"Earthlings" is the Verdict!

"Jury duty calls" said Kalp, gathering up a bundle of paper, pens and other miscellaneous items, "Gota run else I'll miss the start". As she left the family home, a portion of the tension lifted - days and nights of arguments and discussions, hours of circular pleadings with her not to attend. "You're a sensitive girl, you won't be able to bear it", they warned. But she was adamant!

Kalp was one of a 21-member jury, and this was the trial of the century, there was no way she was going to miss it. The global power-structures had shifted irrevocably and this was the big clean-up operation to follow. It was an historic occasion, scarcely believed possible by some even now. Everywhere, everyone was twanged with post-revolution fervour, "The future is here, we are free at last", they sang.

The Accused - although having experienced him for themselves, everyone knew exactly how guilty he was - was a man by the name of Hector Uman. This was a name, a set of initials, a concatenation that spread fear and terror wherever it was mentioned. For centuries this name had been synonymous with oppression, terror and brutality and had come to be utterly stamped on the collective trauma of the affected populations. There was much anticipation and discussion in hushed tones around the question of what his fate ought to be.

It wasn't far to where the trial was to take place, but Kalp took a detour which led her through the woods and along a little rivulet, where she stopped briefly to visit her friend Garto, whose partner was one of the judges on the case. Having delivered her message, Kalp continued on to her destination and arrived just as the courtroom was being cleared of extraneous persons and silenced for the start of proceedings.

"Here we go, don't want to turn it into another witch hunt", thought Kalp to herself as she settled in amongst the other jury members, who looked at her with undisguised relief. "Cut it real fine din't ya?", whispered Kalp's neighbour, a stout, hairy individual called Wuster, who followed this up with a rather loud burp.

The judges entered, all 7 of them, faces expressionless, coats immaculate. Once everyone was in position, Mr. Uman was led in and made to sit in the special chair that slowly rotated through 360 degrees, allowing everyone a face-to-face view of the Accused. Nobody dared breathe.

The trial lasted almost five months, 144 days in total!

There were some minor delays as 4 members of the jury, and two of the judges were taken ill, unable to stomach the graphic details of sheer depravity and senseless violence which was described as a daily activity of the accused, carried out in a normal state of consciousness. Indeed such actions were considered to be reasonable and mundane for those of his kind that he stood in representation of. It was a truly brutal and traumatising experience to be subjected to the footage, the witness statements, the sheer volume of gruesome evidence. It seemed never-ending, atrocity after atrocity after atrocity, gratuitous and inhumane, beyond mere self-serving and into the realm of mindless and wanton destruction of those who were different, simply because they were different and weaker. The evidence was incontrovertible, an indigestible block of abject misery and terror. The accused denied none of the charges, nor did he try to justify any of his actions or those of his kind.

Needless to say the judges and jury were unanimous in their pronouncement of Mr.H.Uman's guilt. The sticking point - provoking much heated debate and a further 34 days of deliberation - was what the sentence ought to be.

For some members of the jury who had had friends and relatives tortured and murdered or who themselves had experienced the terror at first hand, there was the keen glint and thrust of revenge. The majority however, in spite of the fact that they too had been victims, pointed out that this approach simply engaged with the same violent, negative energies so characteristic of the old paradigm in which these atrocities had become a cultural and unconscious way of living for the accused and his cohorts. It was noted that internecine struggles and battles had also caused untold suffering to Mr. Uman's own kind, many of whom existed in conditions similar to what they themselves had had to endure. Some raised their voices in support of those of Mr. Uman's kind who had objected to and walked away from such practices, resulting in their own oppression and incarceration. It was also pointed out by the forgivers that Mr.H.Uman had, over the months of the trial, himself displayed genuine and sincere remorse and had expressed in multiple ways which clearly precluded deception, that he had understood the magnitude of what he and his kind had done, begging over and over again to be given another chance.

And so it was that the jury, consisting of 21 individuals - a cat (Mr.P), two wolves, a pheasant, a dog (Shanti), an owl, a rhino (Wuster), two horses, a buffalo, a blackbird, an avocado, a highland cow, two ravens, a spider (Kalp), two rats, a badger, a queen bee and a semi-porous green rock which had been summoned all the way from the ocean floor - recommended clemency. The 7 judges - an elephant, a butterfly, a giraffe, a chestnut tree, a red-breasted robin (Garto's partner), a panther and a nimbus cloud - locked themselves in a room for a further 3 days of deliberation, but eventually came to a conclusion in concurrence with the jury's recommendation.

Incredibly therefore, Mr.H.Uman was allowed to go free! A sad, chastised and wiser man stepped out of the courtroom, head hung in shame as he walked past the crowds of animal and other non-human onlookers. Even more incredible was the fact that not one of these onlookers - many of whom themselves were once victims of H.Uman's cruelty - lifted a finger or voice against him, although untold tears were shed. Amidst this ocean of compassion, the sole stated condition of release was that for the current transition period - pertaining to this generation of humans - it be a matter of education to watch a documentary entitled "Earthlings".

Peace on Earth reigned once again as the creative energies of animal spirit and the natural world permeated Human, rewiring and transforming his perception of himself and his place in the universe. No longer engaging in predatory and parasitic behaviour, H.Uman's kind now walked the earth in humble and creative harmony with all that is, ever was or will be.