AS I SEE IT...

Atlanta, GA Court House Murders

A lone deputy, who happened to be a 51 year-old, 5' 2'' grand mother had a loaded gun and was escorting a 33 year-old, 6' 1'' martial arts expert to court. Is anyone surprised that he was able to physically over take her and get her weapon? Where were the two deputies that were suppose to be monitoring the video cameras in the holding cell?

I have been in several different court houses on many different occasions, and honestly, I am not surprised by what happened in Atlanta, I am just surprised that it hasn't happened sooner.

Just like the divide between the rich and the poor is widening in American society, so is the divide between the good and the bad. The man responsible for the three or four murders in Atlanta did not have a violent history, but he had just spent six months in jail awaiting trial. His first trial ended in a mistrial. Could the six months have pushed him over the edge? I believe that it is possible. What responsiblity does a prison system have to the people who are incarcerated? Haven't we have all heard the ugly stories about prison rapes? We have all seen the movies about the food, but then we have Martha at Camp Cupcake.

So, even prison is different for the wealthy. The news media reported that Martha made more money in prison from the rise in the value of her stock while she was in prison than before she went to prison.

I doubt that Martha, and others considered to be in her same "class" experience real, raw, prison life, as do everyday, regular, working class American citizens who are not millionairs, you think?

There is something seriously wrong in America.

Our courts are busy debating the legality of displaying the Ten Commandments. There is an obvious difference in the type of justice a person receives in the Justice system depending on the balance in their checking account or stock portfolio. And as more time goes by, the more everybody disagrees on everything.

The more that we lose sight of Democracy and respect for the individual rights of citizens - the more violence we will see in our society.

I just think it is all a little ironic that the hostage talked to the accused about God, and living, while the media was discussing the application of the death penalty for the crimes, and the courts are removing the Ten Commandments.

It is all just senseless, and it all could have been avoided.

But we're talking about responsibility, and in the United States of America where the President takes no responsibility, and the Secretary of Defense takes no responsibility ... etc... how are we to expect lowly deputies that are suppose to be monitoring cameras in a holding cell to take responsibility?

Oh, but wait, it does all boil down to the money, we're told, aren't we? A couple of trillion dollars will fix Social Security, the President says. So many billion dollars for the War in Iraq, and the War on Terror that the President of the United States of America didn't even bother to include it in the National Budget, but I did hear a lawyer on the news in Atlanta, Georgia talking about law suits being filed over the Atlanta murders... in the end, I guess it really does all boil down to being about the money.

I think the system is broken.

I think it is all just very sad.