The real victim of the controversy swirling around the breaking and entering case of Henry Louis Gates Jr., a Harvard professor who apparently misplaced his keys and was seen breaking into his own home in Cambridge, Mass., has turned out to be the Good Samaritan who reported the alleged breaking and entering. She has been vilified and called a racist by a large group of cowardly bloggers.

Lucia Whalen, after being stopped by an elderly woman who reported seeing a possible break in of a neighborhood home, called 911 and reported the incident; she did what we would want our own neighbors to do if someone was attempting to break into our own home.

Insensitive people have accused her of being racist because it was reported that in her call she said that the two men attempting to enter the house were black. If in fact she had said that, which recordings of the call reveal she did not, what’s the problem with offering a description to the police? As a people we have numerous skin complexions, which law enforcement officials often use to distinguish suspected perpetrators.

It is really a sad commentary of our times in a pendulum society, where change never stops in the middle where it belongs, but swings from one extreme to another.

Yes, there was a disgusting time in our history where men and women were persecuted and even killed because of the color of their skin. Now after years of sacrifice and courage shown by civil rights leaders as well as average citizens, we have reached a point in our country where all men and women are considered equal. Looking at the other end of the pendulum, today some misguided people consider people a racist if they describe a man or woman as a minority. This thought is not right in these times, nor is it tolerable.

Lucia Whalen is an American hero, who cared enough to get involved. We salute her.

For the hypersensitive Americans, white or black or blue, who have slandered her — shame on you.