American Democracy and Justice

by Errington C. Thompson, MD –

Is it a tale about big business? Or is America a tale about the little guy, the average Joe, or the average Sally? Is the United States of America about the Rockefellers, Carnegies, and the Elon Musks of the world?

America is about both. America is very much about how one man or woman has overcome enormous odds to become incredibly successful. But America is also about how one man or woman fought to keep their head above water.

Two Tales of Justice

Baithe Diop was shot twice in his cab. He was left to die. Unfortunately, his story of being an immigrant trying to overcome the odds ended in the Bronx in 1995. Eric Glisson and four other defendants were convicted of his senseless murder. Eric Glisson maintained that he was innocent. Glisson did everything he could from behind bars to legally free himself from prison.

Seventeen years later, as a Hail Mary, he writes a letter to a prosecutor in the US attorney’s office. He reiterates the details of the case and states that he is innocent. The prosecutor he wrote the letter to had retired, and somehow the letter ended up in the hands of John O’Malley, an investigator and former Bronx homicide detective.

In what can only be described as divine intervention, O’Malley was a former Bronx detective who helped take down the street gang, “Sex Money, and Murder.” He was personally involved when two of the gang members, as part of their plea deal, confessed to shooting a cab driver in 1995.

So, while reading the letter from Glisson, O’Malley remembers this confession from over a decade before. O’Malley takes it upon himself to reinvestigate the murder. The original case against Glisson was flimsy at best. With increased scrutiny, the case falls apart.

The conviction was overturned. Eric Glisson and his four co-defendants were finally freed. They received a $40 million judgment from the city of New York. It took over 17 years, but ultimately, justice was served.

The story of Adnan Syed is simply crazy. He was accused of and convicted of murdering his former girlfriend and high school classmate, Hae Min Lee, in 1999. There was no physical evidence connecting him to the crime. Everything about the investigation and the trial was weird. Important details seem to be overlooked. Key pieces of evidence used to convict Syed were later found to be bogus. Some of the chief witnesses were unreliable and not credible.

In 2014, the podcast “Serial” investigated almost every detail of Adnan Syed’s conviction. Based on the “Serial” investigation, HBO did a four-part documentary in 2019. The podcast and the documentary provide compelling evidence that Adnan Syed was not the killer. Finally, Syed was let out of prison, overturning his conviction. Syed spent over 23 years in jail.

I present these two wrongful convictions as examples of our justice system working poorly.

For our justice system to work, we have to believe that the justice system is, more often than not, convicting the right person. And, when our system makes a mistake, it must correct it.

Ideally, we all must admit that we are fallible. We all must acknowledge that we make mistakes. In these two cases, our system was slow, but we finally got it right. I wish our justice system was faster at re-investigating and clearing the innocent.

Elon Musk

It is funny to watch a man with the resources of Elon Musk make a wildly, how could I describe it—impulsive? erratic? let’s say, a highly questionable—decision to buy Twitter. This man is the CEO of Tesla. This man is the CEO of Space X. He is insanely rich. He is one of those men who can buy an island.

To see a man who is as confident as Elon Musk waffle like a schoolboy has been amusing. He tried to use every excuse in the book to back out of the Twitter deal. Unfortunately, he ran into those pesky things called contracts.

For Twitter, Musk has been a godsend. Twitter was losing money or they were not raking in money at the same pace as Facebook (known at Meta). They were going to have to take drastic measures. They would have to figure out a way to compete in a diverse and highly competitive social media landscape. Now they do not have to figure out anything. They can simply turn it all over to their Savior, Elon Musk.

Musk has a nearly impossible task. Twitter has to embrace “free speech” while at the same time controlling and even stamping out hate speech. For Twitter to be profitable, it has to interact with advertisers who do not want their products displayed next to a post denying the Holocaust. I will not pretend to speculate on how Twitter needs to fix its complex problem.

