Chapter 14
They left the shelter as the sun came up. Dave went into the kitchen at the house to sit down at the sunlit table and prepare a talk he would give later that day regarding his experiences with the Red Shirts and what he saw on the journey.
Dan sat on the porch with Susan as they waited for two of his friends from the area to join them. Dan would ask one to be a defense lawyer for Ralph and the other one to be the judge. James would prosecute, he said. He said they would get a jury from the people they regularly saw at the bazaar.
Dan's two friends made their way up the driveway, they spoke of the trial for a few minutes as Susan listened then Dan introduced them as Margaret and Nancy. Darius, James and Emma's cousins began to set up tables for the bazaar and people had began walking up the driveway carrying their wares for trade. Many had expressed their sympathy and sadness for Emma and their loss as they walked by Dan towards their tables.
Some put bouquets of wild flowers on the porch. Dan said that those were mostly from people that had children themselves. Their sadness was more real than with people who did not have children and they felt a debt to him for how Emma's loss made their children more valuable to them. The debt was acknowledged as compassion, an offer to help with whatever they could, and in the flowers they had brought.
Susan asked Dan and the other two lawyers about what would happen at the trial after they finished making the arrangements for it. The woman that was to be the defense lawyer, Margaret, said that it would be a very different trial than what was normally done and probably look more like something she may have seen on an old black and white TV show or movie rather than modern courts of justice she may have seen if she had ever been in court.
All laws applied would be derived from the fact that all men own their own consciousness, given to them by God. These laws were written in the Bible but often mis-understood as absolutes. She explained that law could never be absolute.
She explained that the Holy Trinity was known as the Father, The Son and the Holy Ghost. The father was God, the law giver, the son, Jesus Christ was forgiveness and the Holy Ghost was conscience*. She explained that the lawyers would argue law and if they found him guilty it would imply what people normally called a punishment, but that really it wasn't, "Only God has punitive rights"* she said. "The court is for the payment of a debt", She added. *Religion Within The Boundaries Of Mere Reason, Kant.
She said it didn't matter if you believed in Jesus or not, these ideas had been worked out by the philosophers of the Schools and the Greeks, the greatest of the philosophers, and that the Bible and Greek philosophy was the basis for English Jurisprudence, the science that set man free from arbitrary dogma and allowed rational knowledge to expand and led to the notion of individual rights, the fact that we are conscious and own our own lives, to form law in Western society. Its the law of the land in the Western world and its ideas and the tradition known as the Law Merchant were well enough developed to support commerce and Western expansion of trade over hundreds of years, until private banking interests had taken over governments necessitating the need for a complex Legal system and positivist philosophy to mask the law behind a Legal system.
A jury would prevent a guilty verdict if that verdict would make the court do something unconscionable or if a guilty verdict itself was unconscionable, even if a law was broken in exigent circumstances. She said "Juries serve as the conscience of the court, they are not experts at law but apply the God given expertise that was in every mans heart, the basic knowledge of right and wrong." She explained that the jury was the governor, the human factor to protect people from the machinery. She added "The spirit of the law, not its letter, which can never be made perfect.". She added that there was an old case that held precedent that said juries were not required to understand their duties to form a lawful jury* in the powered society and this made people confused about the law without knowing they were confused. *see Jury Nullification
"The person accused is not considered to be a pre-existing debtor to the state in our court and therefore has rights and therefore would not be judged according to the letter of the law, if we had written laws for everything." she added. She explained that the jury for this trial would be properly educated and understand their obligation to the accused and to the court, to operate from conscience.
Susan remained quietly while closely listening to the woman. She had never heard law put into these terms before. She looked at Dan when the woman finished.
Dan said that even in exigent circumstances, a crime is still a crime but forgiveness could be granted in the name of the Holy Ghost. He added that they did have written law, the only written law, that written for the Christian civilization that formed the West. He also mentioned the tradition of the Law Merchant*.*Introduction To Law Merchant, Byron Beers
The powered society had prisons filled with people that had hurt no one. People went to jail for political reasons and for victimless crimes but the people accepted the system by not speaking against it. They accepted the income tax, everyone knew the income tax was just a robbery and none of it went back into society, paying for government or capital works projects. "Everyone must have thought it was OK", he said.
