Reply #71: did they do time? [View All]

[idgiehkt]

"Allowing misdeeds and abuse to go unpunished only incourages others to emulate them."

That is a good point; that is what the criminal justice system is for. I'm not advocating letting criminals wander free and turning it over to God to sort 'em out. Something kept you from striking out at who did this to you. I had a friend who went after an abuser, lost control of herself, and ended up doing several years for some degree of assault. It was really sad. I know that is what the court system is for and I don't blame you one bit for not showing up for that death-bed thing. In cases of child abuse and physical abuse I am the last one to trumpet forgiveness because I think that (verbal) confrontation is what is truly healing to people, when the perpetrator is confronted with his misdeeds by the victim, and asked to give an explanation, and hopefully volunteers an apology. Forgiveness comes after that, if it comes at all.

What I was talking about was more along the lines of an eye for an eye. For instance, someone here recently copied and pasted pm's of mine and shared them with others, which caused a lot of drama and caused someone to retaliate on me. I also have many pm's in my inbox, but I am not willing to do what was done to me, because I think it is wrong to share private messages. I could do it, causing even more drama and consternation (and ironically one of the results would be that the two antagonists in this drama would most definitely not be quite so fond of each other). However, it would only be for the sake of 'revenge', and would not make me feel one bit better about this situation; plus then I would be the kind of person who forwards other people's private messages around the lounge, which is someone I don't want to be. That is the kind of thing I was talking about, in reference to my own personal situation, not in reference to letting criminals roam free. In my situation I don't think that is is my place to 'punish' anyone, even though their actions have caused me a fair bit of harm. I really believe it will take care of itself, and I won't have had to sacrifice a shred of my integtrity for that to happen. It just takes longer this way sometimes.