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.
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346 4343
r Murray £ Herrnstein's The Bell Curve
It tolls for
as.
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flv HAif ~~
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Verdict forces us to confront our demons
never es|>ot ted the verdict to have such an
I paid as little attention ns possible to the
i rial nl the Century I didn't argue DNA or
question the sincerity and verat ity of the w it
nesses I just didn't care.
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.