The Unfair Trial of Omar Khadr

In The Crucible, the children accuse many people of witchcraft. Danforth, however, never doubts the honesty of the accusers, until it's too late, and he's killed many people. It was unfair of Danforth to allow such loose, and easily faked, proof be used as solid evidence for giving people the death penalty.

This is why in America today, people are given the right to a fair trial. But even if that is one of our laws, it is not always held up. An example I found of this was with the case of Omar Khadr. Briefly, he was a prisoner of war, and the first person tried under Obama's new military commissions that made it possible for people proven innocent to be held indefinitely. Khadr had been held in prison for 8 years, since he was only 15 years old. With these new commissions, Obama is basically saying since we are at war with the al Qaeda, we are allowed to give people unfair trials.

This obviously violates different laws, like the ones that state people are allowed a fair trial, and are allowed to go free if they are proven innocent. Because of this, I disagree with this case, and believe this to be an unfair trial. If we are allowing people, ones who have been proven innocent even, to be locked up forever, like criminals, then why bother even having courts? Why not just throw everyone accused in prison forever? It would save us time and money.


In both cases, we have to take into account how honest the accusers are. After all, it is possible that people can lie. No matter what they've been taught growing up. It is human nature.

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Sources:
http://blog.amnestyusa.org/tag/unfair-trials/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omar_Ahmed_Khadr

The Crucible - Why?

The Crucible is about the Salem witch-hunts, nearly 300 years ago. Unless you actually looked and thought about the story, you would probably miss how it relates to our lives today.

For one, in the beginning of the story, we are introduced to John Proctor, a man who tries to live his life as honorably and truthfully as he can, but he is tempted into sin. Being a moral person inside, he regrets his sins, and tries to make up for them. Many people can relate to this, because we all make mistakes, and we often regret them. As long as you learn from your mistakes and try your best to better yourself through them, though, you should be proud of yourself.

Another way the book relates to modern life would be how the girls acted out to get attention. As Abigail admitted to John Proctor, they were just playing around, but since the village had noticed them, they decided to use their actions to gain power and attention. In modern society, it doesn't happen as drastically as it did in the play, but there are many people who want attention, and will do anything for it.


Just because a book or play was written a long time ago, doesn't mean you have nothing to learn from it, because things have changed since then. There are many morals and themes that great books and plays were written to capture and emphasize that are still very true today.


That is a big factor in why we still read books like this today.


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