"So it continued.....".
He elaborated to cite an example "If I told you that every day I was going to come to your table and take something and you didn't object, that constitutes acceptance and there is no lawful reason for me not to come to your table and take something.".
"That's why they taught scientific nonsense like evolution, to separate people from the knowledge of the laws of man, so the rulers could become Gods and their rules get accepted. They put the rights of the community ahead of the individual and their end justified their means. People were often afraid to object and men no longer own their own lives and they become pawns in grander schemes set out by rulers for their own benefit.".
He stopped for a moment to give Susan a moment to think. "If science becomes God then the purpose of life becomes scientific. The purpose of life becomes to make poop and carbon dioxide to feed the plants. They feed us, we feed them. There is no higher purpose or value to life. Consciousness disappears. Consciousness itself isn't scientific because science cannot explain it so according to science it doesn't exist. Consciousness gives us conscience, the knowledge of right and wrong and the right to own our own bodies. Without conscience we are merely machines.".
"The problem with the scientific viewpoint is that people misunderstand science as truth rather than merely observation, which is in fact what it is, as if science can lead us to higher laws or a better moral relativism.".
"The accused was not punished", he said, "merely put into debt to Emma's family and the people of the community. Guilt or innocence of motive and subsequent punishment could only be judged by God, who knows what peoples motives are. Men can only judge by actions and damages, not intent, because true intent could never be known. They could grant forgiveness or clemency in the case of an unjust law or a law wrongfully applied in the name of the Holy Ghost.".
"Without consciousness, the law becomes a machine and punishes people that should not be punished. It allows people to be punished for political reasons, reasons for protecting rulers hopes, dreams and ambitions, not merely to protect people.".
Dan went on to explain how modern courts had been corrupted. He said "The judge and the attorneys were corrupted from serving two masters, one being the law and the other being the oligarchy, the financial powers." He paused and said "They served two masters and speak with a forked tongue." Susan laughed "You mean all their words meant two different things?" He responded "Exactly. You cannot serve two masters.".
The judge explained that in moral philosophy people often spoke of moral relativism as being the only correct philosophy and that this had been a result of communist brainwashing to divorce peoples mind from the idea of God and higher laws. The ends always justifies the means under authoritarian governments for the sake of political ob
jectives. Under a communist regime all truth is political. Morality had to be relative. "Laws have to be relative and not apply to everyone equally and this has to be accepted and it can be accepted without a higher moral law.".
He added "Our court isn't perfect either, none will ever be, but this court can prevent the sickness that comes from moral outrage. That is the ultimate purpose, along with the protection it gives from barbarians.".
"Any type of society can work when nothing goes wrong, but when things go wrong, man needs a higher law", he explained.
Susan continued to listen as Dan went on. "If the jury finds this man guilty, I will kill him. We have no prisons and a life term in prison tied to a post in my basement would be cruel, not to mention inconvenient. It's best that he is judged by God soon. I could forgive him but I could never forgive myself if he did this to another mans child. I would be partly responsible if that happened.".
Susan asked him how a jury was any different than a democracy in making the ultimate decisions. He explained that the jury was forced to engage in dialectic, looking carefully at both sides and applying conscience. A democracy has people judging without direct experience and often with bad information.
Margaret, the defense lawyer excused herself and asked Dan if she could go down and talk with the accused. Dan said "Find one of my sons or Dave first and get him to make sure he is tied up before you go down there. We will make sure you are comfortable while you stay here and that you have every resource that you need to provide a defense. You have a weapon with you right?". She said she did and walked toward the house. "Talk to him anytime, whatever you need" Dan added. Dan did not want to sentence an innocent man or be seen by others as unfair. Dan's two friends left to walk around the tables that were set up for the bazaar.
Susan sat beside Dan and they quietly watched people come up the driveway to trade at the bazaar.
