Also tonight is the night in which the jury of the trial of O. J. Simpson decided to come to a verdict and the reading of the verdict was toward the end of President Clinton's address.
Tonight also was the time for the Republican Party to give a response to the "State of the Union" address. They choose Representative J.C. Watts from Oklahoma to give this response. Representative Watts is a second term Republican, a graduate of the University of Oklahoma, a college and Professional football player and a black American.
The networks carried the President's speech and then broke away to the Courthouse in Santa Monica California to find out what the verdict was. The speech of Representative Watts was only carried live by one network while the cameras of the networks stayed on the crowds around the Courthouse. During this time the networks carried interviews with many attorneys and others for their opinion of the verdict. Who really cared!!! It was all guess work and some not very good at all.
At the time that the President was talking about race relations in this nation the Clerk of the Court was reading the unanimous verdict that found O. J. Simpson was liable for the deaths of ex-wife and her friend. At the same time the jury by unanimous verdict handed down an award of $8,500,000.
The criminal trial did more to divide this country between black and white then anything that has happened in my lifetime. Virtually all whites think that O. J. did kill his ex-wife and her friend. The black population in America likewise thought he was innocent of the crime. In the courts they found that the prosecution did not show enough convincing evidence that they could convict him "beyond a shadow of a doubt", as required in a criminal case. Yet in the civil trial that is just over, this jury found that "the preponderance of the evidence" did find that he was responsible and civilly liable for their deaths.
Now we have the black community happy and rejoicing in finding that O. J. was "Not Guilty" in the criminal trial. Now the whites are happy and rejoicing that he is found liable in the civil trial. Have both races won or have we both lost? Where do we go from here in race relations in this country? Is there a solution? Are we even now and can we move forward? Is it more important in this country that we instantly know the results of the Simpson trial then it is to hear the President of the United States laying out his program for the next four years that will effect all of us for years to come. Apparently the TV networks think so! More questions then answers.
Do I have any answers. Sometimes I think I may have some better solutions then the politicians do. What are those answers, some I am sure of some are still forming. Maybe I will write about them later.
Yes it was a strange night.
