Humanity's Complexity, Convicts

I took a few days to read Great Sinners Dostoevsky, my father, and me, but when I did I found this:

"In prison it sometimes happened that you would know a man for several years and think he was a beast, not a man, and despise him,” the narrator goes on. “And suddenly a chance moment would come when his soul, on an involuntary impulse, would open up and you would see in it such riches, feeling, heart, such a clear understanding of his own and others’ suffering, as if your own eyes had been opened.”

I can say this still applies to the inmates of the federal prison where I was imprisoned. Consider this now:

The refusal to condemn—is that what forgiveness is? Not to justify or condone the wrongdoing; not to say, “No problem, we’re good, it’s OK.” But to say: “Actually, it’s not OK, and yet despite your crime, despite the harm you’ve caused, for which you must be held accountable, I still accept you as a fellow human being. Because I, too, am capable of causing suffering, even willfully, if I’m honest. I, too, am a sinner. I accept your flawed humanity because it’s my own.”

But most prefer condemnation, the demonization of the other. Do you not condemn me, demonize me? The Orthodox monks write about the wrongness of judging others.  If America wants to be a Christian country, it needs to seriously reconsider how it treats people - the poor, the criminal, the ones who do not look like us, the asylum seeker.

And for something similar but more modern is She spent 26 years in prison, where she transitioned. Now she is a free woman from The Guardian.

After 26 years behind bars, Hicklin was leaving prison as the first transgender inmate in Missouri to have successfully sued for the right to access hormones. She was also leaving behind a legacy called UnLocked Labs, an organization which aids prisoners to continue their education.

But notwithstanding all the good she has done, she was still re-entering society as a convicted murderer.

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

sch

3/8/22