2019
October
03
Thursday

Monitor Daily Podcast

October 03, 2019
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In today’s Daily, our five stories offer a broader perspective on President Donald Trump’s Ukraine dealings, Rust Belt puzzlement at talk of an economic slowdown, an examination of what political contrition truly looks like, Canada’s mixed messages on climate change, and the women authors who are changing African history, one book at a time. 

But first, a story so moving we couldn’t ignore it.

The woman in front of Brandt Jean had killed his brother. She had walked into his brother’s apartment, thinking it was her own, and shot the black man as he ate ice cream. Outside the courtroom came chants of “no justice, no peace” over the 10-year sentence given to the off-duty white police officer.

But Mr. Jean asked to give Amber Guyger a hug. “I love you just like anyone else. I’m not going to say I hope you rot and die just like my brother did, but I personally want the best for you,” he said. “I know that’s exactly what [my brother] Botham would want … and the best would be, give your life to Christ.”

The act harked back to the forgiveness shown to a white supremacist who shot nine black congregants of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015. And it underlines the extraordinary and unbroken line of grace in the African American church – a tradition rooted in everything African Americans have endured since slavery, historian Jemar Tisby told The Washington Post.

He points to civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer, who said, “Ain’t no such a thing as I can hate anybody and hope to see God’s face.”

But how often is this grace given in the other direction? Mr. Tisby says it often seems black people are “never extended that same grace in the public mind.”

Yesterday’s scenes point to lessons from the black church that are universal, as well as blessings that are limited only by how often they are bestowed. 


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Today's stories

And why we wrote them

Foreign relations are, on one level, fundamentally about getting what a country wants. But President Donald Trump’s patterns of behavior show another motive as well – getting what he wants personally.

Barry Adams/Wisconsin State Journal/AP/File
James Johnson builds a spike-tooth harrow at McFarlane Manufacturing in Sauk City, Wisconsin, on Sept. 27, 2017. Facing a tight labor supply, General Manager Todd Lassanske says he has worked to cultivate loyalty and flexible skills in his staff.

Economics shapes politics, but as talk of a slowdown grows, people in one Rust Belt state crucial to the presidential election aren’t seeing it.

This next story touches on grace, too. In Virginia, a governor’s racist mistake has brought to light what really matters: Is he sincere, and is he honestly trying to make African Americans’ lives better?

Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press/AP
Members of the Clay and Paper Theatre take part in the climate strike in Toronto on Sept. 27, 2019.

The intersection of climate and politics in Canada shows how idealism still needs healthy dollops of practicality.

Books

Shannon Stapleton/Reuters/File
Petina Gappah, a Zimbabwean writer whose most recent novel is “Out of Darkness, Shining Light,” poses for a portrait in New York on May 7, 2009.

A new wave of African fiction, driven by women authors, speaks to an expanding sense of what history is worth telling – and Africans’ compelling place in it.


The Monitor's View

In a new book, a former dean of Harvard Law School, Martha Minow, opens with this observation on today’s society: “Ours is an unforgiving age, an age of resentment. The supply of forgiveness is deficient.” She wrote the book – “When Should Law Forgive?” – because of what she sees as the limits of the law in dealing with the worst of crimes, such as murder, as well as the difficulty in forgiving crimes “that defy conception.”

The book is well timed. On Wednesday in a Dallas County courthouse, a TV camera caught yet another public example of a unilateral act of personal forgiveness to an individual who had committed a heinous crime.

It came from Brandt Jean, the brother of a black man murdered in 2018 by an off-duty white policewoman, Amber Guyger, who just on Tuesday had been convicted of the crime.

At the sentencing hearing, Mr. Jean told the weeping woman that he loved her, did not want her to go to jail, and wanted the best for her. “If you truly are sorry ... I forgive. I know if you go to God and ask Him, He will forgive you,” he said.

The judge then granted his wish to hug the killer of his brother. With what seemed like a contrite heart, Ms. Guyger welcomed the hug. It was an extraordinary scene of reconciliation that defies what Ms. Minow calls “an unforgiving age.”

In her book, Ms. Minow asks when legal officials can and should promote forgiveness between individuals. A good example was the Texas judge joining Mr. Jean in advising the convicted woman on steps toward repentance and redemption. In addition, the Dallas County district attorney, who was pleased with the 10-year sentence given for the crime, described the courtroom embrace as an “amazing act of healing.”

Ms. Minow describes offers of forgiveness as the “human efforts to follow divine example.” Such offers are given with an expectation of “breaking the cycle of vengeances” by forgoing the rightful grounds for grievance against those who committed harm. They involve “ceasing to let the wrongdoing count in one’s feelings toward the wrongdoer, even while maintaining recognition of the wrong.”

In the adversarial setting of a judicial process, Mr. Jean injected forgiveness. In the midst of impersonal punishment, he offered personal restoration. He invited Ms. Guyger to show the care and connection she failed to show during the murder. He offered her spiritual freedom during her years of human imprisonment.

To answer the book’s titled question, yes, there are times when law should forgive. As Ms. Minow writes, forgiveness encourages people to “prioritize creating a shared future over holding on to resentments of the past.” The supply of forgiveness is not “deficient.” It only needs to be brought out in everyone.


A Christian Science Perspective

About this feature

It can seem all too easy to return hate with hate in our views of those we feel are fostering hatred. But the world needs the opposite from us. When we mentally yield to the presence of God, Love, this chips away at hatred’s appearance of solidity.


A message of love

Mohammed Salem/Reuters
Palestinian girls take part in a karate training session in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, Oct. 3, 2019.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Jacob Turcotte and Karen Norris. )

A look ahead

Thank you for making the Monitor a part of your day today. Tomorrow, we’ll have something a little different for you – a conversation between our chief culture writer and film critic about the ethics and art of “Joker.” The movie’s unsettling themes have been met with both praise and alarm.

More issues

2019
October
03
Thursday
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