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PHIL'S PHILOSOPHY By; D.P Kinkade Contributions By; Taylor & Drake Kinkade

DOUBT'S SHADOW: The other day I was watching television when a headline came across the bottom of the screen which disturbed me, quite a bit. The people on the show never discussed this particular news item, most people probably did not give it much more than a passing thought, if they thought about it at all (my wife says I am the only one she knows of whom even bothers to read the scrolling messages) but it perturbed me enough that I am still thinking about it a couple of days later so I would like to address the subject in this column.

The headline read that in 2015 alone, 149 (if I remember correctly) people had been released from prison, because it had been proven they were actually innocent. That is in one year alone and that is just the ones who had the good fortune to have competent people fighting for them and who could actually prove their innocence through D.N.A analysis. That to me is much more than just a shame or the result of an imperfect justice system doing its best to keep us safe. It is a travesty and a gross miscarriage of justice, coupled with callousness and incompetence! You and I both know that the actual number of people incarcerated who are actually innocent is many multiples of the ones who are released and that should break the heart and weigh on the conscience of all of us capable of feeling compassion.

The term used for determining someones guilt in a courtroom is “proven guilty beyond all REASONABLE doubt.” Now, there must be a lot of folks around who have quite a bit of a different definition of the word- reasonable- than I do, because I just can't believe that, that many lives are being devastated by wrongful convictions and the evidence is almost irrefutable. It is much more likely they were convicted by thoughts similar to “it's more likely they are guilty than not.” That is not the way our legal system was designed or envisioned to operate. Our country's founders firmly believed that it was much more tragic, much more shameful and much more soul destroying, even to the soul of a nation, for innocent people to be convicted than for the the guilty to get off “Scot free.” I know that there is no perfect system in this world and mistakes will occur no matter how careful you try to be but I do not believe our national motto needs to become “better safe than sorry” where the standard of guilt or innocence becomes a 51 to 49 margin balance on the scales, in the name of safety.

I firmly believe it shows something about the condition of our souls when we are quick to dismiss such a situation as “an imperfect system” or if we are willing to see innocents punished in order to ensure no one guilty is set free to, “possibly hurt others,” it reveals a callousness about our hearts when such things don't really bother us, it actually shines a light on our inability to feel empathy. You know what the definition is for lack of the ability to feel empathy or concern for others is don't you? It is a psychopath! I really hope we have not become a nation of psychopaths. I really pray that we have a better future ahead of us than that.

Perhaps instead of -reasonable- doubt being our standard for innocence we might need to adopt the term “beyond a shadow of a doubt.” You see, that narrows it down to almost certainty. A shadow has no substance on its own, it is merely a lingering hint that something of substance exists. When we get into the realm of absolute certainty though we have to tread lightly, for the realm of absolute certainty has- Ignorance - as its ruler. When it comes to determining guilt or innocence we may need to go there but absolute certainty, is not something we wish to partner with on a frequent basis. To quote Tony Schwartz-“Let go of certainty. The opposite isn't uncertainty. It's openness, curiosity and a willingness to embrace paradox, rather than choose up sides. The ultimate challenge is to accept ourselves exactly as we are, but never stop trying to learn and grow.”
Many people think that faith and doubt are polar opposites, that they cancel each other out but I see them in a beautiful dance together. Doubt keeps you asking questions and keeps you in the realm of curiosity and wonder, a much better realm than ignorance's domain. To live in the shadow and fear of self-doubt though is an awful place to be, to believe you are not smart enough, not good enough or worse of all born reprobate and worthless, instead of with incalculable worth. I am certain that love exists; looking into the eyes of my family; so I am certain God exists; much of the rest of life is not predetermined though, instead it is determined by the justice of empathy in the human heart and by compassion, coupled with the value we place on the human soul.

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