Forgiveness

I was hijacked/ carjacked recently. My original intention was to include in this post all of the details of what happened at the time of the hijacking and the weeks after. But it was far, far too long as the hijacking was a small part of what was to be a very gruelling few weeks and took me away from what I wanted to write about here. So what I’ve done is kept all of that writing and published it in a separate post for anyone who wants to read about it.

https://thespiritchannel.home.blog/2020/01/10/a-hijacking-and-the-fallout-from-it-pt-1/

What I will say in this post about it, was that it was difficult to write about as for some of the time, I was still experiencing hardship and the events that had already passed, were like opening fresh wounds. It was thoroughly depressing and even now I don’t like revisiting it. That period, was just blow after blow to me, due to the complications it caused; I was unable to continue my spiritual development at the spiritual Church I attend (it’s closed now), ((or was closed whenever I was originally writing this)).

But anyway, the title of this post is Forgiveness. And the first thing to say is that I forgive the individual/s who hijacked me. This forgiveness isn’t because time has passed and things are resolved; I started to write this post weeks ago soon after the event took place even as stated, it caused me a great deal of hardship!

No, I truely felt no ire or malice, only a feeling of forgiveness towards those responsible. Why? Well numero Uno. I can’t post here about tolerance, understanding, love and unity without living by my words. But also, when I start examining who’s ultimately to blame here, I go deeper and deeper into society and the world at large.

Let’s examine this together. Is this my fault for entering into a well known crime area, where hijackings are known to take place? Should I not have been more alert and suspicious of everyone in that area?

How about the friend who occasionally works in that area, and who asked me to help with his job duties? He had no room in his vehicle for his workload that day, so he asked could I help out. Is he responsible? Did he, knowing the high risk of the area, put me in jeopardy by asking me to help out.

Was it the firm’s fault by still providing a service in this area; when other firms either don’t, or take additional security measures to ensure this doesn’t happen?

Obviously the hijacker/s are to blame, which leads me to the why of the situation. What leads someone to hijack another person and steal their vehicle? What is ‘wrong’ or has gone ‘wrong’ in their life that they have to resort to this, in order to potentially make some money. That’s probably the reason for the hijacking, the person/ s involved hoped to have gotten their hands on goods they could have sold for a quick profit.

But again, why? When I’ve talked to people about this, I’ve heard words used like, SCUM, TRASH and LOWLIFES. But it’s all too easy to brand and label a person based upon one action you know about them. When I look at some children today, at some of the language they use and some of the actions they carry out; I think to myself that they are the potential hijackers of the future.

A lot of these children come from broken, troubled homes with a lack of, or bad parenting. They ape language used at them from parents or elder siblings, they’re cast out into streets and neighborhoods with little care for their whereabouts and whom they interact with.

Was my hijacker a child like this? Did they have a childhood similar to this? This is not to say that all kids with a poor start in life grow up to commit crimes, of course not. A lot of people could point to their own childhood and the difficulties they experienced growing up, and they are ‘normal, well adjusted’ members of society.

But unfortunately, some don’t, some fall through the cracks, lose any ‘good’ friends they may have had when that friend’s parents forbid contact between the two. So who are they left to interact with? More problem children (to varying degrees) like themselves, and so continues a trend into teenage and young adulthood. Mix in alcohol, tobacco and maybe drugs and you have what society seems as an undesirable.

So again, who’s culpable in the wider scheme of things? And I’m not saying that what I’ve outlined above, is the life that my hijacker/s had, I know nothing about them, but it may have been and is a reality for a lot of kids today. So is it the parent/s fault then for not raising their child right? For not giving a damn at what said child got up too when they weren’t at home? Parents who may have been raised in the same manner by their parents. Maybe they are single parents, struggling to cope after their partner left them leaving them ‘holding the baby.

What about the social influences on a child, older peers they interacted with. Should they have not been more responsible trying to show an impressionable kid that’s its not ‘cool’ or clever to behave in an antagonistic manner? This could have been an opportunity to break a repetitive cycle of another ‘broken generation’. Perhaps they are too full of malcontent to give a damn.

