a ramble on justice and getting even
Mar. 23rd, 2004 01:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
serenissimaThis morning, a man on NPR's "Morning Edition" was talking about the people in the mountains of Afghanistan, some of whom our government thinks are hiding and sheltering Osama bin Laden. He talked a little about their customs of clan feuding, and recompense and retribution.
Other voices on the radio mentioned that many Palestinians are promising retaliation for the assassination by Israel of a Palestinian leader yesterday or the day before, and that many synagogues and Jewish temples in the US are increasing their security as a result.
And then there was a sound clip of a woman whose two young grandsons were killed in the Oklahoma City bombing. She says that she wants Terry Nichols to be prosecuted again in state court so that he may receive a death sentence, instead of just life in federal prison without parole, which is what he has now.
All this stuff reminded me of the essay quoted in this LJ post.
Wars are fought over many things, but it seems to me that the lingering, festering, constant war zones have a problem with wanting to get even. Hutus and Tutsis. Irish Catholics and Irish Protestants. Serbians and Croats. I think one of the more impressive achievements of human government is South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which sometimes grants amnesty to people who confess and expose their crimes as officials in the apartheid regime.
Forgiveness can be very, very hard. But I think that sometimes, the results of human justice are even harder.
Other voices on the radio mentioned that many Palestinians are promising retaliation for the assassination by Israel of a Palestinian leader yesterday or the day before, and that many synagogues and Jewish temples in the US are increasing their security as a result.
And then there was a sound clip of a woman whose two young grandsons were killed in the Oklahoma City bombing. She says that she wants Terry Nichols to be prosecuted again in state court so that he may receive a death sentence, instead of just life in federal prison without parole, which is what he has now.
All this stuff reminded me of the essay quoted in this LJ post.
Wars are fought over many things, but it seems to me that the lingering, festering, constant war zones have a problem with wanting to get even. Hutus and Tutsis. Irish Catholics and Irish Protestants. Serbians and Croats. I think one of the more impressive achievements of human government is South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which sometimes grants amnesty to people who confess and expose their crimes as officials in the apartheid regime.
Forgiveness can be very, very hard. But I think that sometimes, the results of human justice are even harder.