THIS IS SUBMITTED IN RESPONSE TO TODAY'S PIECE "US NEARS 600,000 VIRUS DEATHS DESPITE PROGRESS AGAINST THE VACCINE"
THIS WAS WRITTEN BY ME ON NOVEMBER 21,2020
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Closing Argument for the Prosecution - The People of the State of New
York vs Donald John Trump
October 6, 2024
Six Counts- Depraved Indifference to Human Life
What is the value of a life? What is its worth? It cannot be
determined in dollars and cents. It is not a commodity that can be
traded. It is something that can truly only be measured in terms of
its impact on others, those it touches, those it shapes. In the final
analysis the value of a life, for good or bad, is judged by what it
leaves in its wake.
You all know the catastrophic numbers of Covid 19. You all know that
Closing Argument for the Prosecution - The People of the State of New
York vs Donald John Trump
October 6, 2024
Six Counts- Depraved Indifference to Human Life
What is the value of a life? What is its worth? It cannot be
determined in dollars and cents. It is not a commodity that can be
traded. It is something that can truly only be measured in terms of
its impact on others, those it touches, those it shapes. In the final
analysis the value of a life, for good or bad, is judged by what it
leaves in its wake.
You all know the catastrophic numbers of Covid 19. You all know that
the landscape of this country was brutalized by this disease, raped
and pillaged and far, far too often left for dead. You all know of the
hospitals that were unable to serve their given purpose, the doctors
and nurses left screaming cries of anguish, their hearts broken day
after day at the helplessness they felt, at the smell of death that
permeated their souls.You all know of the families that were forced to
imagine the last breaths of a father, a mother, a daughter, a son, a
husband, a wife. You all know that these men and women are gravely
damaged, their spirits crushed, their tears a river of despair, their
days filled with an almost unfathomable pain.
I come before you not to ask for justice for the nearly 600,000 who
succumbed to a foe unlike any other this country has faced, a foe more
powerful than the most brutal dictator, a foe more devastating than an
atomic bomb. I do not seek retribution here for the countless millions
who are collateral damage, who have lost a friend, a lover, a
companion, a guide, a partner, a mentor, a child, a parent, a
grandparent. That is not my role.
I am tasked only with making sure that six people, six residents of
the State of New York, did not die without a voice. I am their voice
and I have told you, in chapter and verse, of their final days upon
this earth, their final words, their final looks of fear, of
loneliness, of bewilderment. Their final moments and what surely were
their last wishes.
I have told you of the days that came before Covid 19, that came when
their world was a very different place, when they were free to love
and laugh, to argue and complain, to spend their hours dreaming of the
promise of tomorrow. I have told you of the lives they lived before it
all came to a screeching halt. All because of one bad breath taken in,
one errant touch. All because of something that happened that didn't
have to.
They were neither young nor old, rich nor poor, black nor white. They
were neither perfect nor imperfect, happy nor sad, knowledgeable nor
uninformed. They were all of these things and more. They were not you,
but they could have been. They were not leaders but they might have
been. They were not destined for greatness but they should have been.
We will never know what their future held in store for them because
they have no future, only a past. Because they are dead today, they
will be dead tomorrow and for all the tomorrow's to come. There is a
finality to their existence that no wishing, no begging, no summation
of a prosecutor of the State of New York can undo.
Donald Trump didn't care about any of these people. He did not give
one thought to their welfare. He did not care about the hospital
workers, the nursing home residents. He did not care about the lives
that any of the almost 600,000 led. He did not care about their
stories, about their days, about their worries, about their dreams. He
did not care about how they lived. He did not even care if they
died.They were faceless, nameless and, in his estimation, wholly
unworthy of his consideration.
How do we know that? How do we know of his heartlessness, of his
cruelty, of his depraved indifference to the very existence of those
he was charged to protect. We know it from the words of the reporters
to whom he revealed his knowledge of the horrible certainties of this
disease and his admitted determination to do nothing about it. Even
worse than nothing. He made a calculated decision to lie about the
danger, to treat it as if it were a nuisance rather than the
unstoppable force he knew it to be. We know it in his words
challenging and belittling the pronouncements of science, of those
within his own ranks who pleaded for sanity and reason. We know it in
his endless capacity to mock those individuals who preached, who
practiced respect for the power of the enemy and who pleaded and
prayed for the President to be an equal and opposing power. We know
it in his mistreatment of those states, New York chief among them,
from whom he withheld critical supplies, equipment and monies to
battle the enemy. We know it in the maskless gatherings of thousands,
all come to worship at the feet of this false God, all then taking the
possibility of disease away with them from these sites. We know it in
his demand for those in his administration, and those Republican
governors, senators and congressmen to follow his lead in exposing the
populations under their dominion to senseless danger. He even
willingly enlisted his wife, his own children to take part in this
Devil's play.
And for what reason did this occur? What benefit outweighed the
incalculable harm? For there must have been something. God knows there
had to be something. But we all know there wasn't. At least nothing
beyond satiating one man's ego. Nothing more than an unwillingness to
permit others to tell him how to run his country. Others to put his
reelection at risk. Others to impede his coronation. Others to
persuade him that the lives of those entrusted to his care were
something more than worthless commodities, something greater than a
dollars and cents calculation of the possible drop in value of a stock
portfolio.
