Assignment 3 -- Andrew Thompson

     I like to think that there is no such thing as pure good or evil. Generally, I think that the majority of "bad" things people do have some sort of rationale behind them. There are obviously some exceptions, but take, for example, me lying to my mom about an assignment. I may lie to her, saying that I did it or that it is being graded, but I do it so she will hopefully not worry about it anymore. Even lying itself is a fundamentally bad thing to do, I think having some sort of reasoning for it pushes it into a more grey area. And I think that most bad things we do fall into this area. We do things that seem insignificant and don't really affect others all the time, like stealing pencils when we don't have one. But I think what gets the most attention are the things that aren't so clear cut. Shootings, robberies, assaults, all get more attention. The media and we as people seem to like knowing about these things more than mundane grey area evils. But even then, we don't always even attempt to sympathize with those who commit crimes like these. We write them off as "evil" and root against them. Maybe I am putting a bit too much faith in people, but very seldom do people do "bad" things just because. I find it important to look a bit deeper into the why.