Kill all the lawyers?

By Brooks Davis

In regard to Frank Wooten’s Sept. 14 column titled “Defending lawyers by reason of necessity,” he, as many others before him, misinterpreted Shakespeare’s famous line from Henry VI, “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.”

If Mr. Wooten had done his due diligence, he would find that the line was meant as a compliment to those in the legal profession.

Dick the Butcher was allied with the rebel Jack Cade, who surmised that if he was able to create a state of anarchy, he could overthrow the monarchy and become king.

The remark was made to posit that if the lawyers who instill justice in society could be eliminated, then society would spin into utter chaos and the monarchy could then be overthrown.

It is exactly this sort of misinformation or biased interpretation of facts that the news media so casually spew forth in an effort to distort public opinion.

Instead of ridding society of lawyers, perhaps the rebels should have enlisted the services of a journalist.