Dear Friends, Having just seen “Judgement at Nuremberg” myself recently, I googled the above phrase to research it’s origin and perhaps confirm the veracity of the speech itself served so eloquently by Mr. Tracy. What i discovered was this incisive little nugget written in Feb of 2007 by legal analyst Andrew Cohen from CBS News. Give it a quick read-through or two. I also pasted the comments which were quite revealing as to the atmosphere of public opinion right now in American society. It would appear that a large majority — those that are paying attention that is — feel trapped and helpless by our current predicament, having come to realize that regardless of facts, figures, lies, truths, trials, protests, marches, or just about anything else, we the American people are now prisoners in our own country, held hostage by a few evil-doers in a building we call “the white house.” What we can or will do, I don’t think anyone can say. But the article and the posts are interesting enough to perhaps inspire a few ideas. Yours, Ed Hale
“The Value Of A Single Human Being”
Legal Analyst Andrew Cohen Is Reminded By A Movie That Certain Values Should Take Precedence
Feb. 5, 2007
Attorney Andrew Cohen analyzes legal issues for CBS News
Sometimes you find wisdom, or even just a welcomed new expression of an old, good idea, in the strangest places.Last Friday night, one of the old-time movie channels offered up “Judgment at Nuremberg,” the weighty 1961 movie about the famous Nazi war crimes tribunal. I began watching because of the movie’s cast: Spencer Tracy, Judy Garland, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Montgomery Clift, Marlene Dietrich and Maximillian Schell. William Shatner played a young officer. Werner Klemperer, later Col. Klink from “Hogan’s Heroes,” played an evil villain.Who could resist?But I continued watching, hour after hour, because of the movie’s message. It is resonant and relevant nearly a half century later, and perfectly befitting a week that saw not one but two federal appeals courts wrestle with some of the most contentious legal issues to arise out of the terror attacks upon America.The film is about good judgment and bad judgment, evil choices and noble ones, and how a society reacts, or ought to anyway, to times of great stress. It ought to be required viewing for every government lawyer and policymaker as well as every federal judge who has to decide how our country will respond to the war on terrorism. (more…)