Yet Ye Be Not Judged

The American system of justice is all too often sadly lacking. It has little to do with the "justice" pontificates. More correctly it appears increasingly a conglomerate of rules, codicils, propositions, hypotheses, interpretations, emotional relevance and objections based upon power, influence, and money.

This is why murderers, rapists, and child molesters are on the streets of our cities while the individual who fraudulently used a credit card might be sitting in prison for the next 20 years.

This is also the reason for the plethora of vigilante film heroes of the Charles Bronson and Clint Eastwood genre. The disenfranchised and frightened audience gets its vicarious pleasure from seeing "justice" swiftly and dramatically rendered.

Just imagine for a moment a film entitled, "Yet Ye Be Not Judged." The final scene takes place in the courtroom. On trial are the parents of a child with cancer. They made the "mistake" of trying to integrate alternative therapy into the conventional medical forms of treatment. With their heinous "crime" discovered, they are now fighting to keep out of prison.

Prosecuting Attorney: Now, your honor, if I may sum up this case. We have this chiropractor here who had the nerve to try to keep his child out of the hands of qualified medical experts. He dared to want to take his child off of the wonder drugs that were being given, on the ridiculous claim that his child was having adverse reactions to them. I want to call to the stand the defendant, Mr. Fred Smith.

Dr. Smith is sworn in.

Dr.: Before we begin, I'd like to clarify my title to the court. I'm a legally licensed doctor of chiropractic, so I should properly be addressed as "Dr."

P: Oooooo, sorry. You want to be called a "doctor?"

Dr: Not as an expression of ego but just to address my legal status as a licensed member of the healing arts. This should lend credibility to my assessment of my child's health and the value of the therapy he's undergoing.

P: You're just a chiropractor, not a real doctor.

Dr: I can't change your personal prejudices. Everyone has to live with his or her own ignorance, but satisfaction with that ignorance is fertile ground for the expansion of one's stupidity. Yours seems to be growing at an alarming rate.

Judge: Now you stop that. If you say anything nasty to the prosecutor again, I'll have you thrown in jail faster than you can say AMA. Proceed Mr. Prosecutor.

P: Thank you, Your Honor. Personally, Mr. Smith, I believe that you and your entire bunch are quacks and should be put in jail.

Defense Attorney: (who looks exactly like Clint Eastwood) I object -- the prosecutor is calling the witness a quack. That's grounds for slander!

J: Overruled. Continue your brilliant line of questioning Mr. Prosecutor.

P: Thank you, Your Honor. Now, where was I? Oh yes -- so you think you know more than a real doctor?

Dr.: In some areas I am certainly more qualified.

P: Yeah? Like what?

Dr.: In those subjects they have had little or no education in -- such as physical therapy, radiology, spinal manipulation, reflexology, and nutrition, to name a few.

P: How about drug therapy?

Dr: No, I never use prescription drugs. But then the medical practitioner with his paltry 60-hour average schooling in the subject shouldn't either. They are crucifying my son on the cross of their ego and greed. The side effects of the drug therapy he's undergoing have been horrendous. And all I've asked to do is put my own child on a special nutritional regimen to supplement the drugs he's being forced to take, in the hopes of reducing all the adverse reactions. For my "audicity" my child has been taken away to die in the way prescribed by the egomaniacal MDs and their greedy partners -- the pharmaceutical houses.

J: I object. I can't tolerate such heresy in my court. I'm going to put you away until you repent for having questioned the wisdom of the medical profession.

D: No, Your Honor -- I object. I've never heard such nonsense in my life. To think that you have the nerve to sit on that bench and take away someone's child because they love and want to help him is insane.

J: Order, order. How dare you----

D: You bet I dare. I'm fed up, along with an increasing number of the American people, with the arrogance of the medical establishment and the hypocritical compliance of the judiciary. With no background in the healing arts you automatically give total support to anything said by organized medicine. How dare you judge something you aren't even remotely qualified to? What and who gives you the right to take away someone's child on a medical caprice or whim, you pompous windbag?

The judge reaches for his gavel.

D: Go ahead -- make my day.

With that the defense attorney reaches across the bench and grabs the judge by his robes. He then lifts him overhead and throws him into the prosecutor. The court erupts in cheers. The doctor and his wife run over to the defense attorney and embrace him as the music swells.

J: I've seen the light. Please give me a chance to mend my ways.

The defense attorney's eyes narrow to an Eastwoodian squint.

D: Get out of here you scum bag. And take that moronic prosecutor with you.

The police drag them away whimpering for mercy, as the credits come across the screen. And this is my present to our frustrated Eastwood/Bronson fans. Kinda nice, huh?