Monday, June 11, 2007
Off the Street and in an Apartment, but Unable to Escape Homelessness - N.Y. Times
For years, Johnny Five lived not on the streets but below them, in the dark underworld beneath an abandoned train station in the Bronx. Johnny uses two pieces of plywood as the door to the place he has called home for 21 years. He had to crawl in the dirt at the edge of a concrete platform to get in and out. He bathed with rubbing alcohol, but still his skin was covered with insect bites and infections. He said God talked to him there, sometimes through a portable radio, yet he considered his cave a kind of hell: overheated in the summer, frigid in the winter, a sunless place hard on the body but worse on the soul.
It was Christmas Eve when he first heard the news: Someone was offering him a way out. After reading an article about Johnny in The New York Times, Peter D. Beitchman, the executive director of the Bridge Inc., a nonprofit group that provides housing and services to mentally ill homeless people and others, immediately arranged for him to move into an apartment.
Days later, Johnny celebrated with the one person who had looked after him, Sister Lauria Fitzgerald, a Roman Catholic nun who helps the homeless in the Bronx. They ate dinner with another nun at an Italian restaurant in the Arthur Avenue section, three miles from the cave and around the corner from Johnny’s new home. He feasted on a plate of eggplant parmigiana and enjoyed his first taste of tiramisù.
But he didn’t want to touch the white linen napkin on the table. It was too clean.
...
For the next several months, Johnny would drift between his old life underground and his new one above it, struggling the way a man freed from prison must readjust to society.
...
Johnny’s homelessness was not about a lack of housing. It was more complicated, a result of a variety of spiritual, psychological and emotional causes. “Everything just bothering my conscience,” he said of the reasons he was homeless. “How can I ask God for forgiveness when I don’t forgive myself? So I’ll torture myself and go to the cave.” ...
For years, Johnny Five lived not on the streets but below them, in the dark underworld beneath an abandoned train station in the Bronx. Johnny uses two pieces of plywood as the door to the place he has called home for 21 years. He had to crawl in the dirt at the edge of a concrete platform to get in and out. He bathed with rubbing alcohol, but still his skin was covered with insect bites and infections. He said God talked to him there, sometimes through a portable radio, yet he considered his cave a kind of hell: overheated in the summer, frigid in the winter, a sunless place hard on the body but worse on the soul.
It was Christmas Eve when he first heard the news: Someone was offering him a way out. After reading an article about Johnny in The New York Times, Peter D. Beitchman, the executive director of the Bridge Inc., a nonprofit group that provides housing and services to mentally ill homeless people and others, immediately arranged for him to move into an apartment.
Days later, Johnny celebrated with the one person who had looked after him, Sister Lauria Fitzgerald, a Roman Catholic nun who helps the homeless in the Bronx. They ate dinner with another nun at an Italian restaurant in the Arthur Avenue section, three miles from the cave and around the corner from Johnny’s new home. He feasted on a plate of eggplant parmigiana and enjoyed his first taste of tiramisù.
But he didn’t want to touch the white linen napkin on the table. It was too clean.
...
For the next several months, Johnny would drift between his old life underground and his new one above it, struggling the way a man freed from prison must readjust to society.
...
Johnny’s homelessness was not about a lack of housing. It was more complicated, a result of a variety of spiritual, psychological and emotional causes. “Everything just bothering my conscience,” he said of the reasons he was homeless. “How can I ask God for forgiveness when I don’t forgive myself? So I’ll torture myself and go to the cave.” ...
Labels: compassionate people, forgiveness, homeless
Friday, March 16, 2007
Christo Brand & Vusumzi Mcongo - The Forgiveness Project
Christo Brand was one of the warders directly assigned to guard Nelson Mandela at Robben Island prison between 1978 and 1987. At the same time Vusumzi Mcongo was a political prisoner serving a 12-year sentence. Following the collapse of the apartheid regime, both men now work for the Robben Island Museum in Cape Town.
CB: The first time I saw Vusumzi was on our way to Robben Island. We both arrived on the same day in 1978. I was a warder. He was a prisoner in chains, on his way to maximum security. We did not speak to one another. The first time we spoke properly was nearly 20 years later when we were both applying for a job at Robben Island Museum. We embraced each other warmly. Now that we work together we talk about what was wrong in the past. Sometimes we have a laugh about things that happened then. There is no bitterness between us.
When I started on Robben Island I was told that the men we guarded were no better than animals. Some warders hated the prisoners and were very cruel. But I could never hate because these political prisoners were far more polite and friendly than any prisoner I’d met before.
