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Love, justice, accountability are all terms that get used a lot and are generally more complex than we tend to treat them imo. I think most of us have no idea what we mean by any of them most of the time
Our moral narratives seem endlessly trapped in Christian conceptions of sin and righteousness - many of the people who are the most explicitly nonreligious are the most likely to perpetuate this
All of us need space to act well, to act badly, to make mistakes, to learn, to be people. This includes those who have caused direct harm to others. This includes those who have uncritically weaponized these moral narratives against the perceived wicked
People need to be able to see the paths that are available to them - often they need to be shown that a path exists. If you decide to isolate, bully or otherwise punish someone for perceived wrongs, that person will often feel left with no paths available to them
They will often see no option but to double down - to drive themselves further into the only path that they see left for them. It is a community's responsibility to be there with loving arms to show the paths that are available and to show that the person can take those paths
This kind of space and care must be given to those who have punished as well as those who have been punished. Without this, we will think we are liberating ourselves and others but will only be yoking ourselves to the bondage of the punisher's role. Nothing has changed.
Healing - real healing - comes only from liberating ourselves and each other collectively from the cycle of sin and punishment. All of us are deserving of love and space - ALL OF US
