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We're extremely pleased to welcome best-selling author James Scott Bell to Net Listings as our newest featured columnist. Mr. Bell has written more than a dozen books, including such highly acclaimed legal thrillers as "Breach of Promise" and the newly published "Sins of the Fathers," as well as many fascinating historical novels. His recently released "Plot and Structure," a book about how to write, has been hailed by critics as the best of its kind. Mr. Bell has been a guest speaker at numerous writers' conferences, and teaches a popular writing seminar at Pepperdine University.
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 Reality Check
By James Scott Bell
Why the Law Matters
During the recent Michael Jackson trial, many a talking head on the airwaves had the man convicted.
Yes, there is a First Amendment right to express one's opinion, but I wish those with such influence exercised greater responsibility. The overheated rhetoric inflames passions. It's the sort of thing that used to fuel lynch mobs.
The law exists for a reason. It is the hedge between passions and actions, the wall that separates the barbarians from the civilized. If we break down that wall, what's to protect us?
Michael Jackson may be convicted in the court of public opinion, but under the law the evidence was not enough to convict, and that is as it should be.
What's worrisome to me is the mindset that says giving up the law's presumptions is okay if we don't like the other side. But what happens when WE become the other side? The pendulum always swings back at some point.
Everyone ought to watch "A Man For All Seasons" again. There's a great moment between Thomas More and his son-in-law, a colloquy in which young Roper believes the ends justify the means. It goes like this:
More: There is no law against that.
Roper: There is! God's law!
More: Then God can arrest him.
Roper: Sophistication upon sophistication.
More: No, sheer simplicity. The law, Roper, the law. I know what's legal not what's right. And I'll stick to what's legal.
Roper: Then you set man's law above God's!
More: No, far below; but let me draw your attention to a fact - I'm not God. The currents and eddies of right and wrong, which you find such plain sailing, I can't navigate. I'm no voyager. But in the thickets of the law, oh, there I'm a forrester. I doubt if there's a man alive who could follow me there, thank God....
Alice : While you talk, he's gone!
More: And go he should, if he was the Devil himself, until he broke the law!
Roper: So now you'd give the Devil benefit of law!
More: Yes. What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
Roper: I'd cut down every law in England to do that!
More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you - where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country's planted thick with laws from coast to coast - man's laws, not God's - and if you cut them down - and you're just the man to do it - d'you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake.
www.jamesscottbell.com
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me your opinions at jsbell@netlistings.com
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