We can all be grateful that visitors to Orlando can now focus on the family entertainment fantasies being played out at Disney World rather than the side show emanating from the Orange County Courthouse. Those dissatisfied with the verdict in the Casey Anthony trial, should redirect their vitriol to the gullibility of the American public, all too ignorant of the protections we enjoy because of the presumption of innocence until proven guilty.
Florida still has a long way to go to qualify as the apex of civil rights in the U.S. But, yesterday's verdict takes a giant leap forward from the heyday of the Orlando Klavern blowing up the residence of NAACP worker Harry T. Moore, killing both Harry and his wife, Harriette. In 1972, the end of the 28-year reign of terror by then Sheriff of Lake County, Willis V. McCall, revealed a change in the times in Florida, long a stronghold of anti-union and segregationist sentiments. Perhaps it was the influx of retirees and snowbirds seeking respite from northerly climes, as Isabel Wilkerson suggests. Or, maybe just the relentless force of reason, implying that justice for one can mean justice for all.
We'll never know what the verdict might have been had Casey Anthony been black, but the day after America's birthday, all Americans can celebrate the fact that a jury of her peers lost no time in affirming that a person accused of first degree murder cannot be deprived of life or liberty in the absence of compelling evidence to convict.
Cross-posted to The Rennaisance Post
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