LAST TUESDAY NIGHT, the Simpson verdict and the Clinton speech competed for the nation’s attention. O. J. won. And he deserved to.

O. J. Simpson’s acquittal over a year ago was an injustice. Decent people are made indignant by obvious instances of injustice. Last week’s verdict in the civil trial doesn’t make up for the failure of the criminal justice system. But it helps reassure Americans that the forces of justice are not entirely ineffectual, that individuals cannot simply escape responsibility for their actions, that our fellow citizens are not blind to evidence or to the truth. So I take both the verdict, and the popular interest in that verdict, as healthy signs for our democracy: We still care about justice.