Good for her! And anybody who would have preferred to hear that yes, she forgives is an idiot.
Even at the Oxford conference people almost drove me to a fit of rage with their suggestions that forgiving Wilson is some sort of a heroic and superior act.
I wonder what purpose is served by asking someone if they forgive their child’s killer.
What is the need this ritual serves?
Why do other unrelated people need or want an answer to this question? Forget, “I don’t/do forgive”, why ask this question at all?
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I find it creepy in the extreme. But I’ve observed people talk about it with nearly physical enjoyment. It’s like their seeking absolution for themselves in a strangely vicarious fashion.
I don’t get it either.
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I wonder if the same reporters would ask the families of 9/11 victims if they forgave Osama Bin Laden.
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Exactly. Imagine asking Holocaust survivors if they have forgiven Hitler. Even decades later, the question would mark one as an insensitive creep.
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Are they seeking vicarious absolution or is it a demonstration of their power?
What would happen if somebody turned that question back on the person who asked it? Or just refused to answer it. Would it provoke fear or rage? I want to see this.
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I read the book “The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness” with 53 responses. Don’t expect such books will appear about Osama or ISIS terrorists. Interesting why. Because Germans are Europeans and Jews are … Jews, whereas Osama and terrorists are less important for European psyche?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sunflower:_On_the_Possibilities_and_Limits_of_Forgiveness
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A conservative literary critic and college professor
Clarissa's Blog 
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