I will say that our democracy requires truth and honesty. Twitter can be a force for good or a force for evil. Which it chooses under Elon Musk is yet to be seen.

Herschel Walker

I have no idea how to talk about Herschel Walker. I would like to honestly condemn what he stands for and represents without falling into the trap. The trap, of course, is the racist, stereotypical misrepresentation of the black male athlete. You know the drill—all black athletes are stupid. All black athletes are puppets to some white “master” behind-the-scenes. All black athletes are violent. All black athletes are hypersexual. This is what has been said about black male athletes for decades.

I will say this, Herschel Walker is not a good person. He has lied about just about everything. Herschel Walker said he graduated in the top 1% of his class at the University of Georgia. This is not true: he didn’t graduate at all. Herschel Walker said that he trained to be an FBI agent. This appears to be a fabrication also. Most disturbing is that Herschel Walker pulled a gun on his ex-wife. There is an explosive claim from a former girlfriend that he paid for an abortion. Initially, Herschel Walker stated that he did not know the woman and never paid for an abortion. Now, his story seems to be falling apart.

Since playing football, Herschel Walker has had over 25 years to prove to Georgia that he is a good Christian. He should be able to point to deeds he has done to improve the community. He should have several charitable foundations. I just don’t see the track record. If you’re running for the US Senate, you should represent the best that America has to offer. Instead, Herschel Walker continues to show us that he is nowhere near the best.

Democracy

For our democracy to work, there has to be a balance between big business and labor. Everybody must believe that the system is working for them. Currently, the scales are tipped toward big business. Big business can do just about anything they want with little or no consequence.

For our democracy to move forward, we must have an informed electorate. Lies eat away at our democracy like cancer. But with the proliferation of falsehoods on social media, it is hard to know whom to trust as a reliable resource.

Can you trust The New York Times? Can you trust your local news? The 2020 election was not stolen—but millions of people don’t believe that proven fact.

The serial liar and promoter of conspiracy theories, Alex Jones, was recently convicted in separate trials in Texas and Connecticut of defaming the families of the victims of the 2012 murder spree at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. He was knowingly promoting falsehoods and was order to pay over $900 million in damages to those families.

Barring some unforeseen circumstances, his empire is no more. This is good, like chemotherapy for our cancer. Unfortunately, we live in a time where politicians and talk show hosts are rewarded for extremist rhetoric. And others are victimized by it.

Nancy Pelosi’s husband was brutally attacked in his house by one of these zombies motivated by lies. This zombie was reportedly looking for Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House.

Similarly, a group of four radical extremists were recently convicted of the attempted kidnapping of the governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer. And more lies, promulgated by many of the same online and broadcast and print “media” sources, fueled January 6th attack on the Capitol. Thousands of American citizens believed those lies, and more than 900 have been indicted for their insurrection against the government of the United States.

Vote!

Voting solves many of our problems. If you want abortion to be legal, vote. If you want to breathe clean air and drink clean water, vote. If you want FEMA to help disaster victims better, vote. If you want an economy that works for everyone, vote. If you’d like to expand ObamaCare, vote. If you would like to strengthen our public schools, vote. If you want to bring down the cost of higher education, vote. If you think the United States should lead a coalition supporting Ukraine, vote.

On the other hand, if you’d like more tax cuts for the rich, stay home. Put your feet up. If you would like to watch more than two dozen investigations into Hunter Biden’s finances by Congress, come up with a reason not to vote. If you want all women, and all minorities, and everyone without connections, money, and power in Washington, to be second-class citizens whose rights are being attacked, stay home and let it happen.

But if you want America to return to a path of becoming “a more perfect union,” a path where we listen to “the better angels of our nature,” a path that holds promise for the future, then get out and VOTE.

The most important thing we can do to support our democracy and combat the blizzard of lies is to vote.

NOTE: The views and opinions expressed here, as well as assertions of facts, are those of the author. They do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of The Urban News.