Presumed innocent

Our legal sys­tem is built on the pre­sump­tion of inno­cence. Things would be pretty messy if we changed things around — we’d have to lock up every­body fac­ing crim­i­nal charges — and then who would han­dle our bag­gage at the air­port or stim­u­late the econ­omy by buy­ing motor­bikes and parts… It’s a cen­tral prin­ci­ple of life in a lib­eral democ­racy. And yet it is thrown com­pletely out the win­dow in one social occa­sion — the trans­ac­tion that takes place when a man buys flow­ers from any retailer. There’s the same awk­ward ban­ter between said male and the (gen­er­ally) female store clerk… Every time. Or at least every time I buy flow­ers. Maybe I just look guilty. It’s always a vari­a­tion of this theme:

Sales­per­son: “So, what have you done wrong?”

As though I would only be buy­ing flow­ers to atone for wrong­do­ings. As though a $14 bunch of colour­ful flora is an appro­pri­ate act to win my redemp­tion. It’s pre­sumed guilt. Per­haps I just want points in the bank in case I do some­thing wrong in the future, or maybe my motives are com­pletely altru­is­tic. This response is prej­u­dice at its most banal — and up with this I shall not put. Not any more.

  1. 1

    I don’t mean to be pedan­tic but did you really buy a $14 bunch of colour­ful fauna? But I agree, there is no pre­sump­tion of inno­cence when it comes to buy­ing flowers.


  2. 2
    queenstuss

    hmm… I’m sure Robyn would really appre­ci­ate a bunch of lit­tle furry ani­mals… espe­cially colour­ful ones…


  3. 3
    Nathan

    Good point both of you — but now thanks to the power of edit­ing I look smart and you look like geese. Which are fauna.


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About St. Eutychus

Eutychus was a young man who fell to his death because the Apostle Paul preached for too long (Acts 20). I've decided to canonise Eutychus and make him the patron saint of my dalliances around the Internet.

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Recent Comments

Jeff K : I ask people how their Bible reading is going if I get into an awkward convo at church. works a treat.
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KIM : *like* or am i not supposed to put words in stars?? i like it anyway!
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Ben McLaughlin : Heh! That's cool that they were such good sports about it.
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Al Bain : It was your comment that all actions should tick at least one that got me wondering. I think the three categories we have been talking about are helpful. And probably the easiest way to thi
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Nathan Campbell : I don't know that I'm restricting all actions to this trichotomy - because I think "worship" is probably another element that could be added to the Venn diagram (that would overlap heavily with the ot
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al bain : On what scriptural basis are you restricting all actions to this trichotomy?
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Nathan Campbell : How are these, for definitions... Work = Activities for bringing order. Rest = Activities for rejuvenation. Play = Activities for pleasure. I still think the best actions tick two or more of
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KIM : i second the recommendation for communicate jesus -- and can vouch that its blogger is just as adept at real life interaction as he is at facebook!
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Gary Ware : That hollow feeling in the pit of your gut when the fact you've been ripped off is really something isn't it? At least it doesn't involve damage to the car, as well. We had our Tarago front quarter w
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Anika Q : Rather off topic, but I found out today that there is a seminar on the Eutychus passage in Acts in UQ's religious department this Friday at 2. I thought I'd mention it to you, for obvious reasons.
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