Eventually I was put in charge of the educational studies of Nelson Mandela and a few other prisoners. Mr Mandela was determined to turn Robben Island into a university. It meant that prisoners who arrived with no education at all left as powerfully educated men. He kept saying that as long as you’re alive, they can’t take away your education. He was even determined to learn how to speak and write Afrikaans.
Mr Mandela is the epitome of forgiveness, able to reach out to all people. While he was in prison, the man who was the architect of apartheid, Hendrik Verwoerd, died. When Mandela was finally released, one of the first people he visited was Verwoerd’s widow, Betsie. She received him with open arms in their house in a white suburb. ...
Christo Brand was one of the warders directly assigned to guard Nelson Mandela at Robben Island prison between 1978 and 1987. At the same time Vusumzi Mcongo was a political prisoner serving a 12-year sentence. Following the collapse of the apartheid regime, both men now work for the Robben Island Museum in Cape Town.
CB: The first time I saw Vusumzi was on our way to Robben Island. We both arrived on the same day in 1978. I was a warder. He was a prisoner in chains, on his way to maximum security. We did not speak to one another. The first time we spoke properly was nearly 20 years later when we were both applying for a job at Robben Island Museum. We embraced each other warmly. Now that we work together we talk about what was wrong in the past. Sometimes we have a laugh about things that happened then. There is no bitterness between us.
When I started on Robben Island I was told that the men we guarded were no better than animals. Some warders hated the prisoners and were very cruel. But I could never hate because these political prisoners were far more polite and friendly than any prisoner I’d met before.
Eventually I was put in charge of the educational studies of Nelson Mandela and a few other prisoners. Mr Mandela was determined to turn Robben Island into a university. It meant that prisoners who arrived with no education at all left as powerfully educated men. He kept saying that as long as you’re alive, they can’t take away your education. He was even determined to learn how to speak and write Afrikaans.
Mr Mandela is the epitome of forgiveness, able to reach out to all people. While he was in prison, the man who was the architect of apartheid, Hendrik Verwoerd, died. When Mandela was finally released, one of the first people he visited was Verwoerd’s widow, Betsie. She received him with open arms in their house in a white suburb. ...
Labels: forgiveness
Sunday, March 04, 2007
Still in mourning, Amish to open new schoolhouse - N.Y. Times
5 months after slayings at school, the tightknit Pa. community forgives, rebuilds and remembers
... Confronted with tragedy, the Amish are taught to forgive and go on. And that is what the 2,700 residents of Bart Township have been struggling to do since the attack on Oct. 2.
"People don't fuss about it," Mary Stoltzfus, 36, a member of the community, said outside Fisher's Houseware and Fabrics. "It has calmed down."
Rhoads said that although the victims' families and friends had had their hearts broken, "there's no anger."
...
Ten days after the shooting, Amish leaders demolished the school building, which stood off a quiet two-lane road. And about a month later, Amish residents, including relatives of the girls who had been killed, banded together to build a one-room schoolhouse about 200 yards from the old one, on an acre of land owned by an Amish farmer.
"This is kind of a washing -- getting rid of the old and putting up the new," he said. "It's all really good stuff" for the community.
...
[original story: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/287305_amish03.html]
5 months after slayings at school, the tightknit Pa. community forgives, rebuilds and remembers
... Confronted with tragedy, the Amish are taught to forgive and go on. And that is what the 2,700 residents of Bart Township have been struggling to do since the attack on Oct. 2.
"People don't fuss about it," Mary Stoltzfus, 36, a member of the community, said outside Fisher's Houseware and Fabrics. "It has calmed down."
Rhoads said that although the victims' families and friends had had their hearts broken, "there's no anger."
...
Ten days after the shooting, Amish leaders demolished the school building, which stood off a quiet two-lane road. And about a month later, Amish residents, including relatives of the girls who had been killed, banded together to build a one-room schoolhouse about 200 yards from the old one, on an acre of land owned by an Amish farmer.
"This is kind of a washing -- getting rid of the old and putting up the new," he said. "It's all really good stuff" for the community.
...
[original story: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/287305_amish03.html]
Labels: forgiveness, purification
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Soldier who blinded man forgiven - BBC News
Derry man Richard Moore, who was blinded by a rubber bullet as a child in 1972, has said he forgives the soldier who shot him.
He has now stayed with the soldier as a guest in his home and met him on three different occasions.
...
Mr Moore said he wanted the retired major to know that "I have no resentment or hatred towards you".
