There are any number of things missing from modern society. Just listen to conservative commentators long enough and you will hear a long list. There’s the broken homes, there’s the lack of God, and then you get into the really offensive stuff. If we believe them then all of these things are to blame for all of the problems we have today.

So, speaking of shame is certainly ironic. It is ironic because we spend a great deal of time talking about how all of these things are just red herrings and then we land on the shame. Yet, this is different. It is nearly impossible to articulate, but we will give it a try.  Defamation of character is a serious deal. It causes someone to experience shame when they shouldn’t. We certainly feel for Depp if that is the truth, but unfortunately, some people are taking the wrong lesson from all of this. I bet you thought Kyle Rittenhouse went away, but apparently, he has been inspired by Depp. I know you thought he went away. I know you thought his 15 minutes of fame were up. I know you thought he would at least have the presence of mind to keep quiet until everyone had forgotten who this little son of a bitch was. I was right there with you. He apparently never learned anything from that experience.

As complaints go, this is a relatively minor one. After all, three people and their families never got justice for what happened to them. They were gunned down in the street and they were treated like the criminals. Hell, you had the judge in the case refuse to call them victims and then turn around and allow the defense to defame their character in open court.

That judge doesn’t feel shame. He should, but he doesn’t. Obviously, Rittenhouse has been robbed of this experience as well. It definitely impedes his moral development. At the very least, we had hoped that he would realize deep down inside what he had done. We are robbing people of that experience. We have robbed Rittenhouse of that experience.

Shame is the thing that keeps you from seeking the limelight after something like this. Shame is the thing that makes you realize you need to seek forgiveness or some sort penance even if your privaledge somehow exonerates you. Shame is the thing that aids in moral development. It’s the thing that tells you that you’ve done a horrible thing when you’ve killed three people.

Shame is the thing that tells you to go away. It is the thing that is missing all too often. It’s missing in this case because too many people have called this jackass a hero. It’s missing because that’s what he’s internalized and so he doesn’t understand why the mainstream media would say anything different. The best defense against defamation is the truth. The MSM has that in spades. Shame would have told him to leave well enough alone. Sadly, that shame wasn’t there.

As I write this it should be noted that the verdict in the Kyle Rittenhouse case has not been reported. By the time you read this, it likely has already come down. I’m notoriously not a gambling man, but if I were I’d lay down heavy odds that he’s walking home. I’m not a soothsayer here, after all, more than me is saying the same thing.

There have long been arguments about self-defense and it’s one of those discussions where I feel I must be taking crazy pills. At this point, I’m not arguing anymore. There really is no point in it. If someone can’t see the plain truth that is right in front of them then they likely never will. Many of these folks are people we used to count as friends. Some of them are family. It hurts to even think about what they are at this point.

Most of the commentators have been dancing around the shame. Where does it go? If you see the truth then you definitely feel it. When you see such a huge miscarriage of justice it’s hard to feel anything else. Our justice system seems capable of slowly making up for egregious errors in justice. Wrongfully convicted folks can appeal. They can challenge issues of law. They can introduce new evidence that wasn’t introduced before. There have been hundreds of folks that have had their guilty verdict set aside.

These aren’t perfect scenarios. There is no getting back the time lost. Yet, one of the miracles of our justice system is the fact that this avenue is available at all. What really isn’t available is the ability to overcome a rogue judge or an odious jury that is willing to put their thumbs on the scales of justice. Victims don’t get a second bite at that apple. They can’t wipe away an ineffective prosecution team or shoddy police investigation. To date, there is very little recourse for their families or those that care about them. They can’t cry foul when they see that the fix is in.

Shame leads to dark places. It can’t go anywhere and there is little we can do about it. It piles on itself and the weight becomes crippling. We can’t look each other in the eye because we know all too well what is going on. We can call it by name, but the unwoke mob will call it cancel culture and try to minimize the shame. They’ll trivialize it. They’ll poke fun at you for it. They’ll hang it like an albatross around your neck.

When someone like Rittenhouse walks away it eats just a little bit more out of our soul. It feeds that depression that so many of us feel. It stacks on top of the other shameful events that we can’t erase or explain away. It just stays there weighing us all down. Maybe those deniers can’t see it. Maybe they can’t hear it. Maybe they don’t know it’s there. They certainly will feel it at some point and by then it will be too late. By then the weight may crush us all.

The news today was simultaneously shocking and expected all at the same time. Governor Andrew Cuomo announced his resignation. It will officially take effect in a couple of weeks. His statement came with the usual caveats. He was doing it in the best interests of the state. He gave what seemed like a non-specific apology that admitted nothing. You know the drill.

For those that haven’t been paying attention, the writing was on the wall when an official investigation revealed that he had sexually harassed a number of women on his staff over the years. Add to that the scandal over a cover up on deaths in retirement homes and there was really no other direction that this could have gone for Cuomo.

Except, we all know that isn’t true. That’s what makes handicapping this thing so very hard. On the one hand, a resignation is the bare minimum that could have been expected, so praising anyone for the bare minimum seems ghastly. Yet, so many of our current politicians can’t be bothered to do the bare minimum. I suppose it’s the absence of shame.

We begin with the former president and the over twenty women that accused him of sexual assault, sexual harassment, and whatever else falls under that umbrella. We continue with Matt Gaetz and the persistent charges that he recruited underage women to travel and have sex with him. There is Jim Jordan and his role in the sexual abuse scandal back when he was a coach.

Then there are the numerous politicians that continue to kill their constituents. Cuomo is definitely responsible for his own decisions. Still, what’s the difference between that and Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis? The difference is that one of them is at least doing the bare minimum to own his shame.

We have seen a shift in American politics. The party of personal responsibility has become the Democrats. Al Franken resigned when he was ambushed by a series of charges. Now, Cuomo has resigned. The Republican party seems incapable of feeling shame. They double down on shame. They project that shame to others. They do everything but accept their own shame.

This creates a complex series of emotions. It’s hard to feel sorry for anyone that has been outed for bad behavior. It’s the kind of behavior that would get any of us fired a lot sooner. In some cases, it would land us in jail. Yet, it’s difficult to suppress the feelings for empathy for a group of people that take responsibility for things that others refuse to do for themselves. It’s hard to know what to do with these feelings. I guess I’m open to suggestions.