As Regards The Duke Lacrosse Case

I may offend certain people out there employed or under the employ of legal affairs, but the recently resolved Duke lacrosse case is apparently yet another instance where hyperbole and race were used to inflate a case that didn't exist from the beginning.

We are gullible creatures but I must admit that I was skeptical from the beginning. Before we even entertain race, let's consider the facts of the case, which had all the marks of a good pulp novel as well as a good way to bait the American people. All the variables were present for a good morality tale: sex, greed, race. We seemed to be headed for yet another treatise on how, despite it all, America continues to be a nation that has not resolved its race problem and here's why.

I wish I could say I'm surprised, but I'm not. A good friend of my father's was once sentenced to a long jail term on bogus charges. His only offense? Beating the prosecution at its own game as well as a case of playing it too close to the line for a career. After using up his life savings, plus borrowing thousands of dollars in credit, he was eventually exonerated of all charges but one. The one charge sent him to prison where he was subjected to manual labor at a late age in life and suffered a severe physical impairment. He eventually perished of a heart attack before he reached age 60. I'll go to my grave thinking the Feds did it--and in all honesty, he was never the same after returning from prison.

The lesson of this story: don't monkey around with the Feds and place yourself in too many dubiously legal situations or eventually you will reap what you sow.

I've begun to see the legal profession as I see the police: a necessary evil. It is true that we are quick to judge both professions but when we need both, we run as quickly as we can to them. I once considered a career in law but I realized I can't run on stress for kicks. You've got to be wired a particular sort of way for that and that's not how I function.