I don't remember the exact day I realized I couldn't judge others by their actions, but I do remember the decade. I was in my late 20s and had just experienced an injustice at the hands of a group traditionally known to be on the right side of history. Any chapter of any organization is only as good as its current stewards, and there was poor stewardship in place and a lack of courage to admit misinformation when the truth did eventually come out. The picketers went away and television interviews stopped, but there was no attempt by this organization to use just as much energy to retract the erroneous statements as they put into efforts to get the misinformation out in the first place. There were, I must admit, some timid smiles in my direction and some pleading in eyes to let bygones be bygones, and I was okay with that because I had work to do and needed to restore order to my life. Also, a lifetime of reading and living the Proverbs has shown me that it is the glory of a man to pass over transgressions.
I must admit I didn't always live the Proverbs though I read them every day; as you grow and mature you have less and less patience with yourself when you separate what you know and who you are from what you do. And here's the main thing I'm trying to say: you have more and more patience with others when they separate what they know from who they are and what they do. But at the time I was in my 20s and though my parents had always taught me not to esteem myself more highly than others, I was prone to making judgments about others before attempting to understand the complexities of their decisions. So, while I could pass over the transgressions of those who had wronged me, somehow I found it far more difficult to understand the silence of those around me who chose not to get involved.
