WHAT TO FOCUS ON ?

Will Amanda Knox win her appeal? She was sentenced to 26 years in an Italian jail. Will the sentence be over-turned or reduced?

What about these energized young people, males and female, rebels, facing death because they're protesting their lack of freedom -- lack of the things we here in America consider fundamental, basic, essential to living a reasonably normal life. We're seeing them in Libya , seeing and hearing about them now in Syria, and hearing about protesters in Russia's Georgia.

Is it the nice American girl look of Amanda that grabs me? Or is it what happened in 2007, in the apartment Amanda, an exchange student, was sharing with British exchange student Meredith Kercher?

Is it the gory details, the gruesome horrific way her roommate died? Or was it her Italian ex-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, who was also (in a separate trial) sentenced to 26 years, and Ivory Coast citizen Rudy Hermann Guede, who got 16 years for what happened to the dead girl?

This picture was taken at the appeal last week. Enlarge it, study it. The side-long look in Amanda's eyes suggests inner amusement somehow, and a me-me me focus on herself that conveys to me, somehow, a wrong morality, a wrong sense of right and wrong.

All the pictures I've seen, the news alerts, the conflicting stories of the sex game that was being played by the four people involved, the DNA, the picture that was taken of Amanda celebrating with Raffaele the day after the murder -- why do I feel that Amanda Knox, 19 when the crime happened, hasn't changed. I wouldn't reduce her sentence. I feel that the 22-year- old Amanda still feels that gratifying herself is the most important thing in the world .

The fresh-faced young men and women fighting for their rights and freedom and the fresh-faced Amanda -- what a contrast. The look on the faces of the motley bunch of protesters gives me hope for the future of the world. What's on the face of Amanda Knox dismays me.