To turn back violence, focus on character

The Black Sox didn't get away with cheating. We still need to insist on truth and accountability.

Shame and banishment faced liars a century ago — even “Shoeless Joe” Jackson, one of the eight Chicago White Sox players who threw the World Series.

Bain News Service Photograph Collection/Library of Congress

We hadn’t been together for lunch in 14 months, but even before I sat down at the best barbecue joint in town my old friend was telling me what was on his mind. “I don’t see how we get out of this without a lot of blood being spilled,” he said. He wasn’t predicting a lunchtime brouhaha; he was talking about our country.

Let’s call my friend Barnabas. He is a thoughtful guy in his 70s, hardly prone to exaggeration. His working years started in the priesthood and then, without the collar, he engaged in roles helping often-forgotten neighbors, like public-housing tenants and farmworkers. He is a man of integrity.

Barnabas was fired up by the decision of Republican leaders in Congress to try to sweep the January insurrection under the rug. But in his mind that piled atop the insult of t…