I have searched my own soul long and hard on this, and I still do not know quite what I would have done if a social service apparatchik had stolen my children. It is a question, mercifully, most of us do not have to confront. Thus, we can be level, responsible and "adult" about it, old chap. We wouldn't want to get emotional about such things, would we? It just isn't done.
Thus, I can't even begin to appreciate the sort of hell that this couple are going through, the pair that have their nightmare described by Booker this week. They are better people than I, because if it had been me, I don't think Judge Bellamy would still be breathing.
But what makes this issue the embodiment of evil is that the very issues this idiot judge is now addressing were dealt with, six years ago. They were resolved properly and what should have been finally, but for the stupidity of this judge.
Of course, dealing with stupid people is one of the crosses we have to bear in life, but when stupid people also have very great power, that is especially hard to bear. But then, Bellamy is a judge, so we must not denigrate him. We must not point out that he is stupid.
We must be level, responsible, calm, "rational", even "adult" about him, old chap. And it simply doesn't do to threaten violence, or even imply that violence might be used, or should be used, or anything remotely like that. That is the reserve of the state. And that lives are being destroyed is not our concern. Bite your tongue, smile sweetly, and look the other way.
Then read Booker and weep, for the nation we once thought we knew and know no more.
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