Sincerity

Last night on PBS' Now, David Brancaccio was discussing the death penalty and whether innocent persons had been executed. The transcript isn't up yet, so I'm relying on my increasingly faulty memory for this, but at some point Brancaccio was interviewing a female prosecutor from Texas. He explained to her how there were significant questions about the conviction and execution of a particular person in the Texas Courts. She admitted there were significant problems. He then asked, how, in light of that she could continue to endorse the death penalty. Her response, "It's because we believe in the culture of life." [I paraphrase]

I almost fell off my chair.

Then, after thinking about it for awhile, I decided she was absolutely sincere. What seemed to me to be an absolute contradiction in terms, seemed to her to be perfectly logical. From a certain perspective, I suppose you could argue it is so important to preserve human life, that anyone who murders someone else should be eliminated.

Then, after thinking about it a little longer, it occurred to me that the white Texas prosecutor may have found it a whole lot easier to hold that view sincerely when the alleged murderer was a black man, particularly if the victim was white.

As one of my college roommates said to me more than once, "I don't doubt your sincerity, but you are sincerely wrong."