Okay, whatever. I am sorry for overreacting a bit, some posts just make me extremely angry.
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What I wanted to say, in my opinion it's a great step to make an apology and trying to handle this like human beings. Apology and forgiveness are two sides of the same emotional coin. They reflect the constructive ways the oppressors and the oppressed in an intractable conflict can come to grips with the pain and suffering the conflict produced. Apologies and forgiveness are important because intractable conflicts generate such deep and searing emotions. Even after the fighting stops, people still feel the pain, hurt, anger, fear, and hatred that produced the conflict and its horrors in the first place. Without apology and forgiveness, people remain locked in the value systems that produced the conflict. Little progress beyond a ceasefire can be made.
t is not easy, however, to apologize or forgive. To see that, consider two scenes from the remarkable documentary about the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, "Long Night's Journey Into Day."[1]
The film ends with the case of two policemen who had asked for amnesty for their killing of seven young black teenagers during the struggle for the townships in the 1980s. The apology made by the white officer was anything but heartfelt. He remained arrogant, and clearly was making the apology only in order to have a chance at gaining amnesty. His lack of sincerity was obvious; he was refused. The other officer was black. The film showed his hearing before the Commission, where it was clear that he truly felt remorse. Nonetheless, the mothers of the seven boys were still so grief-stricken almost 15 years after the murders that they broke down and had to be taken from the room.
The Commission then set up a meeting between the former officer and the seven women. The officer was in tears for much of the session. For much of the session, the mothers remained adamant in their refusal to forgive him. Finally, one of them noticed that his name means "prayer" in Xhosa, his native language. She told him that, as a Christian, she realized that she had a duty to forgive. At that point, you could feel the tension escape from the room. Those eight people, brought together in tragedy, were ready to move on with their personal and political lives.
What I want to say: Those people who hate Egossi should just move on and just drop that past. Just accept his apology and start over.
I hope you get what I am saying, this is gonna be my last post in this thread if you think this is "too emotional" then you may be right.