“Mercy is most empowering, liberating and transformative when it is directed at the undeserving. The people who haven’t earned it, who haven’t sought it, are the most meaningful recipients of our compassion.”
Bryan Stevenson – Just Mercy
Author L. G. Logan, in The Case Of The Brownie, supports Stevenson’s assessment of mercy by recognizing mercy’s noble quality when active and places a spotlight on mercy’s selective and inequitable application in society.
Judicial powers and social attitudes of revenge resulting from violence and crimes have overshadowed the healing benefits of mercy and its reconciling bridge needed to be crossed by both victim and offender. The sociological question “Who is deserving or worthy of receiving mercy?” creates a phantom justice debate with real consequential answers without the addition of an important question that we must ask ourselves “Do we, as an advanced society, have yet the mental and emotional capacity to fully embrace the value of mercy and exercise compassion unbiasedly?”
Pain, anger, and resentment can deafen the ears to words of contrition and blind the eyes to reformed character and acts for forgiveness. So, for us to construct a community team with the *CLEAR Goal of transforming communities will require a collective and honest look at our thoughts and feelings toward each other in all their appearances, acknowledgement & ownership of wrongs done, active work to make amends, reciprocated with just mercy.
*CLEAR Goals: Comprehensive Logical Evaluational And RealisticÂ
(This is a passage from the Moving F.A.S.T. – Friends Against Street Terrorism, developed by DeAngelo Capone)