People rode bicycles and walked to the bazaar throughout the day. They had tools, tents, seeds, water and containers to trade. Some had jars of jam, fresh fruit, vegetables and meat they had brought. After a few hours the women had set up a cafeteria with meat and potatoes they had cooked over a fire. There was only one kind of meal but a menu containing the various prices, just like at Mill Creek.
No one played music on that day.
Darius had been going around and talking with some of the traders about doing jury duty. He said he expected the trial to last a few days and that it would start on the following Monday. It was Thursday. They would set up a room for the hearing inside the house.
After the meal was served it was getting late in the afternoon and the people that had been trading at the bazaar and eating slowly dwindled leaving the family and a few of the neighbors that were invited to meet up at "the stone" as they called it. Darius called everyone and they walked up to the stone to hear what Dave had to say.
They sat at the picnic tables as James went up to the podium to introduce Dave. Dave thanked him and re-iterated what the marble stone had engraved, as all speakers did, as a matter of tradition and respect, before he began to speak, as Darius had instructed him. Traditions kept them grounded and humble.
Each man owns his own consciousness,
Therefore each man owns his own life,
All laws are rationalized from this.
Dave looked around at everyone, he had an audience of twenty or so people. It was the first time non family members had been invited up to the stone for a formal meeting and here he was standing at the podium. He began to describe his experiences with the Red Shirts starting with the day the power had gone out. He did not mention that they had a shelter or electricity.
Many of the people that were listening were not surprised about what Dave had described regarding his experiences. He described, in detail, how the Red Shirts at the river had herded all of the townspeople. One audience member said "Just like before the power went out" after he was finished, others mumbled in agreement. Dave was speaking to an audience, many members of which had a greater understanding than his own and his speech was just long enough to describe his experiences. Dan took the podium back and introduced Darius who would speak briefly.
"Thank you Dad.". Darius went on to outline the problem of the Red Shirts in more universal terms along with the moral dilemma it created.
"As you all know, the Red Shirts at the lake will always want to expand their power base they will eventually become a threat. We may have to shape our society to be like theirs to be strong in war to protect ourselves from them. The people at the lake will become like animals because they will be treated like animals. Their leaders ends will always justify their means and the people can be made to do anything required to meet these ends. They will always be too busy working to really think about things and therefore dependent on others to do their thinking for them. They will lose their natural rights in the process. The phrase 'clever but stupid' sums things up perfectly in describing how these people can be made to do this to themselves.".
"They will be unhappy but believe they are happy because they will have pleasure to cover their unhappiness. Their unhappiness will make them cruel and apathetic. They will also be unable to reason and easily made to believe ridiculous things, and even when things are shown to be obviously silly, their leaders will stick to their lies and the people will continue to believe them. They will always be desperate, seeking status and material wealth to mask their unhappiness. Nothing else will matter and they will not mind sending their young out to kill us to maintain their illusion and the economy to give them pleasures.".
"We could become like them if we go to war. They are better at making war, they operate free of conscience.".
Dan suggested that they could distribute leaflets or perhaps a newspaper of some sort that could be secretly distributed around where they live at night. Dave said he could explain the conversation he had overheard at the cave for the people around the lake in a single page letter. Susan said "Paper will be worth its weight in gold. This would be expensive.". "Its cheaper than a war." James replied.
James said the paper they wrote the leaflets on could become valuable if they left the backside blank. Its speculative value in the blank side that could be written on would create a legitimate currency, all of it with this warning printed on the other side, being carried around, passed around, and remembered. Its value could be in its promise of the people to one another. It would be valuable in places where paper was in short supply. People would want to understand the words. The words could be the promise that honest commerce and their economy depended on.
He suggested they all think about this and they could meet again the next day. He wasn't ready for a long discussion about honest money but mentioned that honest money made honest law and that the inverse of this was true as well. Law depended on money and money depended on law.
As they were leaving the area, Ralph's defense lawyer started walking toward them "Ralph cannot speak, he is deaf. I think he can write" she said as she approached. Dave responded, looking over at her "That makes sense out of a lot.".
Dave offered to go downstairs to untie and guard the prisoner so he could write something down when everyone got to the house. He asked James for some paper and pen to give to the lawyer.
