Forgiveness can have a connotation of leaving something in the past. We have forgiven, so now what happened is part of the past. However, race relation issues are not in our past; they are deeply embedded in our present. The family and friends of the victims of this hate crime did whatever they deemed necessary in order to react to this horrific tragedy. Their act of forgiving was an aid for those who are in anguish, not for the man who is responsible for this tragedy. Hatred can affect us so much in the long run that forgiveness can be the best response. But I think that it is time for us to be dramatically affected in the long run. I think that it is necessary as a country to hold onto this crime as a constant painful reminder that we need to act.
I think it is easier to use forgiveness as a way to forget; I do not think that we, as society, should forgive what has been done. If we forgive ourselves as a society we risk losing the urgency we need to act and continue to act. Racism is extremely prevalent in our society to this day, whether you can, or choose not to see it, even if you are privileged not to feel it. We all participate in it everyday when we choose to take the easy way out and sail through everyday life as if thousands around us are not experiencing injustice. We do not want to acknowledge what makes us uncomfortable.
We do not want to endorse that maybe we had a leg up getting to where we are or accomplishing what we have accomplished. On some level when things are going well for us we want our situation to remain static and not rock the boat by questioning what others may be experiencing around us.
As an institutionalized problem, there is not a quick solution to the race relation issues racking this country. We can not erase hundreds of years of history overnight but we should push forward and not let indifference slow that progress. I think that, as Americans, we have the duty to reflect on what has occurred and hold on to the pain that has been inflicted. We need to actively challenge ourselves and our country to go the extra mile, to go out of our or its way, to do what needed to be done in the first place.
Willi Glee, a member of Emanuel AME’s congregation, said it best: "Racism is a disease, it's like water poured into the ground. It is everywhere. It will never go away because we keep feeding it. And, there are a lot of sick people."1
Home of the free and home of the brave. We cannot stand for our ideals without being outraged at the travesty of this coward, of this hate crime, and realizing that even if the word “forgiveness” is tossed around we cannot forgive as a society until there has been reconciliation and permanent progress.
We need to be outraged outwardly and not just privately. We need to be intolerant of intolerance and injustice.
