I am writing in response to the two recent absurd letters to the editor from Lana Kogan regarding Ben Franklin having impulse buy items near the cash register.

Where to begin?

Her initial letter and follow up response were both so far beyond the pale of rational thought that I could hardly believe what I was reading. She seems to believe that a store is immoral for enticing their customers to buy their merchandise. She also believes that her child’s poor behavior and lack of discipline is the fault of everyone else but her precious angel (and herself for that matter).

That kind of attitude is probably why her daughter behaves badly in stores. Her daughter has learned that if she cries and screams, Mother Kogan will bend to her wishes and buy the cheap bauble she desires.

She is also going to be learning from Mrs. Kogan that all problems are the fault of others, and that she need not be held accountable for her own behavior. For Mrs. Kogan to upbraid the staff of Benjamin Franklin for having impulse buy items is immature in the extreme.

Is she next going to write a letter about how the grocery store is immoral because it has candy and magazines at the check out stand?

This brings me to the worst part of Mrs. Kogan’s letters – the comparison between the institution of slavery and selling toys at a cash register.

This is a disgusting and deeply offensive comparison. To equate the two things should make every right-thinking American angry.

How dare Mrs. Kogan compare the enslavement, torture, murder, and degradation of millions of human beings to the tears her daughter sheds because she can’t have a random toy!

The comparisons to segregation are equally offensive. Mrs. Kogan, you should be ashamed of yourself. Not only for harassing the staff of Benjamin Franklin with your immature insults, but for actually believing that you have even the tiniest of moral legs upon which to stand.

Tell your daughter no. You are responsible for her behavior and her upbringing.

David Brooks, Bellevue