What a man will do

I was watching a television program with Cindy at lunch today. The program was 'Homocide: Life on the Streets'. This particular episode involved the investigation of a murder of a young girl, whose body was left in an alley near her home. This particular investigation was the first homocide investigation for one of the detectives: Tim Baylis.

This particular episode was a continuation to the original episode for the series. It follows the detectives as they attempt to find the person who committed the murder. In this episode, the detectives focus their attention on an old man who was formerly a street vendor. The suspect had connections to the deceased and a previous arrest for a statutory rape.

The episode ends with the two detectives, Tim Baylis and Frank Pembleton, taking the suspect into the interrogation room to attempt to withdraw a confession to the crime. The interrogation starts in the afternoon and ends the following morning. The detectives try everything they can to try to get a confession from the old man.

The last thirty minutes of the program shows the detective trying to trick the old man into confessing to the crime. As they confuse and play with the suspect, the old man begins to philosophize and consider the limits of any man. There is a long speech toward the end of the interrogation in which the old man talks about what is inside every man.

As the man spoke his speech, I started to think about the things I have done during my lifetime which have shown the sinful nature I normally try to hide within. I pondered the things I have done during my lifetime of which I am ashamed, which tend to creep into my mind from time to time, no matter how far in time and distance they are from the present.

It is not so difficult to consider the depravity of man. One simply must honestly consider the acts which one makes over his lifetime. It becomes rather disingenuous to say, "I am basically a good person."

How many times do you hear someone say that? What can it mean? Is this based on the average life and the acts of an average man during his lifetime? What qualifies one as a "basically good person"? How much good must you do? How much good will overcome the evil that we do? The evil that we are capable of?