I am a very forgiving person too but people have to accept the consequences of their behavior. We can argue whether we are for or against the death penalty but to commit a crime, receive a fair trial, be convicted, and not be punished for it just makes a joke of our justice system. There are twomembers on the jury now who said they have a hard time judging. Defense attorneys loves those jurors, prosecutors want them off the case. Who of us does not judge at times. I hear that from people frequently and then they turn around and make all kinds of judgements about things people do or say. I won't say what I really think of that statement about not wanting to judge because that gets into a whole different argument that we can't have here, but our justice system is built on judging whether a crime has or has not occurred and imposing the accompanying punishment. Do we allow people to kill other people and then not judge them, wait for them to die so they get judged then? We may as well get rid of our legal system including all law enforcements and then our difficult child's can run the world.
I believe forgiving someone is quite different than judging them guilty and having them face the consequences. If she is found guilty the Anthonys may some day forgive her. It happens all the time, so that the victims can go on living and leave behind the hate. If a crime is perpetrated on us, do we just want the police to forgive that person or do we want them to make that person be responsible for their actions.
I judge the thugs who got my difficult child into drugs years ago, I judge the druggie down the street who continues to harass us nightly by ringing our doorbell and kicking our door, cracking the frame and putting dents int he door, I judge the adults who provided my difficult child with alcohol and hid her from us. It will take me a while to forgive them, but I am not big enough to not judge them.
Nancy