I find it inspirational to hear people in the midst of grief and loss forgive the murderer of their loved ones or their own torturers.
Yet, just today, a holocaust survivor was criticized for extending a hug of forgiveness to a 93-year-old ex-Nazi functionary at Auschwitz convicted of complicity in thousands of murders. She said, "Forgiveness is the best revenge. They no longer have any power over me."
Some people I have spoken with, believe that the recent expressions of forgiveness by the families of those murdered in Charleston are false. Some of those critics believe that to really come to forgiveness the anger must be expressed.
Others believe that there are "some acts that are so terrible that we should recognize them as such. We should recognize them as beyond forgiving."1 Ms. Gay ends her OP Ed piece with "They [white people] want to believe it is possible to heal from such profound and malingering trauma because to face the openness of the wounds racism has created in our society is too much. I, for one, am done forgiving."
