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Top Comments: Notebook #43- The Crown and the case of Stephen Michael Ayers [1]
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Date: 2022-07-15
One of these days, I’m going to do a very deep and very personal dive into the topic of forgiveness and making amends and the like. I’ve written multiple essays on the topic (like this one) and I am certainly fascinated with private and public discussion and, dare I say, rituals of the subject.
I have had to forgive and I have declined the opportunity to forgive. I’ve needed forgiveness for my past actions and had to make amends for my actions; sometimes the apology/amends was been accepted and it has not at other times.
It will probably be a very deep and personal dive that I won’t write about here.
So I am absolutely and naturally fascinated with the very public apology that Stephen Michael Ayers, who is awaiting sentencing for his participation in the Jan. 6 insurrection, made to Capitol Police Officers after his testimony last Tuesday.
x Another extraordinary moment: Stephen Ayres approached former USCP Dunn, Fanone, Gonnell - and apologized: pic.twitter.com/GBqJ5yIqJt — Jacqueline Alemany (@JaxAlemany) July 12, 2022
People had varying reactions to his “apology”: some liked it, some didn’t, some thought that the apology was OK but that Ayers should not have invaded their personal space. And so on.
I was strangely reminded of a couple of episodes of the Netflix series The Crown and Queen Elizabeth’s struggle to forgive her uncle, The Duke of Windsor.
There is no possibility of my forgiving you…
What Queen Elizabeth (played by Claire Foy) can’t forgive is the documented plan for the Duke of Windsor to collaborate with the Nazis, retake the throne, and to kill her father, mother, sister, and Elizabeth, herself. Her own uncle.
The next clip comes from, I think, the very next scene in the same episode and features Queen Elizabeth in a private ministerial consultation with the Rev. Billy Graham.
“They know not what they do. That forgiveness was conditional.”
Reverend Graham senses that The Queen is absolutely unwilling to forgive. Since forgiveness is a step too far, he suggestions something that she can work on.
And maybe it works?
Season 3 of The Crown...Olivia Colman plays Queen Elizabeth.
She still doesn’t say ,“I forgive you.” But her body language indicates that she does.
Some things take time.
After I tell you who we are and what we do in Top Comments, I’ll explain what in the heck that a television series about the British monarch has to do with the case of Steven Michael Ayers, a “family” man who, like the Duke of Windsor, in a very small way, joined along in a plan to overthrow the government.
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There can’t be a more overt public act than to attempt to overthrow a duly elected government.
And that’s what Steven Michael Ayers did. He posted pictures and, if I remember the charging documents correctly, videos bragging about taking part in the Jan. 6 insurrection.
And here’s one of my own rules: A public act of wrongdoing requires a public apology, if one is inclined to apologize.
One time, there was someone who offended me behind closed doors; no one but she and I even knew about it.
So we ran into each other at a picnic a few days later and she apologized to me in front of everybody.
I mean, it wasn’t like I was talking about the incident to people. I resented her even more for that apology.
Mr. Ayers committed an act of wrongdoing so public that he didn’t know who he harmed.
So yeah, cameras and all, I didn’t have a problem with that. The personal space issue, yeah, I get it.
It’s not for me to determine whether Mr. Ayers is sincere. Nor is it for me to judge the victims of the apology or amends if they don’t accept the apology.
x "Good for [Ayres] for apologizing, but I'm not in a position now to accept that apology. How can you focus on forgiveness and healing when you still have justice that's still outstanding? There's no accountability. I'm still focused on that" - Harry Dunn w/ @NicolleDWallace pic.twitter.com/4iY8O1brV4 — Deadline White House (@DeadlineWH) July 14, 2022
Some things cut too deeply.
And some things need time to heal so that a space can be made to accept and forgive.
Comments below the fold.
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