Courtroom

*This is my darkest one to date. It's not as poetic, philisophical, or good as the others, but deadlines are deadlines. And I only missed this one by a few minutes. Email me at legolasnumber@hotmail.com or IM me at HHHthegame1999, comments are appreciated*The best place to entertain your sense of morbid curiosity is a mortuary. However, since most of us don't have access to one due to OSHA requirements for special training, there is only one place people can go to in order to have a good, hardy laugh at others misfortune, and that place is the courtroom.I would recommend to anybody with a day to kill to just go down there and hang out, it’s worth doing, at least once, and they can't kick you out, unless you do something disruptive. It's great.Whenever you go into this place, this sanctuary of justice, if you will, you will notice to distinct feelings amongst the inhabitants of the courtroomthe first is sorrow. When I was sitting in the (and I use this term loosely) audience earlier this week, I could see it on the face of everyman, woman, and yes even the children.The people being brought up on charges sit there, leaning forward, legs spread partly, looking down at the floor, hands folded in front of them. There’s a look on their faces, a look of contempt and sorrow. Black white, red, yellow, green, I don't give a fuck what race you are, you have this look.It's a look that says that I'm angry at myself for doing this shit, I'm angry at the victim for actually causing me to be here today, and I'm angry at the system for doing this to me.They are so blinded by anger, they can't see the obvious, its there own fault.They also have a look of sorrow on their faces. They are sad. They are sad that they will have there lives marred by this. They are sad that they will be paying for this for a long time. They are sad that this will fuck up their family. They are just sad.And you can see this EVERY time.The other emotion in this courtroom is Apathy.Apathy on behalf of those doling out the justice. For many of the people in the courtroom, this is a life altering event. This will change their life for ever, but for some people, judges, lawyers, stenographers, this is what to do before going to lunch.I looked up at the judge while she was sentencing a man. He was a black man. Black as night, and while he stood before her, eyes cast pleadingly upwards towards her (as they all do) she read off the rhetoric, as she had done a million times before. She could do it with her eyes closed. She read it straight through with out showing the slightest trace of emotion, and I can't blame her.A job like that, apathy is an essential tool of survival.What really heartbreaking though, is the children.A man, about 25, walked into the court with his four year old in hand. A cute little wisp of a child. He brought her a long, no doubt, in an anemic and ultimately, vain, attempt to inspire sympathy in the judge.As her daddy, who looked like an adult sized wigger, was brought up on charges for assault, she looked around with her big blue eyes, confused out of her mind, and scared.How was she supposed to know daddy had a bad temper? Did she already know daddy had a bad temper?Had she been hit? Had mommy been hit? Was there even a mommy around?These questions came to me as I choked back tears.As she walked past me after daddy's 3 minute "trial" (to which he plead guilty) I tried to flash her a smile, but I was so sad I couldn't do anything but look with pity.Then, if you're dark enough, and can sit through the pain of watching jobless men receive fines and children cling to violent daddy’s, there's the fun part.Drunk driving, drunk driving, possession of alcohol, 3rd count of possession of alcohol. It's insane. About 2/3 of the people in the court room were in there for alcohol related charges. It's funny as hell and perhaps yet another marvelous indicator of just how sad and fucked up this little shit-hole of a city is.If you stay there long enough, there are some very weird things that people will do to each other just to get even.One man's girlfriend broke up with him, so one night, REALLY drunk; he went to her house and knocked on the door.For thirty minutes.She was so scared she called the police.That’s how he ended up here, that’s how I learned about what happened, in great detail, and it's oh so strange how all these things in life fall into place so that he would be mentioned in this blog.To quote a great song"Isn't it ironic, don't ya think?"What's really funny, is the prissy sorority girl though. They make me laugh. One was brought in for a count of alcohol possession AND fighting. From the way she was dressed and the jewelry she wore, it makes you wonder what exactly is wrong with her life that she would do something like that, but this questioning moment is usually killed by the laughter of little miss priss being trapped in a room with the scum of society.It's an interesting place, to say the least, a series of contradictions that mesh together into the most appropriate theme possible in a place like this. The theme is getting in get out, as soon as you can.Judges and lawyers want it done, so they can go home and forget.Clients want it done because they can assess the damage, and go out and get fucked up to try and forget.To opposites working for the same end, what a country, what a day, what a building.So sad, so funny, so quick, so slow.When you think about, it’s so perfect; the courtroom is the best example of what life is all about.We need all this shit, to experience life.We need the fastness of the trial dates, we need the slowness of the waiting for them, we need the sorrow to experience growth, and we need the happiness to give us a reason to cling to life.The courtroom is a microcosm for existence.*there you go John and Jason, are you satisfied?*