Maybe 30 minutes ago, I watched the reading of the jury verdict in the Kyle Rittenhouse case. I have watched key verdicts come down before, the OJ case, a case against one of the Kennedy’s, and have read Joyce Carole Oates’ chilling fictional piece on Chappaquiddick, entitled Black Water. I have come to expect, as a former litigator who was trained–a real rookie– during Greylord, that cases get fixed and people do bad things.

So I believe the Rittenhouse trial was fixed; it was crazy how the judge allowed Rittenhouse to pick the jury straws (or whatever they are called in WI), castigate the prosecutors, and knock out the gun charges. Even my K-9 (students realize that tampering with jury instructions is a no-no.

I also believe that the Rittenhouse case was fixed because I am certain that some power (that is above all of us) would NEVER excuse a kid carrying an assault weapon across state lines and call it a romp. I also believe the case was fixed because–on top of being a lawyer–I have a doctorate from DePaul and one of the persons in my cohort worked at Harper High and another worked in Evanston–and they KNEW where kids got guns from–local law enforcement!

Are we civilized or not because I am fearing that today’s behaviors, driven by our former and disgraced President, “Donald T,” have opened the door to indecency, corruption, lies, abuse, dehumanization; the list goes on and on and will continue until we find some adults in the Republican Party with consciences. The divide is no longer political–it’s good people v. bad people!

I believe in the power of goodness. And since I believe that one of the people Rittenhouse shot was Jewish (trust me, I can turn to any religion and find great humans), I’ll quote Anne Frank, who like me, shoots messages of optimism in the scariest of times:

In spite of everything–and we are dipping to a low similar to the Holocaust–I, too, believe that people are good at heart.

And just eight more words to the Republicans–some who are definitely good folks–say, Adam Kipzinger, Liz Cheney, Mitt Romney and others–pass federal legislation that protects against voter suppression.

P.S. Maybe the juries in Georgia will do better than the WI folks.

When will a Serbian refugee granted parole achieve liberty?