Evil

Once in a while people ask me if I believe in evil. The question is well meant, and I reply that evil is a word in the English language. We employ the word in certain ways, mainly to designate an act or person that strikes us as irredeemably wicked. John Boehner, for example, does not strike me as evil. He is, of course, a bagman who distributes bribes to members of congress from corporations and Wall Street. Boehner is a bad human being but capable of a decent act once in a blue moon (as I see him). The members of the NRA do not seem evil to me. Many of them behave in sounder ways than I do when it comes to moral decisions. But the leaders of the NRA make me shudder. Their continued rabid support of murderous gun manufacturing is not redeemable. They are evil shadows walking among us.