The Alchemy of Compassion
Is Forgiveness only for Saints?
Thomas Sanford, the former-marine who killed four people and burned down a Mormon temple in Michigan, currently exists in a special Trumpian Bermuda Triangle. Sanford, and the terrible crimes he committed, are hardly mentioned by Trump and his bizzaro goon-squad because he was a devoted Trumpster and not some unaffiliated “radical liberal.”
The same people who leapt to canonize Charlie Kirk and instantly denounce his killer as part of some organized nation-wide movement of wild-eyed liberals are now trying to pretend Sanford didn’t exist and that the killing and arson he committed never happened. (Has Trump called the families of the murdered people to express his sympathy; has he called the Governor of Michigan?) In the end, Thomas Sanford was running completely on the fumes of hate, revenge and murder. Just like Trump, he carries a burning grudge where his heart used to be.
Blaming, feeding, nursing a year’s-long hatred till it grows into an all-consuming monster—terrifying as that can be—is always easier than struggling to understand, take responsibility for, and repair your life. We all know about this; figuring out how to remake yourself—how to understand and even forgive is just about the hardest thing a grown person can do. It’s much easier to remain a tantrum-throwing child who imagines they’re everyone’s victim.
And that “poor victimized me” brand is what Trump is peddling to his army of merch-buying, dim-witted zealots; it’s what he’s facilitating with his every sadistic utterance and every Cotton-Matherish stroke of his black pen. Because Trump was never sufficiently idolized as God’s gift to humanity, and because—like Sandford and the rest of Trump’s cult—he only understands revenge, he is on a mission to destroy everyone and everything.
Everybody has their story; if you look at people’s lives closely enough, you can eventually understand every strange and hurtful thing they do in the world; and understanding almost always leads to forgiving. Thomas Sanford was exploding with hatred and violence; the only thing he could see—the only solution to his psychic pain—was murder and then suicide-by-cop.
Because I’m at a distance; because I didn’t lose people I love in that church, and because I know what it’s like to have been inhabited by the demons, I can actually feel pity for Sanford. But I feel no pity or forgiveness for Trump and his clutch of witch-burners.
“Witch-hunt”—that’s one of Trump’s favorite accusations—and like almost everything else he says and does, it’s a projection; he sees hatred and violence and victimizing in everyone else, when, in fact, all of these fantasies are a product of his own childish psyche. Of course, the ultimate result of his twisted vision and subsequent twisted behavior is that people have come to hate him—and almost always for very good reason; so, in his own fantasy world, his feelings are justified. It’s an illness that feeds on itself…
What you eventually learn in the short time you have in the world (usually, through intense emotional pain and suffering)… What you come to learn is that—unless you’re Jesus Christ or a Buddhist Bhodissatva—love and understanding is, sadly, often wasted on some people. Trump—and the people he attracts—consume and excrete love and compassion like they were bags of Big Macs.
It’s very, very hard to oppose such people and hold onto forgiveness and peace in your heart— But, since we don’t want a Civil War, the only way left to us is Civil Disobedience.
Their side has all the masks, guns and the unmarked cars—not mention the Supreme Court and the entire Republican party. So, like the early Christians, like Ghandi and Satyagraha, Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights marchers, we have to retain our humanity in the face of the increasing depredations of Trump and his gang. It won’t be an easy road, considering that the destruction of Democracy creates so much righteous anger—but it’s the only way to get back to the light.