A company hosts a press conference to show how caring and compassionate it is. The CEO of the company, dressed in a top-of-the-line suit, stands in front of the television cameras with his arms around a homeless man who has not bathed for several days. This, we are supposed to believe, makes the company’s CEO a good person. 

A political leader is exposed for deceitful behavior. The day after the exposure, he and his wife volunteer in a soup kitchen. We’re supposed to believe that he is still a good person, despite the wrongdoing he more or less acknowledged.

In response to my comment that there' s no shame in hating the contemptible, an irate reader wrote in with the following quote from Martin Luther King, Jr.: "Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction. So when Jesus says "Love your enemies," he is setting forth a profound and ultimately inescapable admonition. ... The chain reaction of evil — hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars — must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation."

I recently encountered a psychologist who said, in essence, "People are doing the best they can; and they're getting something out of what they're doing." He maintained, and he's right, that psychologists and therapists especially should keep this in mind. He's largely right. Any therapist knows that once you find out more about a person's situation, no matter how irrational something seems out-of-context, it makes sense to the person doing it. As one lady puts it, "I can't stop smoking. It's the only time I have for myself. It's just for me."