Is it the neighborhoods fault for not coming together and ensuring that no antisocial behaviour and activity goes unchecked? But then most people are so busy with their own families and lives they they don’t have the time, energy or commitment for an activity like this. In fact, a lot of people today simply come home from work, lock their doors and close their blinds, oblivious to the outside world. A lot of people today don’t know their neighbours. And whose fault is this?

what about school? Perhaps if these children and teenagers recieved a better education, they may be more inclined to aspire to ‘better’ themselves. Should teachers not do more. Well it’s already up to teachers to teach about ‘the birds and the bees’. Why should it be up to teachers to teach morals and ethics? Thats a parents job, and teachers are already complaining; that they are increasingly having to act like parents within the confines of the school, thereby taking time away from what they should be doing, teaching.

Additionally with large class sizes, teachers are under pressure to ensure that most of the children understand the lessons being taught. They don’t have the time or resources to spend helping ‘misfits’. They’ll tell you it’s the government’s fault for not providing more schools.

So it’s the government’s fault! After all, they hold the purse strings to the money we pay in tax and or national insurance contributions. Should they not be investing in more schools for education, activity centres for youths to occupy their time after school, more say public pools? How about adequate police services in areas such as these? Police will tell you that there’s not enough funding from government for them to have the manpower to prevent crime efficiently.

Jobs. Maybe if there were more jobs available, people like these might have a steady income, less free time and more self worth, thereby potentially reducing the need or desire to commit crimes for money. So why isn’t the government creating more jobs, attracting more investment? Why do we have numerous scandals regarding wasted or abused tax payers money? Money and time eaten up by Bureaucracy and red tape?

I guess by their very nature, all government’s are plagued by some degree of corruption and scandal (they contain politicians after all!). But as for providing jobs, there’s only so many public jobs available, the rest have to be attracted by private companies, and if they don’t want to invest, what do you do?

So can we lay blame at the feet of private investors? Large multinational companies? Is it because they won’t invest in a warehouse here, a factory there, a call centre this way or a lab that way? Providing much needed jobs an increased cash flow and a boost to the economy.

Could someone/s like my hijacker/s have taken advantage of a newly created job opportunity instead of taking advantage of me? Perhaps gaining some self worth and value that they’ve earned their own money and therefore no need to steal someone else’s?

Buy why should any business invest in an area of potential crime where they may only be able to draw upon workers of a low skillset? They’re businesses after all, they’re in the business of making money, they’re not charities! So can we really blame any business for non investment when they’re not going to get value for money?

So now that we’ve examined the macroeconomics (in a small way) of the situation, and found that ultimately we can apportion blame and hold each and any accountable; where does this leave us? Back to the start I guess and with the hijacker/s who set this in motion.

So as someone should be held accountable, should we just throw individual/s in jail? Hand out a prison term? But what does this accomplish? This person now has (if they didn’t already) a criminal record, making them largely unemployable due to the stigma that this carries. So what are they likely to go on to do? Re-offend? Commit more crime now that they have nothing to lose? Probably!

So what’s the alternative I hear you say? Well you may laugh and sneer and call me niave, but I believe that forgiveness is the way forward. If we could meet our ‘attackers’ or perpetrators of crime and find it within ourselves to look beyond the harsh exterior that we currently see; we can make the first steps toward forgiveness. Furthermore, we could start asking people like this why? What has went wrong in your life that this is the person you’ve become? We could try listening and listening sincerely.

Yes of course, many people would be insincere in this process, many would have no interest in even entering into a dialogue and one or a few people won’t make a difference. But it’s a start. I recently watched a television program about England’s high security Belmarsh Prison. It was suggested that the authorities there are desperate for convicts not to re-offend as the don’t have the capacity to house them.

So it’s clear (at least in this case) that the current system doesn’t work, we need to try something different. So how about my proposal? Sounds impossible that it could ever work when we think about the world today. You’ve only got to watch or read the news. It’s filled with doom and gloom, full of depressing news items. Yet when you walk out your door and go about your daily business, its generally a pleasant experience, interacting with amiable people who’d probably forgive or had to forgive in their own ways.

So if most people would at least be open to this way of thinking, and over time it grew until it was world-wide, what would our societies look like then? Peace? Harmony? Openness? Little to no crime? No more war? So when we consider the implications of this we must recognize that we are the change we desire.

There is no Messiah returning to save us all. There is no benevolent Alien race coming to vanquish the bad guys for us. Events like this can ONLY happen once we’ve grown up a a race. It’s up to us to take the first steps, to make it happen and it can all start with,

Forgiveness….