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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 10, 1995)
VIEWPOINTS EDITORIALS. OPINIONS LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Without strong laws, instability can occur ■ OUR OPINION: A society with a history of justice will be healthier than one without Many of us put .1 lot of trust in our c.ity. stair* and national govornments to enforce the rules and mgula Uons wo havo dot ui**<I to live by ns a soi u»t\ Rules, nr in this 1 .iw, laws, are I lie ini eplnd set of guidelines that a si* let v adopts to Limp the [Kiln e In oilier word*. wo have lavs enfori enient agent ies to help keep cruel jieople from wreaking havoc on a law abid ing! ittzenry, and a legal system that should punish them when they tlu That's all very well and good So. what's the point' The point is. what would we have if we didn't have law and order7 Well, we would have a Lit k of law. or law lessness (anarchy for social scientists!, of course Many would argue that our s<x 1 ety already shows a hefty level of dlsrespei t for authority This gre.lt nation IS ex|terittiu mg n severe crime and punish ment * risis, but at least not all of us am running around shoot ing and 1 tubbing ear h other In the streets If and when it ever got that bad. the governor won lit 1 all in the National t.uard. or the president would send in trtxips to help firing the situation under control. To that end. our Constitution and Hill of Rights give us guarantees as to what extent federal troojis 1 an inter vene 111 otir civilian affairs whether those affairs art* civil or not Hut. what are people to do when the government itself IS a perpetrator of unrest? for the most part. Amern ills are flabbergasted bv societies that (ail to "keep the peace' within their own borders We stand txu k and say why doesn't their government Just step 111 fit Many would aryui dial our soi irfy already shins s a hefty level of dtxrcspet I for authonts and stop the kilting, rioting, pil laging?" Next U> tin- bloodshed m Bosnia and numerous other wars that dot the globe, the killing sprint that bloodied the nation of Rwanda last year stands out as one of the more at rot ions, more ret ent examples of -I MX lets gone Ix'fserk 1'he event that toot hed off Rwanda's anarchy is largely believed to he the still-unev pl.uned airplane t rash that took the life of Rwanda's president IH months ago The ensuing killings, letl by roving bands of Hutu militia members, civilians and others with ties to the gov ernment, took the lives of some 50(1,000 to one million Tutsis and Hlittis It turns out the war was prob ably a complete “inside job," a deliberate campaign of genocide implementixl by a group of llulti government offu nils and their associates who am now in exile in Kenya The had news? These ring leaders are under the prolix lion of Kenyan President Daniel a rap Mot. a man whose country itself is beset with rising i rime, t or - ruption and political discrepan cies Moi says he will continue to provide sanctuary to the leaders until the (x-uple responsible for the death of Kenya's president are t aught In tin* meantime, we hope Kenya, Rwanda and other coun tries i an somehow find their own formulas for lasting stabile t\ and peat e. » 0 00* )IS*. (UC.lNt OMOOH »!«91 thf frjejyi (4#* I svrt <% MNnAtid iu*t M'VWf f' iungfi (rdn A**^ If* wtu*# fit: iiajrVMf i.-»j Utesiittf %. ' Q ff* »*««*"*< ?* Otagon (Mbty £»w>t4 Go wt D But UMMrwty ot 0tt&*' l«*y»*'* 1 " A •'r**r*sf> s5i ft! 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But when I caught a cold and was laid up on the cout h with only daytime TV to keep me company, I tuned in to what 1 thought would be soaps and cheesy talk shows and instead caught Mart 1,1 ( lark s soliloquy of a ( losing argument I should probable clarify hero While I hadn't wrapped myself up in the specifics of the trial. I was aware of and amazed hv the kev issues the trial had dredged up: domestic violence. rac ism, our ouoious justice system, media manipu lation. etc. It seemed every pertinent mm tal issue was there. Ami of course I had an opinion i thought 0.|. was guilty And when the jury tame Inm k with a verdict .dter four hours. I figured it had agreed with me I si»t in front of the teles ision. as did 80 percent of people in the United States, and listened to the court i lerk announce that the jury had not agreed w ith me (nor with a majority of w hite America) after all. And I felt si< k Not the horrified, hopeless, pum h ui-the-lace sick I felt when a jury found four white l. A P I), t ops not guilty of (mating Rodney Kmg More of a deep-sigh, 1 know itiy - truth-to-be-self-evident kind of sick And of i ourse, being a joumalist/media whore, 1 started looking for the fresh angle from which I w ould write my commentary At first I thought about writing almut how jus tice is for sale in tins country But that was too obvious. Money i an buy anything that is a basic tenet of our c apitalist society The ()) verdict was just a giant affirmation of that sy stem. Then I de< ided to write about our ailing jury system, using the OJ and King < uses as evi dence that the system doesn't work My commentary would critic ize the jury sys tem, not to mention the jury itself, and call for a professional jury: a tribunal or some group of persons who i ould'pass reasonable, logical, weft-informed judgment on our nation's accused While pondering my jurisprudence utopia — which 1 later concluded to be both elitist and racist — it occurred to me that I yvas one of thrm The disdainful-looking yvhite p*oplt* vs ho heartily disapproved of the verdict, the self righteous masses whom the legal sy stem had wronged. fifi / fountl myself on one side of this great raeiat divide, and it isn't the side l‘m used to being on. 15 I found myself on one side of tins great racial divide, and it isn't the side I'm used to being on But according to the media, 1 was just follow ing the color line. Newscast after newm ast c ut ba< k and forth showing first the elated black people contrasted with the dismayed whites (You had to lx- either black or white to t>e shown journalists did not interview those people who do not qualify as one or the other.) After watching a few of these* newscasts, the full forcu of their message, the magnitude of the racial divide in this country revealed itself to me like a kick in the stoimu h 1 live in this country; I grow up in L A But 1 have a different perception of reality than a large chunk of black people. And this divide does not speak solely to i lass A black friend of mine who grew up in the same neighborhood as 1, who seemingly had a similar upbringing, saw this case in an entirely different light This woman and 1 looked at the same picture and saw two drastically different images. And how 1 evaluate and judge this trial and () J s guilt is largely a product of my white, mid dle-class upbringing Yes, I was i ertain he was guilty, but where do I get off assuming that I could see some absolute truth? I cannot I cannot Suppose to understand the hliu k experience m America, just as I cannot pretend to understand the reasons why a jury acquitted a man whom I saw as plainly guilty 1 have no answers here, no condemnations or recommendations But at this point 1 keep hear ing people say they want to put this whole, messy, drawn-out ordeal behind them “It s time to move on." And that is wrong. The drama of the trial, the part we paid atten tion to, that was the frivolous part The verdict is as much a judgment on us as it isoiiOj or tin- insticu system We've Ihx-ii giv en a blindingly clear view of the racial divide m our country If we don't heed that lesson, we are all guilty. Gayle Forman, a senior ma/oring m journalism, is a columnist for the Emerald.