And so today, you are given the solemn responsibility of reporting
back to the State of New York, to the United States of America, to the
world and to Donald John Trump that this is finally the day of
reckoning. Today is finally the time that the actions of this
Defendant have consequences for him. That a man whose life has only
been devoted to protecting himself, will be unequivocally informed
that he has failed in that goal, even as he has failed to protect, to
save the lives of the six in whose names we bring Mr. Trump to
justice.
For in the end, his life can only be measured by the devastation he
has left in his wake. And for this, I respectfully request, and the
six lives that are no more, demand justice. Demand a verdict of guilty
as charged.
Thank you.
and pillaged and far, far too often left for dead. You all know of the
hospitals that were unable to serve their given purpose, the doctors
and nurses left screaming cries of anguish, their hearts broken day
after day at the helplessness they felt, at the smell of death that
permeated their souls.You all know of the families that were forced to
imagine the last breaths of a father, a mother, a daughter, a son, a
husband, a wife. You all know that these men and women are gravely
damaged, their spirits crushed, their tears a river of despair, their
days filled with an almost unfathomable pain.
I come before you not to ask for justice for the nearly 600,000 who
succumbed to a foe unlike any other this country has faced, a foe more
powerful than the most brutal dictator, a foe more devastating than an
atomic bomb. I do not seek retribution here for the countless millions
who are collateral damage, who have lost a friend, a lover, a
companion, a guide, a partner, a mentor, a child, a parent, a
grandparent. That is not my role.
I am tasked only with making sure that six people, six residents of
the State of New York, did not die without a voice. I am their voice
and I have told you, in chapter and verse, of their final days upon
this earth, their final words, their final looks of fear, of
loneliness, of bewilderment. Their final moments and what surely were
their last wishes.
I have told you of the days that came before Covid 19, that came when
their world was a very different place, when they were free to love
and laugh, to argue and complain, to spend their hours dreaming of the
promise of tomorrow. I have told you of the lives they lived before it
all came to a screeching halt. All because of one bad breath taken in,
one errant touch. All because of something that happened that didn't
have to.
They were neither young nor old, rich nor poor, black nor white. They
were neither perfect nor imperfect, happy nor sad, knowledgeable nor
uninformed. They were all of these things and more. They were not you,
but they could have been. They were not leaders but they might have
been. They were not destined for greatness but they should have been.
We will never know what their future held in store for them because
they have no future, only a past. Because they are dead today, they
will be dead tomorrow and for all the tomorrow's to come. There is a
finality to their existence that no wishing, no begging, no summation
of a prosecutor of the State of New York can undo.
Donald Trump didn't care about any of these people. He did not give
one thought to their welfare. He did not care about the hospital
workers, the nursing home residents. He did not care about the lives
that any of the almost 600,000 led. He did not care about their
stories, about their days, about their worries, about their dreams. He
did not care about how they lived. He did not even care if they
died.They were faceless, nameless and, in his estimation, wholly
unworthy of his consideration.
How do we know that? How do we know of his heartlessness, of his
cruelty, of his depraved indifference to the very existence of those
he was charged to protect. We know it from the words of the reporters
to whom he revealed his knowledge of the horrible certainties of this
disease and his admitted determination to do nothing about it. Even
worse than nothing. He made a calculated decision to lie about the
danger, to treat it as if it were a nuisance rather than the
unstoppable force he knew it to be. We know it in his words
challenging and belittling the pronouncements of science, of those
within his own ranks who pleaded for sanity and reason. We know it in
his endless capacity to mock those individuals who preached, who
practiced respect for the power of the enemy and who pleaded and
prayed for the President to be an equal and opposing power. We know
it in his mistreatment of those states, New York chief among them,
from whom he withheld critical supplies, equipment and monies to
battle the enemy. We know it in the maskless gatherings of thousands,
all come to worship at the feet of this false God, all then taking the
possibility of disease away with them from these sites. We know it in
his demand for those in his administration, and those Republican
governors, senators and congressmen to follow his lead in exposing the
populations under their dominion to senseless danger. He even
willingly enlisted his wife, his own children to take part in this
Devil's play.
And for what reason did this occur? What benefit outweighed the
incalculable harm? For there must have been something. God knows there
had to be something. But we all know there wasn't. At least nothing
beyond satiating one man's ego. Nothing more than an unwillingness to
permit others to tell him how to run his country. Others to put his
reelection at risk. Others to impede his coronation. Others to
persuade him that the lives of those entrusted to his care were
something more than worthless commodities, something greater than a
dollars and cents calculation of the possible drop in value of a stock
portfolio.
And so today, you are given the solemn responsibility of reporting
back to the State of New York, to the United States of America, to the
world and to Donald John Trump that this is finally the day of
reckoning. Today is finally the time that the actions of this
Defendant have consequences for him. That a man whose life has only
been devoted to protecting himself, will be unequivocally informed
that he has failed in that goal, even as he has failed to protect, to
save the lives of the six in whose names we bring Mr. Trump to
justice.
For in the end, his life can only be measured by the devastation he
has left in his wake. And for this, I respectfully request, and the
six lives that are no more, demand justice. Demand a verdict of guilty
as charged.
Thank you.
2 comments:
May your powerful and heartfelt words, pleas and prayers for justice be answered tenfold.
EA
So beautifully written. Let us hope that the public comes to understand these crimes, and that history's judgment is guilty as charged.--RE
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