The parents of a school shooter meet those of a victim in the film Mass, which is now a play. It explores the bitter proposition – and extraordinary sacrifice – of restorative justice
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here is a documentary that I encourage everyone to watch called Long Night’s Journey Into Day. I first saw it when I was a student more than 20 years ago. The wordplay on the renowned Eugene O’Neill title was enough to pique my undergraduate-level interest when it began. What transpired over the next 90 minutes, however, never left me.
It follows four amnesty hearings from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in post-apartheid South Africa. You watch family members of murdered loved ones sit face to face with the violent perpetrators. The purpose of these meetings was to see if the families could forgive them. The necessity of the meetings, which in some cases looked more like ritual given the catharsis that occurred, rested on the belief that only through forgiveness would the country truly heal.
I have carried this film with me. I believe I saw an inevitability in it – meaning that, one day, to some degree, this ritual would be available to me. I wouldn’t need to lose a loved one to violence to be faced with the bitter proposition of forgiving someone who hurt me. Likewise, I had certainly sought forgiveness enough times myself to know that I would again.
