The

verdict

     Not that we should for one minute forget that vividly horrible mass murder in Oklahoma City, tiny bodies carted from smoky rubble--Armageddon in the Heartland--but:
     What have we come to when we can do no better than ask the victims' relatives how they feel, whether the 11 guilty verdicts and no doubt chemical lynching of McVeigh, somehow bring "closure" to their shattered lives? Can't we just let them walk out of the courthouse, to share thoughts among themselves, without TV producers herding them to the cameras for the best sound bite?
     After the penalty phase--where McVeigh's service to his country and torn childhood are put up against the weeping survivors for the sake of determining the ultimate punishment: death by societal rage--where will all the TV legal experts we've grown accustomed to go? (Perhaps to the Marcia, Marcia, Marcia Clark Out Law Center in Santa Monica...)
     And (perchance to find humor where none can be) the ultimate disappointment: Now, we'll never get to see McVeigh star in a Ryder commercial.