To the Editor:

I was incredibly saddened and disappointed by the publication of Friday’s article (“‘Flower lady’ off hook but doesn’t please all,” 10/6). An article that should have served to celebrate Annette’s acquittal instead attempted to recriminalize her in the eyes of the Yale community.

By trying to find the despicable in Annette, that which “we couldn’t imagine doing ourselves,” the article only further perpetuates the notion that homeless people are subhuman, that they somehow deserve their lot in life because of decisions they’ve made in the past.

Anyone who has actually spent time hanging out with Annette — instead of simply using her as a tool for their own journalistic advancement — would know that this is a woman who will offer you money that she can’t afford to give, who will try to give you a box of chocolate-covered macadamia nuts she got from a friend and who will talk with you for half an hour about the stupid stuff that makes life exciting. Perhaps we should ask ourselves who the real criminal is — the reporter who exploits another’s past mistakes or the woman who shares the virtues of humanity with others in her daily life.

Meredith Duffy ’03

October 8, 2000