In the editorial on pages 320-323 there is a connection between killing cripples and songbirds. Mr. B.B. Underwood writes this editorial for the Macomb Tribune and puts much heart and thought into it. In the editorial he expressed lots of strong opinions about this subject. “ He likened Tom’s death to the senseless slaughter of songbirds by hunters and children.”[lee 323] This shows how strongly he feels about Tom’s death because it was a sin to kill a mockingbird (songbird). It is a sin to kill a mockingbird because they do nothing for us but make beautiful music for our enjoyment. He is saying that cripples are like a songbird, calming and peaceful, as opposed to bluejays, that are known to be violent and bothersome. Also, he is comparing the children and hunters to the jurors and the guards that shot Tom. The jurors are the children that do not change their views in the case and had determined the verdict from the start of the trial. The hunters are the guards that shot Tom. They probably could have run and grabbed Tom from the fence because he was so slow getting up, but instead they decided to shoot him over, and over, and over, again.
Aticus once said in the past “shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit’ em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” [lee 119] This connects with the songbird aspect of the article. Mr. Underwood is saying that it is a sin to kill a cripple because they cannot fight back. Cripples are not able to kill you so why would you kill them. Cripples are not a danger to anyone, they are like mockingbirds, they can’t do many things to bother anyone.
