It keeps repeating
After a conviction for an uncomfortable charge like sexual abuse, not that most aren’t uncomfortable, most people are repelled. Some will even go as far as to say the individual should get the death penalty. Or at the very least a life sentence. I’ve even heard, use them as test subjects for whatever, drugs, foods, etc.
This like all other crimes there are levels. This is not to say that the lesser or lower level crime shouldn’t still be prosecuted. If due process, evidence, and reasonable doubt a guilty verdict is determined, sentencing. But to what degree? What are minimum and max for the crime. Did the trial tell the “whole” story?
I’ve shared this quote a few times. It keeps repeating. “The danger of a single story, I’ve always felt that it is impossible to engage properly with a place or a person without engaging with all of the stories of that place, and that person. The consequence of the single story is this, it robs people of dignity it makes our recognition of humanity difficult.” ~Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
I believe that our prisons are overcrowded. Some are making a lot of money off of prisons. Is that okay? Not if the incarcerated are treated like animals. Why, because we haven’t or don’t have the time to engage with all of the story. We just use the window of the crime. Granted, that can be a lifetime. It can also be less. There often is Inadequate defense. The case is tried in media or public before the evidence is revealed. Guilty before proven innocent.
I would say, put yourself in their shoes. But I haven’t believed that for a very long time. Just didn’t know how to put it into words. With the recent evolution of Brené Brown I got some help. “So the idea of walking in someone else’s shoes and trying to understand what they are feeling has no merit. The call is much more difficult and powerful and that is, to ask the person for their story for what it is like in their shoes and to believe them – not about guessing what they are feeling – – why do we think we have to walk in other people shoes? The hard part is the believing part. Because it either challenges what I want to be true about the world or challenges my idea that there is one experience of the world. Or it makes me accountable in some way that makes me uncomfortable.”
For family it is a fine line to know how to move forward. What kind of support do you offer or even maintain? I guess that depends on the whole story. For a friend, what kind of friend? How close, what story do you know? Is it more of an acquaintance than a friend. How and who brought them into your world? Does it seem glamorous or exciting because of the extended circle or even wealth?
For family. I guess one would have to, “ask the person for their story for what it is like in their shoes and to believe them”. The same for the family that supports the individual you might think should be put to death.
When something comes too close, you have two choices. Support, don’t support. I chose support. Even though in all honesty, I do not understand and because of the timeline I have not been able to “ask the person for their story for what it is like in their shoes and to believe them”.
This for me is where there is no question where the line is. It is drawn and set with no question.