Wonderful World2009

Ben Singer:
[Courtroom presentation] I know I'm just a joke to you, and you only decided to hear my case because you're amused. Some crackpot acting as his own attorney accusing the city of depraved indifference. Do you know what the most crowded room is in the Getty Museum? It's the room with Van Gogh's Irises. Why? Because someone bought the painting for 54 million dollars. There's a reverential silence in the Iris room; Mr. and Mrs. Museum Goer might as well be looking at a framed pile of cash. Newspapers publish movie grosses, if a movie grosses over a hundred million dollars, we assume it must be good. There's no God, there's no beauty, if a painting or a CD doesn't sell, throw it out. The 910 Freeway has a very sharp turn as it winds into the valley from the hills. And every year four or five motorists are killed on this spot. And the city conducted a costs and effects study, and concluded that the costs in terms of human life was not equal to the cost of rebuilding the highway. And so this deadly spot on the highway remains and in five years 20 more people will die. Well if this isn't depraved indifference, I don't know what is. Ibu Endai came her from Senegal; he worked a guard in an outlet store in Carson. He's a great chess player, he's my friend. And, uh, he was thrown away. Well, what kind of a world do we live in that his life is worth less than this Nobody's ability to get quickly into a parking space. Or the city impound's need to for revenue so that each one of these amoebas can have a beach house in Miami. Is that really the kind of world we want to live in?