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If you’ve been watching the story of Diane Tran, you’ll be happy to know that the 17-year-old has won. Houston television station KHOU reported Wednesday evening that Judge Lanny Moriarty says he will clear her record of all charges.

That’s good news, but it’s just as exciting that the efforts to raise money to help her have been successful. The goal was to raise $100,000 and that goal was hit Wednesday afternoon.

This is a victory for Diane Tran, but it’s also a victory for all of you who shared her story and helped bring about awareness of it. I think it’s safe to say that Moriarty wouldn’t have backed down if it hadn’t been for your pressure.

If you live in his county and still participate in the electoral system, please make sure someone beat this bad judge in the next election.

In most cases, there’s very little we can do to change the bad things we see in the news. But people all over this country and in other countries who were angered at how Texas teen Diane Tran was being treated are reaching out to help her.

Diane is the 11th grader who was sent to jail for 24 hours and fined $100 for missing more than 10 days of school in a six-month period. Judge Lanny Moriarty said at the time that his rough treatment of the 17-year-old was to send a message to others.

“If you let one [truant student] run loose, what are you gonna do with the rest of ’em? Let them go too?” Moriarty said.

Now you can help Diane Tran — as people in 46 U.S. states and 12 other countries have done. The Louisiana Children’s Education Alliance has set up a fundraising site to help the girl, who is already considered an adult under Texas law. As of Tuesday evening, the fund had reached more than $65,000. You can learn more at HelpDianeTran.com.

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I found myself involved in a couple of online debates Monday that I wasn’t happy about. In both cases, someone who disagrees with me attacked me personally about that disagreement. In both cases, I felt attacked personally and responded more harshly than I meant to. I avoid those kinds of arguments these days, so they both upset me — partly at the other people, but partly at myself.

Both of the debates were about military action around the world. The specifics don’t matter, but in both cases, the other person was attacking the idea that the United States has behaved inappropriately with some military actions around the world in the last decade or so. (In one of the cases, the woman called those of us who opposed her position “dissenters,” as though that was a vile thing to be.) The truth is that arguments such as these don’t end up being about the subjects themselves. The arguments end up very personal. They end up between two people (or more) who have very different views of the world — and it’s about each trying to convince the other than his model of reality is the correct one.

How in the world can we deal with humans living together when we see the world in so many different ways? And does it have to be this way?

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