In the face of several kidnappings that have happened recently, some messages on social media have been a big challenge for me.

Many said: divine justice. Now it’s their turn. I’m almost applauding that the abductions happened.

There are very clear elements in that short sentence that require at least a moment’s pause.

Justice… Divine… now punishment comes to those with power and resources. Revenge as justice, resentment and hatred as the background for the application of the law. When I commented on that phrase with people from popular neighborhoods, I felt their inner rage against those who have resources, even if they are the product of work and effort. Camouflaged envy of honesty and law. And I thought that with those feelings it would be difficult to rebuild the country. The soul of the earth is sick, it requires care, understanding and tenderness. We must recover the political value of tenderness among the barrage of insults that pepper almost all analyses. So we become worse than those we fight against.

Uncertainty

Justice is the ability to give each person what they need, outside of the laws that govern us, which should be in the service of justice. Equality and uniformity are not the same. Justice, when it treats us as equals, should not turn us into clones. It is clear to us that we live in a justice permeated by corruption, bad practices, the power of money and friendly relations. And for justice to be a safe, transparent and reliable reference for everyone in the country, unfortunately, there is a long way to go.

It is serious to see God as the justifier, as the one who applies that justice.

But what worries me most is that kidnappings are seen as a necessary evil, like lightning carrying out God’s will. Which leads to the conclusion that kidnappers play a purifying role in society.

Really thinking about all the ramifications of that phrase printed in the mass media, replicated by many, it seems to reflect the decay of a revenge-seeking society.

Land of (non)meetings

And I return to my great references Nelson Mandela and Gandhi. Both of them had more than enough experience and suffering of evil in their own bodies and the bodies of their fellow citizens to want to wipe out all those who are responsible for these personal and common sufferings.

Both of them opted for non-violence in the fight for the freedom of their people. Which required much more strength than venting anger on his opponents, and it required an organized people to accept the costs that his election demanded. “Courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it… a brave person is not one who does not feel fear, but one who conquers that fear,” Mandela said.

And Martin Luther King once said that when his suffering increased, he realized that there were two ways to respond to that situation: react with bitterness or transform the suffering into a creative force.

Perhaps it is this creative force that must be awakened among us to face the despondency, lack of hope and uncertainty of the near future that is increasingly looming and be the architects of a collective uprising that says ‘we will change this’. (OR)