We have gone forward. We also know America isn’t Shangri-La. When cities burn in the night, parents weep in silent anguish, thousands march in protest, and a Ferguson prosecutor willingly undercuts his own case, we have a distance to travel.
Today, we need a national commission on justice. One that is more than a fact-finding commission. One whose purpose is reconciliation. This one should be modeled after South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, chaired by Bishop Desmond Tutu.
There was an emphasis in that commission on reconciliation. There was a marked effort to forgive. Tutu wrote, “When I talk of forgiveness I mean the belief that you can come out the other side … a better person than the one being consumed by anger and hatred.
“Remaining in that state locks you in a state of victimhood, making you almost dependent on the perpetrator. If you can find it in yourself to forgive then you are no longer chained to the perpetrator. You can move on.”
