Maycomb Tribune Editorial
By: Mr. Underwood
Last night I had witnessed Tom Robinson almost get mobbed. The main reason for this almost mobbing was the serious allegation against him, the accusation that he had raped Miss Mayella Ewell. It is quite unfair to take the law into your own hands and instantly believe any accusations against him, especially when they do not have a good amount of valid evidence behind them.
We all can see that racism plays a large role in this case. Many people instantly believe Miss Ewell simply because she is a young white girl, but not many people are looking at Tom Robinson’s side of the story simply because he is African American. A young white girl certainly seems more trust worthy in their eyes compared to an African American man. Maybe it’s because they feel she should be protected, maybe they see her as innocent so therefore, why would they even think she could be lying?
That is the real problem here, we all assume we know what happened that night between Mr. Robinson and Miss Ewell, but we don’t. The point of this is to say that instead of assuming that we know who did what, and instantly running towards violence, we should really take a step back and look at the whole situation. Not just one side, but both. If Tom Robinson really did rape Mayella Ewell, don’t you think that she would have plenty of valid evidence against him? That evidence then could land him in jail or even the death penalty, and in that case no one had to lay a hand on Mr. Robinson and he would truly be proven guilty. To conclude this editorial, I would like to mention how true the phrase “Innocent until proven guilty” is. No one is truly guilty unless there is evidence, upon evidence against them. So please think about this the next time you decide to mob a possibly innocent man.
Written by: Hannah Westerbeck