Mencken vs. Kroll

For myself, Kroll had both an essay that I sympathized with more and a more effective one overall. I was on the fence between which I thought was more effective until I picked out this quote from Kroll's which pulled me over the edge onto his side: "His head began to roll and his eyes closed, then opened again. His head dropped, then came up with an abrupt jerk and rolled some more. It was grotesque and hideous...we were in the middle of something indescribably ugly. Not just the cold-blooded killing of a human being, and not even the fact that we happened to love him-but the ritual of it, the participation of us, the witnesses, the witnessing itself of this most private and personal act." This passage had more voice than all of Mencken's piece combined I thought, and passion, voice, and personality will always win me over more than a redundant essay about 'katharsis.'