"He said thank you, and he said to me that he regrets what happened, when he heard the next day about the damage that was caused.
...
"What I was doing was meeting a human being behind the gun that was fired at me."
...
Richard has now invited the retired officer to visit Derry.
"I like him, and I would like to remain friends with him."
Derry man Richard Moore, who was blinded by a rubber bullet as a child in 1972, has said he forgives the soldier who shot him.
He has now stayed with the soldier as a guest in his home and met him on three different occasions.
...
Mr Moore said he wanted the retired major to know that "I have no resentment or hatred towards you".
"He said thank you, and he said to me that he regrets what happened, when he heard the next day about the damage that was caused.
...
"What I was doing was meeting a human being behind the gun that was fired at me."
...
Richard has now invited the retired officer to visit Derry.
"I like him, and I would like to remain friends with him."
Labels: forgiveness
Friday, December 08, 2006
Ex-Iraq hostages forgive captors - BBC News
Three peace campaigners who were taken hostage say they "unconditionally" forgive their Iraqi captors.
...
In a joint statement at a press conference at St Ethelburga's Centre for Reconciliation in London they said they wanted "all possible leniency" for the accused men.
The men said: "We unconditionally forgive our captors for abducting and holding us. We have no desire to punish them. Punishment can never restore what was taken from us."
The death penalty is an irrevocable judgment...We oppose the death penalty
They said their captors caused "great suffering" to them and their families, but they held no malice towards them and had "no wish for retribution".
The "cycle of violence" in Iraq did not justify the kidnappers' actions, but should be considered in any potential judgment, they said.
The men added: "The death penalty is an irrevocable judgment. It erases all possibility that those who have harmed others, even seriously, can yet turn to good. We oppose the death penalty." ...
Three peace campaigners who were taken hostage say they "unconditionally" forgive their Iraqi captors.
...
In a joint statement at a press conference at St Ethelburga's Centre for Reconciliation in London they said they wanted "all possible leniency" for the accused men.
The men said: "We unconditionally forgive our captors for abducting and holding us. We have no desire to punish them. Punishment can never restore what was taken from us."
The death penalty is an irrevocable judgment...We oppose the death penalty
They said their captors caused "great suffering" to them and their families, but they held no malice towards them and had "no wish for retribution".
The "cycle of violence" in Iraq did not justify the kidnappers' actions, but should be considered in any potential judgment, they said.
The men added: "The death penalty is an irrevocable judgment. It erases all possibility that those who have harmed others, even seriously, can yet turn to good. We oppose the death penalty." ...
Labels: compassionate people, forgiveness
Sunday, November 26, 2006
Earthly reward for church vandals - BBC News
Three teenagers who burgled and vandalised a church in ... Montana will be given "love baskets" of electronic games by the congregation.
The three youths broke into Missoula's South Hills Evangelical Church two weeks ago, stealing money and smashing windows and computers, police said.
Officers caught them still in the church and charged them with burglary.
Church pastor Jason Reimer said the congregation wanted "to reach out and extend love and mercy to them".
"A lot of us, whether we're churchgoers or not, have been in their shoes before and have made some bad choices," Mr Reimer said. "But God forgives us." ...
Three teenagers who burgled and vandalised a church in ... Montana will be given "love baskets" of electronic games by the congregation.
The three youths broke into Missoula's South Hills Evangelical Church two weeks ago, stealing money and smashing windows and computers, police said.
Officers caught them still in the church and charged them with burglary.
Church pastor Jason Reimer said the congregation wanted "to reach out and extend love and mercy to them".
"A lot of us, whether we're churchgoers or not, have been in their shoes before and have made some bad choices," Mr Reimer said. "But God forgives us." ...
Labels: compassionate people, faith, forgiveness
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
One man chooses to forgive the boy who killed his son - Christian Science Monitor
For a mere $5 - maybe less - in the lawless last days of 2004, a farmer named Gregoire Nsekerabandya could have arranged the killing of the boy who had just murdered his eldest son. After all, his son, Yves, had been shot for refusing a demand by his one-time friend, Eric, to shine the shoes of Eric's militia commander. Yves balked, and his last words were, "I don't have any water" to shine them with.
Mr. Nsekerabandya even heard the gunshot. "When a child comes to the earth, you are expecting so much from him," he says solemnly. "When all the expectations fall down in one second, it's very sorrowful."
Yet he didn't rush for revenge. Instead, he wrestled with guidance from the Bible: "It says you should respond with good deeds to bad deeds," he explains. "If I was not a good prayer, I might have taken revenge" on Eric or his family "to try to make them feel like I did."
