I want you to read and annotate the article to show a close reading.

Then write a one-page double-

spaced response. CITE YOUR SOURCES, including this one. Include the title and author in the opening
of any response.

This article is an OPINION piece. You might not agree with the author and that’s ok. Do pay attention to
the author’s words and their biases. How might they OR YOU be prejudiced by your preconceived
ideas? Also pay attention to the facts and ideas.

End of text citation:

Author. (Year of Publication). Title of article. Media Source. Retrieved from
http://www.thewebsite. com/adfjlkda;jlkdf

Johnson, N. (2019). It's been 327 years since the Salem Witch Trials, but fear is ruling America
again. Newsweek. Retrieved from https://www.newsweek.com/its-been-327-years-since-salem-
witch- trials-fear-ruling-america-again-opinion-1445807
And in your writing:
(Johnson, 2019) for a paraphrase
(Johnson, 2019, para. __) for a quote

OPINION

IT'S BEEN 327 YEARS SINCE THE SALEM WITCH TRIALS, BUT
FEAR IS RULING AMERICA AGAIN
NOEL JOHNSON
ON 6/25/19 AT 12:46 PM EDT
 This month marks the 327th anniversary of the Salem witch trials, when 19
convicted "witches" were hanged in a wave of violent persecution in
Massachusetts.

Witch trials may seem like horrific events from a backwards past, but
today, in many developing countries, witchcraft accusations remain common, Commented [1]: Still think fantasy is real.

while modern democracies struggle to balance the rule of law in the face of what
seem like existential threats.

Everyone is susceptible to hysteria when fear runs rampant, and fear

comes in many forms, from witchcraft to terrorism to immigration.

Massachusetts, after all, was not the only place where women, men and
children were killed as witches in the 16th and 17th centuries. Between 1450 and
1750, approximately 100,000 Europeans were put on trial for witchcraft and
between 30,000 and 40,000 were executed. Commented [2]: Didn't bother researching back then,
they were all witches.
 The perceived threat was a projection of the fears of a society in flux:
Growing economies had strained traditional social ties while the Reformation
undermined established religion. This is the reason most of the accused were
from marginalized groups such as women—particularly widows.

Most trials occurred in places with weak administrative capacity to impose

rules and weak fiscal capacity to tax. Rugged border regions such as Aquitaine in
France were particularly difficult to govern, as were far-flung colonies such as
Salem. In our book, Persecution and Toleration: The Long Road to Religious
Freedom, Mark Koyama and I show that a fortunate consequence of consistent
governance across populations is more tolerance toward marginalized groups.

Invariably, witch trials today are conducted where the state is weak. In the Commented [3]: Government can take action about
witch trials.
Democratic Republic of the Congo, thousands of children have been expelled
from their homes as witches. In India, witch murders are most common in the
poor, rural states of Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha.

Witch trials and their ilk, however, have never been limited to poor and
developing countries. The alleged danger posed to the social fabric by
marginalized groups such as Jews often became an excuse for extra-legal
persecution in early-modern Europe.

In Salem, the witch trials were supposed to be legal proceedings, not mobs.
A conviction required evidence that a defendant engaged in evil magic (maleficia)
and devil worship (diabolism). Such evidence, even for 17th-century prosecutors,
was difficult to find. This did not stop magistrates hell-bent on rooting out
witches.

As the jurist and demonologist Jean Bodin wrote, "Proof of such evil is so
obscure and difficult that not one of a million witches would be accused and
punished if regular legal procedure were followed."
 Tens of thousands of individuals were tortured, and the most common
question asked by judges was "Who are the other witches?" An accusation against
a single person could easily turn into a witch hunt persecuting hundreds—in the Commented [4]: Easily spiraled out of control.

process validating public belief in the supernatural threat.

Today, the excuses to weaken legal standards tend to revolve around

terrorism and immigration

A prominent example is what happened in the aftermath of the September

11 attacks. The Patriot Act explicitly weakened the rules of evidence required to
pursue alleged terrorists, as well as the rules against torture. Ordinary Americans
found themselves under surveillance even though the mass collection of phone
records did not directly prevent any terrorist attacks, according to the
government's own 2014 report. To our shame, secret prisons and torture
blackened America's reputation for justice and liberty.

More recently, children as young as 4 years old have been forced to defend
themselves in deportation hearings without even the benefit of counsel. Is a
deportation hearing for a child so different from a witch trial?
Central American immigrant families depart U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
custody, pending future immigration court hearings on June 11, 2018, in McAllen, Texas.

JOHN MOORE/GETTY

In order to make it easier to identify and expel immigrants, the Trump

administration is advocating the repeal of the 14th Amendment, which
guarantees citizenship to anyone born on U.S. soil. Regardless of one's views on
how many immigrants should come to the United States, this is a move to apply a
different, weaker standard of law to a significant portion of the population.

Of course, present-day terrorism and immigration are real policy issues,

not fantasy. However, the cost of the response depends on the perceived size of
the threat.

Just as demonologists' arguments to relax standards of evidence to catch

potential witches weakened the rule of law and resulted in the persecution of
innocents, so do arguments to ignore or adjust the law to catch potential
terrorists or immigrants.

The difficult question for citizens today is whether we are getting this
balance right. We are unlikely to return to burning people at the stake, but
neither America nor the world has reached the point where we can afford to
forget the lessons of the witch trials.

Noel Johnson is an associate professor of economics at George Mason

University and a research fellow with the Mercatus Center. He is co-author with
Mark Koyama of the new book Persecution and Toleration: The Long Road to
Religious Freedom (Cambridge University Press).

The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.

 Aiden Hess

Period 5

Salem Witch Trials

October 3rd, 2019

Almost everyone knows about the Salem Witch Trials, either from movies,

or by reading about it in a book. Nonetheless, it was a real event in which

innocent people died for being suspicious. Several thousand people were hung,

even though, of course, none of them had ever performed witchcraft.

The fact that all these people had died for no reason, is more grim when

one knows that it is still happening. Small countries or countries with broken

governments still believe that witchcraft is real. People are burned at the stake,

put on trial, hung, tortured, and killed. I believe that everyone should move past

this. The world has moved past the dark ages, we are in a world of innovation and

invention, there is no time to believe in witches, even if they do exist.

Of course, most people would want to stay safe and follow their

superstitions, this would mean being rid of what they fear. Whether that be the

debt they gained in college, or the people they suspect are witches. With that

being said, it should be taught in schools, or by parents that witches and other

legends do not exist. As it says in the passage, It’s Been 327 years Since the Salem

Witch Trials, but Fear is Ruling America Again, “We are unlikely to return to
burning people at the stake, but neither America nor the world has reached the

point where we can afford to forget the lessons of the witch trials.”(Johnson,

2019)

-IT'S BEEN 327 YEARS SINCE THE SALEM WITCH TRIALS, BUT FEAR IS RULING

AMERICA AGAIN - NOEL JOHNSON