Something about John Wilkes Booth you may not know...

[jonathan]

I've said before that I have the opinion of Booth as non-coward. But it seems to me that a lot of it comes down to semantics, to each person's definition of "coward", and how we choose to view Booth's actions. One person sees a man walk into a theater box and shoot another man in the back of the head, and considers the shooter a coward, period. I understand that opinion completely, and in certain circumstances I would agree with it. In this situation, however, I see a man of passion, with strong emotions and prejudices, living in a time unique in American history. He does what he truly believes is best, what so many people want but nobody else has the guts to do. So he does it himself. To me, a coward runs from danger. Booth walked into the middle of danger, relying on the surprise factor and the grateful masses to aid his escape. I completely respect the other side of this argument, but a coward, as the definition lives in my mind, simply could not have done what Booth did.