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TITLE: Sheer Cowardice
By Bella Louise
08/13/04

The scene is set. A man sits in the courtroom. He is innocent of any crime, but the jury have condemned him anyway. They see something in him that they hate, that draws attention to their own intense inferiority. A long time before they even held the trial, the sentence had already been decided upon. The jury and the judge both realize that the condemned man is completely in the right. Everything about him puts them to shame.
The jury are acting out of malice and hate, and also sheer cowardice. The man sitting there is a political prisoner. The people are beginning to turn to his way for life, a total opposite to the current beliefs. The age of tyranny, legalism and absolute power is in danger, and the jury are at the top of the hierarchy. Their positions are threatened. They can’t bear to lose their beloved powerful status.
The judge is acting out of peer pressure. He is worried what people will think of him if he doesn’t go along with the crowd. He doesn’t really believe the man sitting before him should be punished. In fact, in his heart he would prefer to have nothing to do with this mockery of a trial. He, too, is worried about losing his position. He ignores the internal battle inside him. Although everything inside him screams to set the condemned man free, he bangs his hammer. ‘Death by crucifixion.’

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