The Trials of Todd, Part 3
Todd was back in his human body. Dead, but otherwise in good physical health. In his mind, of course, he’d just spent more than a year being tortured and killed in a series of death camps. His hands shook with palsy and he flinched at the slightest sound. He was a mess.
The floor underneath him was hard rough concrete. Surrounding him was a tangle of briers with long barbed thorns. A hushed murmured silence wafted down from the assembled multitude of living souls that watched from the stadium seats above. The pig’s pointed look pierced his heart. Todd tried to stand, fell back to his knees, tried and failed again. He opened his mouth to speak. No words would come. The pig glanced off to the side and repeated his request.
“Read the charges.”
A small white rabbit stepped forward and read from a scroll of paper. “The defendant, Todd Brian O’Malley, is hereby charged with criminal entitlement, reckless objectification and cluelessness in the first degree.”
The pig peered out over the bench at Todd on the floor below him. “How do you plead, Mr. O’Malley?”
Todd opened his mouth again, to see if it would work. “I…” he said. He cleared his throat. Shrugged. Tried again. “I…I…” He struggled to his feet and stood, wobbly and weak. “I…I don’t…understand,” he finally managed to say.
The pig started to respond but the cow held out a hoof and leaned in. “You’ve been charged with serious crimes, Mr. O’Malley,” the cow said, lowing. “This tribunal is asking for your plea.” She waved her hoof around the arena. “The community of life, here represented, is asking: how do you plead?” She stopped for a moment to chew on that thought, then resumed. “Are you guilty, Mr. O’Malley? Or not guilty?” The cow sat back and crossed her legs in front of her chest.
Todd sagged. He’d seen the destruction around the planet caused by his lifestyle. He’d felt first-hand the horrors his species had inflicted on others, and on itself. But was he guilty? I’ll let Todd speak for himself on that. Here’s what he told the tribunal:
how do I plead how do I answer that Im just this guy I work at the bank I pay my bills Im good to my mother Im a registered democrat and I vote and Ive even gone to peace rallies am I guilty guilty of what I didnt make this world I was just born into it so why am I being tried for this
“You’ve