I realize that this blog, perhaps unfairly, has paid too much attention in the past to prisoners in Guantanamo and Iraq. So, here’s a note from the news of Paris Hilton’s release from jail this morning:

Hilton, with her blond hair pulled back in a braided ponytail, strutted past throngs of media and fans wearing a sage jacket, white shirt and skinny jeans.

“Inmates, prior to their release, are given a chance to go into the restroom to change their clothes, to put on make-up and fix their hair if they want to — and clearly Paris did,” CNN’s Brooke Anderson told CTV Newsnet on Tuesday from outside the prison facility.

Aren’t we glad this happened! If Paris had stayed in prison a few more days, we wouldn’t want her to be caught riffing Frederick Douglass’s famous oration, “What to the prisoner is the Fourth of July?”

My appreciation for Paris is rooted in this.