Just when you thought Election 2008 couldn’t get more dramatic, here comes something that I feel might affect the election outcome, depending on the resolution. It’s not the budget deficit; it’s not the war, or the economy or the emergence of hockey mom Sarah Palin on the Republican vice- presidential ticket. It’s none of the above.
It’s a mess that has been haunting race relations in this country for 13 years: OJ Simpson. Just when you thought this country was ready for change (McCain’s or Obama’s), the memory of the most racially divisive trial in the history of American jurisprudence comes back to test the American psyche on what I call America’s lingering terminal disease: Racism.
As I write, jury selection begins at the Clarke County Regional Center in Las Vegas. Simpson charged with armed robbery and kidnapping, faces possible life imprisonment. Judge Jackie Glass says to the prospective jurors: “IF YOU THINK YOU ARE GOING TO PUNISH Mr. Simpson for what happened in 1995, this is not the case for you.”
Yeah right! Finding jurors who were not affected by the Trial of the Century, is like trying to find a man who was not aroused while watching the Halle Berry love scene in Monster’s Ball,( I’m not counting those men on medication).
Don't get me wrong—I think Simpson had something to do with the murder in 1995, and he was stupid to try to retrieve trophies in “Sin City.” But Simpson regardless of his contemptuous character represents a conversation that America needs to have about race.
Even if Simpson is convicted this time – racial acrimony is not going away.
Judge Glass says the third Simpson trial will last about five weeks.Beyond
five weeks from now another closing argument will be given, not to a jury in Las Vegas, but to a jury of voters who will decide the fate of the nation.
Time will tell if the verdicts in both trials will heal the sickness America refuses to confront.
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