They all sat around the outside of the house in shade under trees and on the shaded porch mostly in silence while Dave followed the lawyer, stopping to get his gun out of his ready bag on his way into the house behind her.
A few minutes later Ralph's lawyer came out and announced that Ralph was writing everything down in a long explanation and they would be a while, then went back inside.
The judge and James began discuss the idea of establishing the facts using letters passed between the accused and James, the prosecutor, and determining if law had been broken from the letters. The entire cross examination could take place using letters. If they believed law had been broken, the letters could be read by the jury and a verdict determined, provided all parties agreed, and no fa
cts were contested. The purpose of the letter exchange would be to establish facts that everyone agreed on or to prove that someone was lying.
James said he would get Susan and Dave to write down their testimony regarding what they had each seen independently. Ralph's defense lawyer would be asking detailed questions and getting answers in writing.
A while later, while most of them sat around talking and watching the birds and squirrels conduct their business in the trees, Ralph's defense lawyer came out with six pages of writing in her hand "He has agreed for this to be his testimony." she said, looking at the older woman who would be the judge. The judge invited her to sit down with James and the three agreed to conduct the trial by written letters. James began to read through the testimony, when he finished he handed it to Susan "Does this make sense?" he asked her as she took it. Susan quickly read through it before reading it aloud to the others.
In the letter Ralph apologized for what happened and immediately stated that he did not shoot Emma and did not have a gun in his hand at the time of the shooting.
His name is Ian Pearson, twenty three years old, from Los Angeles and was on his way to British Columbia in Canada at the time the power went out with his father. His father was robbing people of their supplies, they had nothing in the car when the power went out.
The letter explained that he had been dependent on his father. His father could communicate with him using sign language. No one else could, no one else would expect him to be deaf, or not be able to speak. Being deaf and alone would make him vulnerable to both dogs and people who would maybe rob him. He didn't have a choice in any matters, at least not one that didn't put himself in harms way. He had no choice but to go along with his father and his father had made that clear. Necessity had quickly turned them into thieves but his father had gotten too carried away with it.
Susan finished the letter. Darius got up and went toward the house saying that he would guard the prisoner so that Dave could come up and read the letter and see if it conflicted with anything he knew from looking at the evidence.
Dave came out a short while later and read the letter. They all began discussing it. Dave said it didn't conflict with anything he knew and that he would try to think of questions.
Dan said "I wonder if we went down to their encampment we would find anything he wrote to protest his fathers actions. We should ask him that. Also, his name isn't Ralph, so where did he get the shirt with the name Ralph on it?".
An answer came back a short while later, the first answer was no, the second answer was the one everyone expected. The shirt had been stolen and replaced his which had been torn.
Dan Fitzgerald was considered to be and actually was the voice of reason for many people. He was calm and sad over the past few days having buried his daughter and wife. Susan seemed to be comforting him well and seemed to understand how he was feeling. But the man who he believed actually killed or was an accomplice to his daughters killing was tied up in his basement. It was a situation that had to change.
He went inside the house while Ralph and his defense attorney were in the basement. Dave was outside getting the written questions James had for Ralph and was talking with the others.
Susan couldn't talk with Dave or Lisa since they were both witnesses and witnesses couldn't talk to one another during the trial. She watched Dan go into the house. She got up and started making her way to the house.
Dan left the door open and went upstairs. Ian's defense lawyer came up from the basement to see who was in the house, leaving the man they had known as Ralph downstairs alone.
Susan went into the house and met Ian's lawyer as Dan approached her inside the house. Dan had come back down the stairs. The rest saw it all through the opened door and began to make their way over.
Ian's lawyer stood at the door as Dan walked toward her, gun in hand.
She put her hands up against the door frame firm, stopping Dan from going downstairs. She looked at him, shook her head and just said "No.". Dan's eyes were watering, his face was red and he was staring her, not seeing or hearing anything else.
