This happened at the Water Protectors camp at Standing Rock:
One morning, a 14-year-old girl asked those sitting before the sacred fire to reflect upon the trauma that may have occurred in the lives of the pipeline security guards who attacked members of the camp with dogs and pepper spray. “Something painful must have happened to them as children. Maybe they didn’t have loving parents,” she said. “Maybe they were abused. They need kindness. I ask you to forgive them.”
This quotation is on the DailyGood for December 5
When I find myself angry or scared about what’s happening in our country, I remind myself of this. Also those men, who care only about money and power, have no compassion because they have shriveled hearts. Hearts get shriveled by being hurt badly when you are a defenseless child.
This is why Jesus said from the Cross: Father forgive them for they know not what they do.
We had a totally wonderful experience after our performance of Journey Into Courage in Castleton. There were a number of children in the audience from a camp that is an alternative to prison. The day after our performance, we went to the camp and participated in their assembly. At first the kids asked questions, but then they began to tell their own stories of what had happened to them, the abuse they had suffered. Afterward the counselors said they had never heard some of the stories. The one that was most moving was when a teenager stood up and said “I was a sexual abuser. But now that I know what my victims suffered, I will not be able to do it again.” The reason why one child will abuse another is to avoid feeling the pain of what happened to him. This is how people’s hearts get shriveled.