I’ve seen a lot of things out there because of the story shared by The Atlantic asking for forgiveness with the Covid-19 reactions. Most people aren’t buying it. And they shouldn’t. Now while I understand why people feel this way, as with most things I think we can make too broad a statement, which takes away from what we should be doing. Looking at every person on an individual level and seeing if they truly are worthy of that forgiveness. I don’t want to conflate the two.
First, we must separate the people from the entities. On an individual level it will be a lot easier to determine. In my opinion when you seek forgiveness you do everything in your power to make it right. So, for example if you suffered nothing but verbal abuse from a friend or a loved one it really only takes a truly heartfelt apology to earn forgiveness. As they really didn’t have an effect on your life. If, however, your direct supervisor informed you that you would be needing proof of vaccine, proof of a negative test, or some other ridiculous thing in order to work there then the need for compensation is obviously greater.
The problem I’m seeing is that none of the people who are asking for this so called “Amnesty” have done nothing that warrants that “Amnesty”. I have seen no one even go as far as saying they were wrong. I don’t see how anyone can be sincerely seeking forgiveness if they can’t even go that far. Now I also don’t know how you can recompense those who lost loved ones due to, say, the policy of New York City of placing people recovering from Covid in nursing homes. How can that even be done? I honestly don’t know the answer for that one. If there even is one.
What about those who lost their livelihoods while the major companies like Amazon and Walmart raked in the money? Well you could try to take those profits from them and give it back to those that lost their businesses but do you really think that would work? Do you really trust the government to be able to do it correctly or fairly? That’s the problem. How can we truly move past this until we actually see those held responsible that caused this mess.
So that’s my problem with this entire idea. Now I’ll be completely honest. I couldn’t read the article from the Atlantic because I don’t subscribe to it. And don’t plan on doing that anytime soon. So I can’t speak to what that person said. I’m all for forgiveness. But I’m not for blanket forgiveness. If you want it you need to earn it. Until I see people being held accountable and actual apologies coming forth I see no reason to give you my forgiveness. It’s that simple.