Wanted: Healing

My wife can say this more eloquently than I because of her training in trauma, but our nation is need of the healing that comes from having room to express anger and frustration but not having it lead to violence and retaliation.

On the one hand, we must acknowledge that there is real injustice and real grievance and real consequence, which have created real pain and therefore a real need to express that pain, even with anger and frustration.  I appreciate those who speak words of caution and reason and level-headedness and diplomacy.  But respectfully I must say that sometimes such words come across as wanting to squelch our very human emotions rather than giving them healthy space to vent them.

On the other hand, we must condemn any response that desires to answer an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.  I realize that sometimes where this vengeful spirit comes from is a deeply aggrieved place, in which one has seen years, decades, and even generations of harm inflicted and simply wants to lash out with one fiery act of retribution.  But, as I have explained to my kids, this is the very nature of prejudice, to blame all of one type for a single representative's transgression.  We cannot tolerate such thoughts or acts, as much as I understand the emotions behind them.

I realize that prayer is not everyone's answer but it is mine.  Oh God, have mercy on us all.