I cannot resist responding to Rena Sawyer’s letter (May 21) titled “The shame of it.”

The shame is that Sawyer proudly wrote a inhumane, unsympathetic opinion about helping victims of crimes in a time of need — providing another human being with a toothbrush, a toy for a child or a blanket to replace the security lost. People have been rushing to help homeless people, people who had an established residence and lost it because they were victims of a crime, not because they are unworthy as Sawyer so sadly stereotyped them.

Let’s not confuse the issues of immigration reform, public assistance and freeloaders by taking away or discouraging the few humanitarians out there, because empathy in a time of true need is what is supposed to separate humans from animals.

Beth Pelletier, Lewiston