not guilty… beyond vengeance
Everybody knows that somebody should be held responsible when five innocent children are drowned in the tub. An eye for an eye demands the sacrifice of alot of lives. And though we begrudgingly accept that people with financial means can often buy sacrificial lambs, common folk spend alot of time on death row to feed our communal need for payback.
But today something changed. Somebody, 12 somebodies, decided that five senseless deaths were enough. Andrea Yates was found “not guilty by reason of insanity”. No one questions whether Andrea’s hands are responsible for the death of her precious children, the question was whether her mind and heart are culpable. This jury said no. She will be committed now to a psychiatric facility where, God willing, her mind and spirit will continue to heal.
Zealots of the world take note, a seemingly small but seismic shift in our communal need for blood lust has been detected.
Dear God, may we have the grace to move with the ripples.
