Justice for Joan

To the editor:

I am still angry about the death of Joan Meyer.

I have no personal connection to her or her family, but I have visited Marion many times because of my husband’s connection to the town. He was a classmate of Eric’s, and their mothers knew each other. But these things were long before my time.

When we heard of the raid the day of the raid and saw that they were in Joan Meyer’s house, I expressed my concern to my husband about what this could do to a woman of her age.

She was terrorized in her own home, and it was in my opinion the cause of her death.

I say this because, as a 67-year-old woman, I know that if it happened to me, it would shake me to my core and cause many ill effects. If I were in my 80s or 90s, I believe it would very likely lead to my accelerated death.

This raid of her home was not conducted in a way to be sensitive to her age, let alone her complete innocence and standing of decades of service to Marion.

If I lived in Kansas, I would be contacting state leaders on both sides of the aisle about making some kind of new law that would require a more thoughtful and caring approach should an elder’s home have to be searched.

This is not a blue or red issue. This is a basic human caring and decency issue. This is about not committing elder abuse issue, which I believe terrorizing an older person in their home is.

This law should have her name on it to honor her for all time — the Joan Meyer Act — and be a reminder so it never happens again to another elderly person in the state of Kansas. Actually, maybe it should be a federal law, too.

Joan Meyer and her family will never have justice for this event. She should have had many more peaceful days of living her life in Marion.

Though Joan Meyer was not beaten or handcuffed in the raid, the terror of the experience had a physical effect, and if you have ever felt very afraid, you know this is true.

She deserved better, as do all elderly people in Kansas, the USA, and the world.

L. Marie Wiebe
Muncie, Indiana