Editor,

I sincerely appreciate the front-page story the Whidbey News-Times wrote on my son’s assault.

While it’s true that I was indeed hesitant to work with Jessie Stensland, and have judged her harshly in the past, I truly did enjoy working with her.

I am also grateful for the phone calls she made and the fact that she helped get the case reopened.

However, I do have to take exception with Keven Graves’ Opinion piece on the same topic.

I did not feel nor say that I had nowhere else to turn to but the News-Times.

After repeated letters to the Island County Prosecutor’s Office went unanswered, I sat on this story and prayed about it for three months.

I gave this newspaper first shot. Had they not been interested, I was heading straight to KOMO TV.

This was a fight I was not giving up.

Yet I take far more exception with the statement that “Lady Justice wears a blindfold.” Her statue may indeed wear one, but all too often in reality, justice is not blind. If this were true, I would not have had to fight so hard to find justice for my son.

How often do we hear about celebrities and other famous people getting away with things you or I would be punished for?

Don’t we all know of someone whose social status, wealth or political or family connections have saved them from paying for a wrong?

Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

I can’t think of many statements that are more true.

Again, I thank Jessie and the newspaper for sharing this story.

It is not the first time I’ve been on the front page of a newspaper, and it probably won’t be the last.

We must always stand for what’s right and true and just, not only for the ones we love, but for everyone.

Luanne Raavel

Coupeville