"You cannot prove that this man shot your daughter or aided the man who shot her" she said, starring right back and blocking Dan from going any further. "You have no basis for a claim against him yet. Others, particularly the family of whoever this Ralph was and perhaps some others may have a claim against this man but you do not. No one has explicitly granted you jurisdiction or the right or duty to act in their interest.". She paused while he stared at her quietly and added "The jury may come back and say you had no right to even hold him.". She looked him in the eye, he stood there silent. The others started coming in the doorway and had heard this.
Dan walked back out of the house followed by Susan. He gave the gun to the judge and continued walking toward the path leading into the forest that surrounded the house with Susan still in tow. A few minutes later Susan had managed to catch up with him as he walked along a well worn path through dense forest and to a wooden bench that was set up in the woods at the top of a hill.
They stopped and sat down looking at a giant pond at the bottom of the hill for a few minutes before Susan finally spoke "What happened back there?..do you really want this man dead?".
He stayed silent for a few seconds and said "I could have shot him you know. In this community I exist partly by status, people have come to expect me to always be the voice of reason but I am not perfect.".
Susan responded, "Some people live by status and others live by contract. I assume, Dan, that you would rather live by contract.". He answered "I would and I am glad Margaret stopped me, I was going to...".
Susan asked "Would it be OK with you if I went back and told the others that you said you wanted them to fix Ralph up with supplies, tell him not to return, and send him on his way?".
Dan asked her if she thought Ralph was innocent. Susan explained that everyone who had read the letters seemed to have come to that conclusion. "No one thinks he shot Emma, and I'm quite sure he didn't. I didn't see him with a gun. I wouldn't describe him as innocent.". She paused for a second "not guilty" would be the term I would apply. "Not bad Susan. Ever gone to law school?", then added, "I agree with you. I want him gone.".
Susan went on to explain that Ralph's handicap made him dependent on his father, but if he had shot Emma, even on the orders of his father she would want to see him receive a guilty verdict. His dependence would not give him the right to take the life of another.
She suggested that she walk back now to tell the others that he was OK. Dan said that he wanted the jury to decide Ralph's fate, he said "Evil flourishes when good men do nothing" and for her to remind them of that. Susan asked "Who should carry out the sentence of the verdict comes back guilty?" Dan stayed silent and Susan got up to walk back to the house.
Dave walked down the path past Susan to talk with Dan. He said that everyone wanted to let Ralph go and for him to be gone. They sat silently for a few moments.
Dan spoke to Dave and said "We are going to have to protect ourselves from the herds you have seen. Living by law rather than status may be dangerous. Our only choice is to teach others how to live by law or become tyrants ourselves and operate by status. It's either that or be trampled by the herd.". There is another possibility he said and stopped to think for a moment. "Being tyrants may become so easy that we become bored and turn to nihilism and sadism to relieve that boredom.". Dave reminded him, "Tyrants often rule from their own fear.".
Dave said "Do you think we can get the herds to learn and obey law?". Dan replied "We should try to. Hopefully many of them will learn soon.".
He stopped to think for a few minutes and went on. "I want to get the herds to learn and I'm willing to teach them....Ultimately it will be up to the people, they will get the government they deserve and education is the only way of ensuring that reason prevails.".
Dan said "It will be better to live in a lawful society than a political one. Government will be easily understood and eas
ily implemented. Your friends will like it here and we will need them.".
Dave explained that he would be going back for Bob and Jennifer but needed help. He wouldn't want to make the journey alone. He wanted Darius and Paul to go with him. Dan agreed to talk to the other men and the two got up and began to walk back to the house. "Can you let James take care of things for you around here? Relax, spend some time with Susan.".
"Its funny" Dan said, "A month ago I would have gladly fed Margaret, that defense lawyer, to a pack of dogs, now I'm in debt to her and she is a friend. I guess good things can happen fast.". He paused and took a deep breath. "Susan and I will have to take it slow and be friends for a long time. We both just lost our spouses. Pick out a house for you two and Bob and Jennifer. Go get Jennifer and Bob before that Johnson character burns down their village out and puts them out into the woods. We will hire Bob to try and get the electricity going again and for Jennifer to figure out our material future. We are going to run out of shoes.".
He stopped for a moment and looked around. "And we are going to build a lawful state.".