clarence darrow pleaded for the life of leopold and loeb.  he said:

why did they kill little bobby franks?
not for money.
not for hate.
they killed him
because somewhere
in the infinite processes
which go into the the making of the boy or the man
something slipped.

something has slipped

not only in chicago.

something has slipped in towns everywhere across america,

in maine and in kansas,

in oregon and indiana and vermont,

something has slipped and as a result

we are all

sliding

back toward the dark ages.

–Karen Hesse, Witness, 2001.