I don't think I have ever been left with such an empty feeling as I did after reading "Nation's TV wastes angst on celebrities, petty issues" (Sept. 30 column). To remotely correlate child abuse with the term "petty" is absolutely unfathomable. "A woman who lost her temper for 25 seconds" is a woman who lost her temper for 25 seconds too long. I don't believe there to be any rationality whatsoever for what Madelyne Toogood did to her 4-year-old daughter in the public parking lot of a shopping center.

Yes, maybe America has indeed become too obsessed with reality-based TV shows, but this situation in no way falls under this realm. You ask, "Why make an everyday domestic affair a national crisis?" Mike Samp of the Mishawaka Police Department reported that in his 20 years of work, he has "never seen such a horrendous attack on a small child." By revealing this tape on national TV, a child who is living under the same circumstances may now feel secure enough in knowing it's wrong and have the confidence to report his or her own abuse.

Child abuse should be made a big deal, because the more we deny its extreme existence in society, the more it will continue to grow unscathed. Sorry, but I don't want to be the one providing funds for another appalling mother's apologetic cake.