In April 2005, he went to a reconciliation workshop. Organizers realized Eric and his mom were also participating. So, in a kind of ambush reconciliation, they united the group.
Apologies flowed. Eric sank to his knees and asked forgiveness while his mother, Jeanne Nahimana, apologized for him. Nsekerabandya accepted both apologies. "It wasn't your fault," he told Ms. Nahimana. Now she has great empathy for Nsekerabandya, whom she reverently calls "old man."
Since the apologies, the families have forged a bond. "We are now sharing water," he says, "and farming tools."
"If he needs anything," she adds, "he comes to our house."
For a mere $5 - maybe less - in the lawless last days of 2004, a farmer named Gregoire Nsekerabandya could have arranged the killing of the boy who had just murdered his eldest son. After all, his son, Yves, had been shot for refusing a demand by his one-time friend, Eric, to shine the shoes of Eric's militia commander. Yves balked, and his last words were, "I don't have any water" to shine them with.
Mr. Nsekerabandya even heard the gunshot. "When a child comes to the earth, you are expecting so much from him," he says solemnly. "When all the expectations fall down in one second, it's very sorrowful."
Yet he didn't rush for revenge. Instead, he wrestled with guidance from the Bible: "It says you should respond with good deeds to bad deeds," he explains. "If I was not a good prayer, I might have taken revenge" on Eric or his family "to try to make them feel like I did."
In April 2005, he went to a reconciliation workshop. Organizers realized Eric and his mom were also participating. So, in a kind of ambush reconciliation, they united the group.
Apologies flowed. Eric sank to his knees and asked forgiveness while his mother, Jeanne Nahimana, apologized for him. Nsekerabandya accepted both apologies. "It wasn't your fault," he told Ms. Nahimana. Now she has great empathy for Nsekerabandya, whom she reverently calls "old man."
Since the apologies, the families have forged a bond. "We are now sharing water," he says, "and farming tools."
"If he needs anything," she adds, "he comes to our house."
Labels: forgiveness
Monday, October 23, 2006
Ugandans welcome 'terrorists' back - Christian Science Monitor
In the first of a four-part series, the Monitor examines how Africans are developing a unique form of reconciliation based on community and forgiveness.
Today a doe-eyed 20-something named Betty Atto, a former member of one of the world's most-brutal rebel armies, finally gets to take her first step toward redemption - toward the forgiveness she now seeks from the people she terrorized for so long.
It's a sun-drenched afternoon here in Africa's heartland, and Betty stands beneath a "blessing tree," fidgeting with the pleats in her fanciest skirt. She's waiting with 400 other former rebels for a ritual to begin that will welcome them back into their community.
"We did bad things," Betty says of her six years in the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a group infamous for chopping off lips and other body parts of civilians - and forcing children to become sex slaves and soldiers. ...
In the first of a four-part series, the Monitor examines how Africans are developing a unique form of reconciliation based on community and forgiveness.
Today a doe-eyed 20-something named Betty Atto, a former member of one of the world's most-brutal rebel armies, finally gets to take her first step toward redemption - toward the forgiveness she now seeks from the people she terrorized for so long.
It's a sun-drenched afternoon here in Africa's heartland, and Betty stands beneath a "blessing tree," fidgeting with the pleats in her fanciest skirt. She's waiting with 400 other former rebels for a ritual to begin that will welcome them back into their community.
"We did bad things," Betty says of her six years in the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a group infamous for chopping off lips and other body parts of civilians - and forcing children to become sex slaves and soldiers. ...
Labels: forgiveness
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Killer's wife salutes Amish mercy - BBC News
The widow of a man who shot dead five Amish girls at a school in the US state of Pennsylvania has thanked the Amish community for their love and support.
Marie Roberts said she and her family were "overwhelmed by the forgiveness, grace and mercy" shown to them following the murders on 2 October.
Local man Charles Roberts killed himself after his shooting spree.
The Amish have said they forgive him and have helped set up a fund for the Roberts family at a local bank.
"Your love for our family has helped to provide the healing we so desperately need," Marie Roberts wrote in a letter addressed to Amish friends, neighbours and the local community.
...
The mother and grandmother of Marian Fisher, one of the young victims, welcomed Mrs Roberts' aunt into their home the day after the shootings ...
The widow of a man who shot dead five Amish girls at a school in the US state of Pennsylvania has thanked the Amish community for their love and support.
