One day's worth of "fame" ain't worth the cost of exposing one's folly

The Seattle Times is constantly putting forever suffering (white) females (like many of its obsessed-with-self reporters) on its front page, apparently believing it can sell a few more newspapers by allowing people who otherwise would be as anonymous and nameless as 99 percent of the people in this country an opportunity to make fools of themselves. There are of course a great many useful stories to tell about the “common” people, but some just are not worth telling. 

The truth of the matter is that if you choose to have your name and/or picture above the cutline in a newspaper, and offer an “opinion” or expound some sob story of questionable value, you make yourself a “public” figure and liable for public comment. A most recent example concerns some person who apparently had her iPad stolen in the Central District. The item’s GPS system apparently allows it to be tracked, but the police can’t be bothered with it. 

Of course, some people familiar with the area might observe that it might be a little foolish to be flashing around a popular electronic item in the Central District. It is true that the district—like South Seattle—has changed its demographic make-up in recent year through gentrification. In regions of the city where whites had once fled in terror, paranoia and racial prejudice, developers and whites in desperate search for lebensraum have found the low property values in minority neighborhoods suddenly “desirable”—so long as the latter are bought out, or forced out, to make way for expensive new properties that they can’t afford to live in.

Still, one would think that some people in the district probably don’t think the way I do about iPads, iPhones or Kindle “books,” etc.: “Accessories” for those obsessed with “image”—“Look at what I’ve got, and you don’t. I am cool, and you are not.” They have to “show off” what they have. I suppose that I wouldn’t mind having these items, but I am “old school” and prefer real books, CDs and other hard media. I don’t need a “smart” phone or an iPad to waste endless hours pointlessly and then discover you don’t have enough “juice” to make that really important phone call. A modest laptop that all I can do with in most places is to do actual work has done wonders in disciplining my writing habits.

So, the question is why this person decided to flaunt her wares in the Central District, where her open display of affluence might “tempt” someone to deprive her of her possession; I won’t mention that her picture in the Times is hardly flattering—she looks like someone who had her mug shot taken after an arrest for public drunkenness. I won’t speculate any more than necessary. I don’t fault the police for not wishing to waste their time on someone’s flagrant conceit and stupidity. The least this person can do is stop whining and “track down” the perpetrator herself—given that she has the GPS “signal”—and blockade the crook long enough for the police to arrive. 

On the other hand, she may be completely “helpless” without her iPad.