This is not meant to be a purely political post, but what caused me to write this is related to the news coverage of political figures. Everyone has been hearing a lot about Ralph Northam's scandal with wearing blackface, which happened back in the 1980s. We have seen the same thing happen with other public figures. Locally, I heard a Gettysburg college trustee resigned over wearing a Nazi uniform for a "Hogan's Heroes" theme party in the 1980s.
I am not saying that what these guys did (or were accused of doing) was right or wrong. Yet here is something we need to keep in mind, people change over time. They may apologize for what they did later on or they move on and never do it again. Both are good things and encouraging because if people never changed, life would be depressing. One could never improve or stop bad habits.
I think about my personal life. There were people back in elementary, middle, or high school that personally insulted me. I can think of one person in particular who was a long time friend and decided to cut me off because I was not cool enough for him. This hurt deeply and I bore a grudge. Part of me wished I could expose him to the whole school for who he was. Today, him and I are friends again because he changed, he is not the same guy back in high school. He made a bad choice, but that does not matter anymore. In fact, everyone, including me, has made bad mistakes in the past that they have moved on from because of changing character.
Age also plays a big role in changing character. This is not condemning every middle school, but how often did you hear about bullying in middle school? Maybe it is just me, but I heard many stories about bullying. The same thing happens in high schools. Thankfully, people stop immature behaviors as they get older (at least they are supposed to). The same thing can be said for college. Certain behaviors in college disappear as one gets older and graduates. This is not judging the behavior of college students, it is just the way it is.
Take a minute and imagine yourself being 40 years old and you are a successful CEO. The community and society at large love and respect you. Then all of a sudden, a story comes out how you cheated on your girlfriend (boyfriend) with someone else back in college. You regretted that action and since then have remained loyal to your current partner. Now the community is demanding your resignation and condemning you for an act that you did back when you were a college student. You are not defending what you did, but would you think it is fair for you to resign for something you did 20 years ago? To me, it would be unjust to you.
I know special situations do warrant investigations and consequences, like murder. Any case where there is lasting harm, there should be investigations and solutions, like the sex scandal in Pennsylvania with the Catholic Church. I do not know the right answer or the right punishments (if there should be one) for certain individuals. But I think the news and average people need to stop immediately attacking everyone for actions they did a long time ago and demanding they resign. They themselves probably have dirt in their past that could be used to attack them. If we make a universal standard that you cannot be a college president or governor for something you did back in high school or college, that means almost nobody is qualified for the job.
I would like to conclude by considering another group of people that are judged for past actions, prisoners. No one condones their actions in the past like stealing or selling drugs. And yet, the goal of prison is rehabilitating the individual so that they change and reenter society. Of course, prisons have failed at that job, but thank God we have leaders and organizations that believe people can change and try to help prisoners with that. If we believe that prisoners can change, then why not average citizens? I believe that everybody can change for the better and that makes me optimistic. I hope you believe as I do that people are dynamic and changing, not static characters.
