What would it take to convince you?

[To Craig Hawley]

If the question were posed to you -- what would it take to convince you? -- your lemming-like answer isn't "over-whelming evidence;" it is "tried and convicted." You won't as much harbor a tiny mustard seed of doubt about the rightousness of the leaders who have given America its present criminal course until some higher authority has passed such a judgment.

Here's analogy for you about why that line of thinking is just plain wrong.

Imagine that you are high as kite (which shouldn't be too hard) or drunk as a skunk. For one reason or another, you find yourself behind the wheel of a car and get pulled over by the police. The police officer notes that your license plates tags have expired, your car has many mechanical defects making it clearly unsafe at any speed, you weren't wearing a seatbeat, and you don't have a driver's license, insurance, or registration. He discovers all of these ticketable offenses before he busts your ass for the DUI, which roadside tests and blood tests at the station confirm beyond a shadow of a doubt. But you get yourself a good lawyer, (you bribe the judge & blackmail the prosecutor,) and you accept a plea deal. Everything gets thrown out except the minor offense of not wearing a seatbelt without you even having to appear in a court of law.

Just because you weren't convicted of the DUI and the other offenses doesn't mean you weren't guilty of them. The officer caught you red-handed.

Now put yourself into the shoes of the police officer or the general public.

When you see the same drunk behind the wheel of the unsafe automobile weaving at high speed down the road right at you and other innocents, do you dismiss the empty liquor bottles thrown at your feet, his known history, his known offenses, and the obvious disrepair of the car -- this body of overwhelming evidence -- just because his connections make it highly unlikely that he'll ever be brought to court and convicted?

By your erroneous line of thinking, you would neither recognize the danger nor do all in your power to prevent death and destruction (of innocents). You would not pull the drunk over, force him to stop or go another course. Geez, you probably wouldn't even be courteous enough to drive in front of the drunk while honking your horn furiously to warn people to get out of his way.

Nope. Because you're waiting for that trial and conviction, you'd be following right behind (just as drunk) making sure to runover and cream those wayward pedestrians, signs, and mailboxes that the drunk missed.

And so you do here in this forum [The CSU Rocky Mountain Collegian].