There are days when a person doesn't want to get out of bed, so they lie silent and wonder if getting up is really worth it. They wonder, probably conceitedly, how things will run without them at school. They could miss a social event that friends would companionably talk about, or miss some critical information on a math formula that will leave them muddled for years to come. They will always regret not being there on that certain day, the ramifications of which they can never retrieve. They will forever wonder that horrible question that has left everybody, from scientists to seers, stunned and curious: What if?

Imagine for a moment that you are a woman that has a certain reputation. Other women hate and envy you your carefree smiles, beauty, and courage, because they have always done their done their duty and married and raised a houseful of puritan men and never complained. They are stuck, and you are free, and so they point to a hanging rope in the center of town. More and more of the good, upstanding men and women of the village point until there are no more people to point at, and then they point at clergymen and cows…anything that can clear them of any wrongdoing. The Salem Witch Trials wasn't about keeping Salem moral; it was about fear and ignorance. My question is: What would have happened if this farce had never occurred?

Ever since I was a little girl, I have known nothing but private, Catholic schools. I always unquestionably thought that the Salem Witch Trials was all about Witchcraft, and all the dead were burned witches. I believed wrong, because out of the 300 or so victims in Salem, only a handful were really witches, and there was no burning at the stake involved. I was never really made aware that the Salem Witch Trials was about fear- the teachers never really made it clear that the Trials were caused by finger-pointing and rumors. That is what the witch trials did for future decades. It bred fear and suspicion to generations that went to school and studied history, and believed wholeheartedly what they had read.

Then there is the other influence; the influence of camaraderie and belonging. The events in Salem can be partly blamed for modern teenage personalities. Many teenagers now turn to Wicca because they had "visions" of burning at the stake in Salem, and so they now practice hexes, curses, and love spells in a haze of self-mutilation and sacrifice in the name of the Goddess. It is ironic, but they believe the exact opposite of true Wiccan beliefs. Wicca is not about face paint, vampires or gorging oneself on blood; it is about respecting and worshipping the moon and the sun and acknowledging nature's influence on the course of our lives. The modern day "witches" that go on Jenny Jones attired in hole-ridden fish-netted stockings, and boots written "anti-christ" and "anarchy" and "kill", are the influence of years of fermented anger and aggression towards those accusers in Salem. It has just bloomed into hate.

Modern-day Salem is a Mecca to pagan people. They go there, many end up living there, to relive the events of Salem. NOT to grow more anger against the ignorant, but to learn what can be done to combat it, and mainstream. The events of Salem taught these practitioners a lesson- to be careful and aware that the people around you are not always as open-minded as you are.

If the Witch Trials had never happened, I believe a similar event of an even larger magnitude would have culminated eventually. It was only a matter of time before suspicion led to hostility. I think that it is in human nature to be suspicious of what we don't know and believe what we are told. Such beliefs are ingrained into us from the time we are babies and adolescents, depending upon our families for morality, to high school, when we put these beliefs to the test, to adulthood, when we emerge with new, battle-trained beliefs, whether good or bad.

I think that what occurred in Salem happened for a reason-it happened so that you and I and my great-grandmother and our future President and that person on that pulpit in thhuanghmalaysia could recognize the fear and stupidity that came to pass, and learn a lesson. I think that Salem should have happened because of all these things and more.