COLUMN: The necessity of forgiveness
While spring breaking in Moab last week, my fellow travelers and I stopped to watch the news for a few moments. As usual, it was mostly bad news, but I was particularly disturbed by one story.
In New York, a woman, 101 years old, had been jumped in her apartment building and had her purse stolen. Apparently, she was on her way to church. The perpetrator held the door open for her so she could get through with her walker and then suddenly turned around and started pelting the woman with blows to the face. He hit her three or four times in the head then stopped the blows to grab the woman’s purse. Unsatisfied, the blows started up again until the woman was knocked to the ground and the assailant could rifle through her clothes.
All of this was caught on a surveillance video in the woman’s apartment building. After leaving the scene, it is suspected this same perpetrator went to another apartment building nearby and duplicated the crime on another elderly woman, this one 85 years old.
This story is enraging. It reaches a new level of sleaze and disgust. It has triggered many Americans to do whatever they can to help get this guy, including calling into police with tips and offer thousands of dollars in rewards for this guy’s capture.
But this story also shows the best example of true heroism. It’s a survivor story.
Rose Morat, the 101-year-old woman who was attacked, was interviewed after returning home from the hospital. For being beaten, she looked wonderful, a little bruising and tired, but still chugging along like a trooper.
She was interviewed by reporters after the attack. She told them if she had been younger she would have been after the guy and that she was a tough woman and had always been that way. She also made the comment directed toward the attacker saying only, “I hope they get you.”
The thing that impressed me most about this woman was she had nothing to say against this guy who could have literally beaten her to death. Aside from wishing he gets caught, she had nothing to say.
This caught my attention not only because the news anchor I was watching pointed it out but also because stories like this have shown up several times in the last few years – people who can honestly forgive and forget others who have hurt them, the mark of a true survivor.
Stories of forgiveness have always been my favorites through Sunday school and my day-to-day life. They seem to be the glue that holds people together, mostly because there is a lot of healing and repair that comes with true forgiveness for both parties involved.
Being able to honestly forgive someone is ranked in my top three important traits a successful person should have. It takes courage. It takes kindness. It takes humility, a little bit of trust, and a lot of faith.
On the flip side, restitution is something every person will seek at some point in their lives. When you’ve done something that really hurt someone and you feel terrible about it, you go seeking forgiveness.
Forgiveness is an essential part of human life.
Forgiveness plays another interesting role in this story as well. While it cannot be determined for sure until the perpetrator is caught, it was discussed by FBI profilers and other criminology experts that the attacker may have had some bad relationships with grandparents or other elderly people he associates with and thus acted out violently, with excessive force, when it was not necessary at all to accomplish his goal.
I know every person out there has a really good reason to be angry at someone for something horrible done to them. Everyone has the right to be angry. But I wonder, and I guess this is just a thought, but what would the world be like if every person would just take the one big thing the ticks them off and just let it go? Forgive and forget. I wonder if there would be less people out there getting beaten up in their apartments. I wonder if there would be less divorce and abuse in the home. I wonder if there would be less traffic accidents and road rage.
It’s just something to think about.
Mikaylie Kartchner is a senrio majoring in print journalism. Comments can be sent to mikayliek@cc.usu.edu.