Heart of stone or tone deaf?

Re “Home, borrowed home,” editorial, Jan. 5

Did the editors really mean to say, “You’d need the proverbial heart of stone not to laugh at the suffering of the gamblers who bet that the real estate market could increase indefinitely”? Laugh at the suffering? You are talking about people who hoped to move out of the “rent your earnings away” lifestyle and get some part of the home-owning American dream. They are the elderly, the lower middle class and their children. Many took offers from scoundrels in the financial industry who didn’t explain all the probable consequences of taking out these disastrous loans. What kind of editorial staff would consider it hard-hearted not to laugh at these people as their dreams, homes and small savings all go up in smoke?

FATHER J. PATRICK MULLEN

Camarillo