He is homeless and people think he stole money from a community center donation envelope. The community leaders wants to ban him. He is my friend so I bought him groceries and we took refuge from a tropical storm in an empty Miami parking garage. He is my lesson so I remembered the Buddhist perspective of what the mind goes through when it feels 'persecuted.' In the second grade I was accused of stealing someone's lunch. I became conscious of being the only black person at a lunch table and not being anywhere near the alleged crime. It was my first odd experience of 'wait, what? Who is this person you speak of who steals white girl's lunches and lies?'
For my inability to confess to the crime and produce another lunch I got yelled at in front of other students and detention. She later found her lunch, which she had misplaced. Even though I wasn't near her, she assumed I must have stolen it and the adult powers believed that to be true. There was no apology issued. It was the first significant schism when I realized 'wait, people think I did something despite no evidence. And they are going to punish me based upon an opinion.'
Everyone has these moments of being falsely accused throughout their lives whether they are black or white, male or female, rich or poor. It is a test. It is an awful trial. I reacted badly and told the girl 'I wish I would have stolen your lunch' before knocking her bag to the ground. Since that time I have been given many more opportunities to react in different ways to new and strange accusations. I hope I have shown my character in not letting false accusations drag me out of myself. I told my friend that -no matter what he has done and no matter how people treat him- I hope he doesn't let accusations bring out the need for revenge or hatred. I hope he doesn't slip into that final surrender of thinking 'maybe I should be as bad as they think I am' because then we fulfill their ugly prophecy. The storm passed. We hugged and he walked off into the light drizzle.
For my inability to confess to the crime and produce another lunch I got yelled at in front of other students and detention. She later found her lunch, which she had misplaced. Even though I wasn't near her, she assumed I must have stolen it and the adult powers believed that to be true. There was no apology issued. It was the first significant schism when I realized 'wait, people think I did something despite no evidence. And they are going to punish me based upon an opinion.'
Everyone has these moments of being falsely accused throughout their lives whether they are black or white, male or female, rich or poor. It is a test. It is an awful trial. I reacted badly and told the girl 'I wish I would have stolen your lunch' before knocking her bag to the ground. Since that time I have been given many more opportunities to react in different ways to new and strange accusations. I hope I have shown my character in not letting false accusations drag me out of myself. I told my friend that -no matter what he has done and no matter how people treat him- I hope he doesn't let accusations bring out the need for revenge or hatred. I hope he doesn't slip into that final surrender of thinking 'maybe I should be as bad as they think I am' because then we fulfill their ugly prophecy. The storm passed. We hugged and he walked off into the light drizzle.
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