Marie Roberts said she and her family were "overwhelmed by the forgiveness, grace and mercy" shown to them following the murders on 2 October.
Local man Charles Roberts killed himself after his shooting spree.
The Amish have said they forgive him and have helped set up a fund for the Roberts family at a local bank.
"Your love for our family has helped to provide the healing we so desperately need," Marie Roberts wrote in a letter addressed to Amish friends, neighbours and the local community.
...
The mother and grandmother of Marian Fisher, one of the young victims, welcomed Mrs Roberts' aunt into their home the day after the shootings ...
Labels: compassionate people, forgiveness
Monday, August 28, 2006
Feet washed in apartheid apology - BBC News
Rev Frank Chikane survived a murder attempt in the 1980s. He said he was grateful for the gesture made earlier this month by ex-minister Adriaan Vlok.
Mr Vlok testified to the post-apartheid truth commission and received amnesty.
...
Mr Vlok was security minister in the late 1980s, a period when emergency laws granted police sweeping powers of arrest and detention against anti-apartheid activists.
Rev Chikane, former head of the South African Council of Churches, told at the weekend how Mr Vlok had arrived at his office and given him a Bible with the words "I have sinned against the Lord and against you, please forgive me (John 13:15)" on its cover. ...
"He then asked for water ... he picked up a glass of water, opened his bag, pulled out a bowl, put the water in the bowl, took out the towel, said 'you must allow me to do this' and washed my feet in my office," Rev Chikane said.
Mr Chikane, who was head of the South African Council of Churches during the state of emergency of the late 1980s, survived an assassination attempt when clothes impregnated with poison were placed in his suitcase while he was travelling. ...
Rev Frank Chikane survived a murder attempt in the 1980s. He said he was grateful for the gesture made earlier this month by ex-minister Adriaan Vlok.
Mr Vlok testified to the post-apartheid truth commission and received amnesty.
...
Mr Vlok was security minister in the late 1980s, a period when emergency laws granted police sweeping powers of arrest and detention against anti-apartheid activists.
Rev Chikane, former head of the South African Council of Churches, told at the weekend how Mr Vlok had arrived at his office and given him a Bible with the words "I have sinned against the Lord and against you, please forgive me (John 13:15)" on its cover. ...
"He then asked for water ... he picked up a glass of water, opened his bag, pulled out a bowl, put the water in the bowl, took out the towel, said 'you must allow me to do this' and washed my feet in my office," Rev Chikane said.
Mr Chikane, who was head of the South African Council of Churches during the state of emergency of the late 1980s, survived an assassination attempt when clothes impregnated with poison were placed in his suitcase while he was travelling. ...
Labels: forgiveness
Saturday, July 29, 2006
Gee Walker: One year on - BBC News
Huyton teenager Anthony Walker died a few hours after being found with an axe in his head on July 29th 2005. He had been attacked as he walked to McGoldrick Park with his girlfriend Louise and cousin Marcus Binns.
At Liverpool Crown Court in November 2005 Paul Taylor admitted inflicting a fatal blow to Anthony's head with an ice axe. Michael Barton, who denied the killing, was convicted for supplying the weapon and starting the confrontation.
After the trial Anthony's mother Gee Walker said that she forgave his killers.
...
Q: How do you feel approaching the anniversary one year on?
A: To be honest we’re not looking forward to it. It’s like opening an old wound. I’m sure we’ll remember the words of God, and the words of Anthony will encourage us, “We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us”. So with that note we know we’ve got to go on, we’ve got to be strengthened, we’ve got to draw encouragement from the fact that he will give us strength to face that day. ...
Huyton teenager Anthony Walker died a few hours after being found with an axe in his head on July 29th 2005. He had been attacked as he walked to McGoldrick Park with his girlfriend Louise and cousin Marcus Binns.
At Liverpool Crown Court in November 2005 Paul Taylor admitted inflicting a fatal blow to Anthony's head with an ice axe. Michael Barton, who denied the killing, was convicted for supplying the weapon and starting the confrontation.
After the trial Anthony's mother Gee Walker said that she forgave his killers.
...
Q: How do you feel approaching the anniversary one year on?
A: To be honest we’re not looking forward to it. It’s like opening an old wound. I’m sure we’ll remember the words of God, and the words of Anthony will encourage us, “We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us”. So with that note we know we’ve got to go on, we’ve got to be strengthened, we’ve got to draw encouragement from the fact that he will give us strength to face that day. ...
Labels: compassionate people, faith, forgiveness, grief
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