Forgive and Forget

As Michael Vick emerges from the debacle of dog fighting, I recall arriving home one day to discover that someone had poisoned our four dogs. I watched as my son sobbed uncontrollably over the deaths. I still carry that pain. What Vick did is horrendous but I believe he deserves redemption, he deserves to be forgiven. He deserves to be given the chance to prove that he has learnt from the experience because none of us is without flaws. I also believe that such attitudes should be extended to children as well. The ones we deemed failures long before they complete primary schools. The ones who are incarcerated.

We cannot teach people the power of forgiveness, if we have not allowed them to experience forgiveness. Forgiveness impacts the receiver as well as the giver. No one is without faults whether in the open or secretly and the difference between many of us and the ones at whom we point fingers is that we have not be caught. We all need redemption both from ourselves and others. In Merchant of Venice style we always seem to want our pound of flesh. We cannot be so driven by justice that we forget the tempering effect of mercy.

Vick deserves a second chance and so does every child in America and anywhere in the world. Second chance means support to get back on the right track again. It means giving up on our animosities, treating the wrong doer as he had not done wrong. The last few weeks is beginning to make me feel pessimistic about that, given the rage and anger unleashed by our most senior citizens with something an inanimate as health care. I think of the many children who watch as these are replayed on television. My children watch and they have their opinions on the behavior. They are learning lessons that I would not teach on civility, second chances and redemption. They are learning that when we fail to forgive, we become victims of our own animosities and I am learning we cannot build enough prison to incarcerate everyone who has done wrong and fall shot of our high standards of perfection. We might as well learn to live with each other - faults and all and that means forgiving and forgetting. There is no better lesson we can teach our children or pass on to succeeding generations - that is Ok not to be perfect. It is ok to falter but I am here to help you get back on your feet, despite how long that may take.