targeted because she had an Obama sign in her yeard and a sticker on her car. Her case became cause celebre in the Democrat digital realm.

A single Mother of three, who supported Obama's election bid and had traveled to Washington for the inaugeration, returned home to Georgia to find her home burned to the ground and graffiti indicating a threat to the President left behind.

Turns out now that the arson investigators have done their job, that she herself is the primary suspect, and is hardly a portrait of virtue, currently in jail on unrelated drug charges.

A Forsyth County woman who claimed her house was burned down because she supported President Barack Obama is now suspected of setting the fire herself, authorities said Wednesday.

The homeowner, Pamela Graf, 47, had not been charged late Wednesday in connection with the fire, which occurred the weekend before the presidential inauguration.

But she was in jail on unrelated drug charges, said Capt. Jason Shivers, spokesman for the Forsyth County Fire Department.

Shivers confirmed Wednesday that Graf and her boyfriend, Steve Strobel, 46, of Winder are “both officially labeled as a suspect” in the Jan. 18 fire at Graf’s five-bedroom, 2,900-square-foot house north of Cumming.

Fire officials said Graf told them she was in Washington to attend the inaugural when the fire broke out, but rushed home when she heard what happened.

Racially charged graffiti was spray-painted on a fence near the property, and investigators said Graf told them she had received a threatening note after she put an Obama campaign sign in her yard.

Graf and Strobel were arrested late Tuesday night when Forsyth County fire investigators executed search warrants at a motel in Cumming where Graf has been staying and at a place in Barrow County where Strobel has been residing, Shivers said.

“We were in search of fruits of the crime of arson,” said Steve Anderson, the Fire Department’s chief of investigations.

Graf was charged with three felonies and one misdemeanor for possession of cocaine and marijuana, Shivers said. Strobel was charged with obstruction of justice and with making false statements to investigators about the fire, the spokesman said.

Shivers and Anderson said investigators are continuing to run down leads in the case and could be filing additional charges in the next few days.

Now, she must still be presumed innocent of these charges, but again, the picture presented by the press changes once additional facts become known.