The Face of Evil and the Power of Forgiveness

Try as I might, there are just certain things I cannot understand. Joe Lieberman is one of them. He's like math or Mandarin Chinese to me. Conceptually I understand that he IS, but to be able to organically relate to the concept of math, Mandarin Chinese, or Joe Lieberman is beyond me. But in my limited world and with my limited intellectual capacity, Joe Lieberman comes closest to anything I can think of to pure evil.

And yes, without naming names I'm fully aware that others would consider some contemporary and historic figures to be higher on that list of pure evil. I respectfully disagree and here's why.

As horrid, hateful, and virtually unimaginable as the other potential toppers of the evil list might be, they each stood for something larger than themselves. No doubt they were motivated by very personal needs, but they found a way to satisfy those needs in service of something larger than themselves. And yes, hundreds, thousands, millions died while these ego maniacs served their larger goals. Indefensible.

Yet, how many died because of Joe Lieberman? Looking back at the last ten years of Joe Lieberman's career can anyone identify a single consistent cause larger than his own interests? Not his constituency, his political party, his country, nor his religion have held a higher priority to Joe Lieberman than Joe Lieberman. The expense of his priorities to the United States of America are incalculable.

And in my limited little world, that is the absolute depth of evil.

Of course I've met people who fall outside my paradigm of the world, whose actions and motives are breathlessly incomprehensible to me. It is to my complete shame that each and every time I encounter one of these people I am taken absolutely by surprise. I wish I was smarter. As an antidote I tend to be overly cautious in my dealings with people, keeping them at a manageable distance until I can ascribe a trust level to them. That has been my coping mechanism.

It is no secret how much I have come to admire Barak Obama, or at least the image of Barak Obama that is being built and prepped for the history books. I think that Mr. Obama is the right person at the right time to begin the horrific task of revitalizing America. But I'm finding personal inspiration in Mr. Obama's campaign and transition in to power.

I would have banished Joe Lieberman to some rock in the middle of the Atlantic. Obama, however is showing the way to deal with Lieberman and his ilk. Not only does Obama demonstrate his larger character by "forgiving" Lieberman, not only does create a political debt that Lieberman will never be able to fully repay, not only does Obama now have a political lap dog in a very powerful position, but Obama has also given Lieberman the opportunity to either redeem himself or to finish himself and his political legacy all on his own.

Had Obama banished Lieberman, then Obama would be the villain in the Lieberman. Now, there is no one to hold that mantle but Joe Lieberman.

Maybe Obama's approach isn't that different than mine.