I did not write the laws.  Great men have put much thought into that.  It is possible to read the laws and understand how they should be applied.  This can be done impartially, and I do it.

Except once.

I had never seen his like.  He was powerful like a king yet somehow humble.  You sensed meaning in whatever he said.  I said to myself, “This man is beyond the law.”

But I had a job to do, so the other judges and I heard the facts.  We questioned him.  But his answers could be taken in many ways.  Again, I thought, “The laws were not written for him.”

Yet, what the law said was clear.  We had to find him guilty.  Oddly, he wasn’t angry.  He was almost—dare I say it—amused.  I thought, “He arranged this.”  Yet the idea was absurd.  He knew what would follow.

And yet, to this day, I can think of no other explanation.

I am haunted by what I had to do.

—               Lou Gottlieb                                  4/4/2007