Forgiving Was The Most Important Part
Continuing along the vein of things I’ve done with my girlfriend over the weekend, here comes the 10th annual celebration of the International Forgiveness Day, a day where people get together and honor those who have forgiven. Three awards were given at this ceremony to honor people who were forgiving this year and I went not just because of the forgiveness factor, which I felt that the group I went with really needed to hear, but because one of the people being awarded there was Michael Berg.
I’d first heard about this guy when I read about his son several years ago. Nicholas Berg was one of the many American citizens in Iraq who was captured and beheaded in front of a video camera by Islamofascists. I saw the video myself and I watched him as he was brutally slain. The terrorists said it was in response to the humiliated prisoners at Abu Ghraib. It was clear to me then that they were full of s*** and that we were dealing with an enemy that couldn’t be reasoned with. Nicholas Berg, according to some reports, thought that anyone could be reasoned with. It was that attitude that killed him. But Michael Berg got something else out of the experience.
Last night, I was interested in hearing his story. The last thing I wanted to hear though was the far left wing attitude that he had. He was a hippie who was flamingly anti-war and I listened to his story of how he forgave the men who killed his son. Personally, I think that’s amazing. If it were my son, I don’t know if I would ever be able to forgive fully. And if I were, I know I could never forget. I think though that this guy took it a little far though saying that he mourned the death of Al-Zarqawi like he would any other human being. I would find it tragic that someone had to die, I don’t like killing, I don’t like to think about it, but whether or not I consider it necessary is another thing. I think it sad that we have to kill people in this war, but I thank God every day that people like Al-Zarqawi are burning in hell so that we can preserve some life for those people who else he could have killed by now and even years from now. Forgiving for what a murderer does is necessary and in some cases incredible, but responding to such acts by going after the man responsible for them is not revenge. It’s crime and punishment. But I don’t think this guy would think that way. After all, he blamed George W. Bush for the death of his son. He protested the Vietnam War, the Gulf War and the current Iraq War (not saying that there’s anything wrong with protesting the Vietnam War.) However this does bring me to another point: I know that people like him don’t like war under any circumstances, but where was he in the Clinton era when Billy boy bombed drug farms and helped out in Kosovo? Under his logic, such things should be evil, right? But he didn’t protest because it’s only a problem when it happens under a Republican administration. In short, it was great that he forgave, but everything else about his philosophy I can’t agree with.
Michael was not the first to be awarded though. A woman named Nadia McCaffrey was up first. Her story was that she too lost her son in the Iraq war. He went as a soldier who fought the war for honor, but given his mother’s political orientation I doubt he agreed with it. Nadia was another tremendously anti-war parent who was not hiding it at this event. It became pretty clear to me that this was not just a forgiveness celebration, it was also a political rally that was trying to tell me that the people I voted for are the bad guys and not the enemies of their country. I didn’t come there for that, especially considering that we were at Dominican University, a school which struck me as being fairly conservative. But hey, a conservative college in San Rafael? Who am I kidding? Nadia still forgave the people who killed her son though, and that was what I found to be most important.
But what made the evening the most worth it was the final two people who were awarded: Kai-Leigh Harriott and her mother Tonya David. Kai-Leigh is now six years old, paralyzed from the waist down by a stray bullet when she was three years old. The most recuperation that she could possibly get is probably over by now and she goes around in a manual wheelchair. But what makes her so special, you ask? The fact that at age six, she was able to forgive the man who paralyzed her. That is amazing. She will probably never be able to walk, run, play as many games as she could before, but she forgave because it was the right thing to do. You can’t live your life in hatred or regret. Forgiving will heal the most. And of course, this is the philosophy that the girl’s mother has put on her, but I still think we can learn a lot from that six year old girl.
All in all, I give the evening a 6 out of 10. I don’t know if I’ll be returning next year though.
I’d first heard about this guy when I read about his son several years ago. Nicholas Berg was one of the many American citizens in Iraq who was captured and beheaded in front of a video camera by Islamofascists. I saw the video myself and I watched him as he was brutally slain. The terrorists said it was in response to the humiliated prisoners at Abu Ghraib. It was clear to me then that they were full of s*** and that we were dealing with an enemy that couldn’t be reasoned with. Nicholas Berg, according to some reports, thought that anyone could be reasoned with. It was that attitude that killed him. But Michael Berg got something else out of the experience.
Last night, I was interested in hearing his story. The last thing I wanted to hear though was the far left wing attitude that he had. He was a hippie who was flamingly anti-war and I listened to his story of how he forgave the men who killed his son. Personally, I think that’s amazing. If it were my son, I don’t know if I would ever be able to forgive fully. And if I were, I know I could never forget. I think though that this guy took it a little far though saying that he mourned the death of Al-Zarqawi like he would any other human being. I would find it tragic that someone had to die, I don’t like killing, I don’t like to think about it, but whether or not I consider it necessary is another thing. I think it sad that we have to kill people in this war, but I thank God every day that people like Al-Zarqawi are burning in hell so that we can preserve some life for those people who else he could have killed by now and even years from now. Forgiving for what a murderer does is necessary and in some cases incredible, but responding to such acts by going after the man responsible for them is not revenge. It’s crime and punishment. But I don’t think this guy would think that way. After all, he blamed George W. Bush for the death of his son. He protested the Vietnam War, the Gulf War and the current Iraq War (not saying that there’s anything wrong with protesting the Vietnam War.) However this does bring me to another point: I know that people like him don’t like war under any circumstances, but where was he in the Clinton era when Billy boy bombed drug farms and helped out in Kosovo? Under his logic, such things should be evil, right? But he didn’t protest because it’s only a problem when it happens under a Republican administration. In short, it was great that he forgave, but everything else about his philosophy I can’t agree with.
Michael was not the first to be awarded though. A woman named Nadia McCaffrey was up first. Her story was that she too lost her son in the Iraq war. He went as a soldier who fought the war for honor, but given his mother’s political orientation I doubt he agreed with it. Nadia was another tremendously anti-war parent who was not hiding it at this event. It became pretty clear to me that this was not just a forgiveness celebration, it was also a political rally that was trying to tell me that the people I voted for are the bad guys and not the enemies of their country. I didn’t come there for that, especially considering that we were at Dominican University, a school which struck me as being fairly conservative. But hey, a conservative college in San Rafael? Who am I kidding? Nadia still forgave the people who killed her son though, and that was what I found to be most important.
But what made the evening the most worth it was the final two people who were awarded: Kai-Leigh Harriott and her mother Tonya David. Kai-Leigh is now six years old, paralyzed from the waist down by a stray bullet when she was three years old. The most recuperation that she could possibly get is probably over by now and she goes around in a manual wheelchair. But what makes her so special, you ask? The fact that at age six, she was able to forgive the man who paralyzed her. That is amazing. She will probably never be able to walk, run, play as many games as she could before, but she forgave because it was the right thing to do. You can’t live your life in hatred or regret. Forgiving will heal the most. And of course, this is the philosophy that the girl’s mother has put on her, but I still think we can learn a lot from that six year old girl.
All in all, I give the evening a 6 out of 10. I don’t know if I’ll be returning next year though.
posted by Jaimetud at 3:16 PM
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