Reflection for Good Friday: The Bad Guys Win...

Today is Holy Friday, ‘Good’ Friday, the day Christ died.

But that’s not all that happened on that day; actually, Christ’s death was only a part of that 24 hours.

Christ was also betrayed by a former friend for money.

He was arrested on false charges and beaten up by the cops.

He was given an unfair trial, with false evidence and a rigged court, simply looking for a reason to convict.

He was tortured while in custody.

He was most likely sexually brutalized, perhaps even sexually mutilated.

He was given over to mob violence.

He had the last of his possessions stolen.

He was tortured again, this time as a means of his execution.

Then finally, mercifully, he died…

What happened on Good Friday? 

Nothing particularly special; nothing out of the ordinary. Thousands had suffered the same fate.

Thousands of people all over the world still do.

They’re in some back room of a police station right now. They’re in a holding cell in our court buildings, in our unofficial 'holding centres', in our ‘super max’ prisons.

They’re at Guantanamo right now; they’re in our ‘black spots’.

They’re in some basement of some building on some street in the capital city of one of our allies in the ‘war on terror’.

Their mothers are pleading with some bureaucrat, some functionary, some police chief, some judge…

Their friends are hiding, with very good reasons for doing so; This happens all the time; you never know who’ll they’ll pick up next, how many they’ll round up…

This is the day when hope dies.

There’s no new world, no new beginning, no justice…

It was all a lie.

On Good Friday, the bad guys win. Corruption wins. The system, the structures, the ‘machine’ wins. 

The few ‘bad apples’ in the cops, of whom we seemingly see an endless parade, they win.

The crooked judges win. The bribes, the kick-backs… It all paid off.

So, if you support the death penalty, ‘enhanced interrogation’;

‘keeping the wheels turning’, the ‘best way’ to ‘get things done’;

keeping your mouth shut, getting the verdict that we ‘need’ to get;

ignoring the uncomfortable facts, the ‘wall of silence’;

getting the ‘right’ jury, making the evidence ‘work on our behalf;

'My country, right or wrong'...

'Letting them know who's boss'...

'Talking in the only language they understand'...

This is your national holiday…