The Things We Allow

"Neighborhoods are living, breathing reflections of what we create, and what we allow. Public art, porch sits...suffering - all the same, what we create, and what we allow." -Rachel Freeman

It's the "what we allow" part that keeps me up at night. At 6 pm central time, the state of Missouri will murder an innocent man unless the US Supreme Court intervenes. The governor has denied clemency. The Missouri Supreme Court, despite having no DNA evidence and an agreement from the prosecutors and the victim's family to allow Mr. Williams to enter a plea of no contest to avoid execution, did not overturn the ruling.

So, in less than 12 hours, a father could be murdered in front of his son. That is the definition of cruel and unusual punishment...and it's what we allow.

I understand that no systems are perfect. These things are complex. Do you know what else is complex? Amazon's logistics.

Amazon ships 1.6 million packages daily, delivered to over 100 countries worldwide with 99.9% accuracy. That 0.1% is known as the tolerance level. The tolerance level represents undesirable results that can be produced without compromising the system's or product's overall integrity.

Toyota's tolerance tolerance level is .00034%.
Intel Processors's tolerance level is less than 0.1%.
Apple's tolerance level is around 1%.
Coca-Cola's tolerance level is under 1%

These aren't arbitrary numbers. Companies pay big bucks to know where customers draw the line between 'mistakes happen' and 'we no longer trust your product.' Your top businesses know that anything over that 1% tolerance level is unacceptable to the consumer and will ultimately cost them money.

The Innocence Project reports that 375 people have been exonerated through DNA evidence since 1989 in the United States. 21 of these exonerees were on death row at the time of their exoneration. Studies suggest that at least 4.1% of death row inmates are likely innocent.

This means our current tolerance level for capital punishment is 4.1%, or 4x what Apple or Coca-Cola would allow. The difference is that when you get a buggy iPhone or a flat 2-liter of cola, nobody dies.

So, back to the quote. "Neighborhoods are living, breathing reflections of what we create, and what we allow. Public art, porch sits...suffering - all the same, what we create, and what we allow."

We don't have to allow this. We must not allow this. We are connected more than we realize. Violence only creates more violence. It’s time we gave mercy the lead.

"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. An absence of compassion can corrupt the decency of a community, a state, a nation."- Bryan Stevenson