o.j. simpson

[Assorahj]

i'll try to work through this one without having my head explode.

it's been over a decade since the complete farce of the simpson debacle shattered what remaining faith i had in humanity. and, no, it's not because a football hero of mine turned out to be an ultra-violent, cowardly murderer. it was not that the system failed and that evidence such as the slo-mo bronco tv filler was not allowed in. it was not the pitiful, illiterate 'goodbye note' that o.j. penned to the public. it wasn't even the verdict. no. it was something worse. something i very stupidly, ignorantly imagined would be different.

it was the response.

for the first time, the real, true, very first time, i realized that the gap was unbreachable. we are separate. hundreds of photographs were taken of hundreds of groups gathered around the country to watch the reading of the judgment. in every picture, in every frame, i saw the simple truth. every 'white' person stared on in disbelief. every 'black' person stood and cheered. young, old, it was immaterial. there it stood, laid out before me. the wound is too deep.

so, anything to do with o.j. simpson is a particular sore spot for me. espn gave o.j. an interview, so i stopped watching espn. pete carrol welcomed o.j. onto the southern cal practice field, so i became anti-usc.

and now, somehow, giving the creep a vehicle with which to brag about getting away with the murder of two humans, seemed like a swell idea to enough people with the power to make it happen that it is fait accompli.

it doesn't matter that murdoch came on at the eleventh hour to kill the event. (how truly impressive that a guy at the helm of the information cesspool had the singular wit to determine the spectacle to be a poor idea.) you see, it was done. we all know it was done. the families of the victims know it was done. o.j. simpson, free of any recrimination, was allowed the vehicle to flaunt his freedom, to taunt those whose lives he brutalized. and we all know it.

o.j. simpson, wherever you are: you give me true hope that there is a forever-lake-of-fire that your ass is gonna roast in.