2020 Hindsight: And Justice for All

It was movie night again in the Sherr Household on the 179th day of 2020.  The movie for 6/27/20 was Just Mercy.  It was a great movie.  I remember when Bryan Stevenson came to speak at Commencement last year (2019) and now I am even happier to call him a fellow alumnus (he now has an Honorary Degree from Penn!)  The movie was quite eye opening and moving.  We were all sobbing during the Electric Chair scene and I am sickened to think that, in the land of the free and the brave, we continue to take people's lives.  For every 9 people executed by the law, 1 person is set free from Death Row.  That is a horrifying percentage of innocent people (and that is the minimum for how many innocent people have actually been killed?) and it solidifies for me my opposition to the Death Penalty.  My 2020 Hindsight is And Justice for All.  Capital punishment remains a legal penalty in the United States, currently used by 28 states, the federal government, and the military.  This has to end.  That is why I will start donating to Bryan Stevenson's EJI (Equal Justice Initiative) to support their work to end Mass Incarceration, their quest and combat Racial Injustice, and to bring the end to the Death Penalty in the US.  As Stevenson says:

“I've come to believe that the true measure of our commitment to justice, the character of our society, our commitment to the rule of law, fairness, and equality cannot be measured by how we treat the rich, the powerful, the privileged, and the respected among us.  The true measure of our character is how we treat the poor, the disfavored, the accused, the incarcerated, and the condemned. We are all implicated when we allow other people to be mistreated.”

https://eji.org/