Gimme A Break

Once upon a time there was a little rich girl. When she grew up she decided to go to the University of Southern California. But when she got there, her brainbox was bare, and so she paid Elena Martinez $20,000 to write all her papers, e-mail professors, and earn A's and B's for her.

Excuse me, but why is it that The Rich Girl is any worse than The Cheatee? Isn't taking the $20,000 and actually posing as someone else just as bad as asking and paying someone to do it? Elena Martinez is painted as the poor woman who couldn't afford to stay at USC and so moved home to go to the smaller college and work her way through- yeah, that $20,000 probably made it far more affordable.

Both are wrong, but leave it to the media to make The Rich Girl look all the worse and exonerate the other because she, having less money, couldn't resist the temptation to cheat for another human being's education. And, after all, she did her own work while cheating for The Rich Girl.

Meanwhile, the citizens of Columbia and students of the University of Missouri are a bit relieved to have found a way out of having the new sports arena named after a 22 year-old girl who didn't even attend the university in the town in which she grew-up. Present company included.