Brian Williams Scandal: Lessons for Students

Like many people, I have watched the news over the Brian Williams situation the past few weeks with a mixture of emotions, ranging from disappointment to dismay. It seems all too common lately that a scandal over a celebrity’s dishonesty makes the news and goes viral, both online and in the media.  As an educator, I often wonder what lessons our students can learn from these incidents.

While Bosque’s emphasis on integrity as one of our core values is an obvious connection to the Brian Williams story, a column on the 10th of February by David Brooks in The New York Times had me thinking of another possible takeaway for our young men and women.  In this essay entitled, “The Act of Rigorous Forgiving,” Brooks asks us to consider how we respond to events like these when they occur.  The omnipresent public humiliation that accompanies these scandals says something about our society and our culture, as much as the event that elicited the reaction in the first place.  As Brooks says, “The barbaric part is the way we respond to scandal these days. When somebody violates a public trust, we try to purge and ostracize him. A sort of coliseum culture takes over, leaving no place for mercy. By now, the script is familiar: Some famous person does something wrong. The Internet, the most impersonal of mediums, erupts with contempt and mockery.” 

Brooks goes on to wonder if collectively we could respond in a manner that allowed for more forgiveness, but not the “touchy-feely, namby-pamby” notion that some people associate with this concept.  Brooks cites writers like Hannah Arendt and Martin Luther King, Jr., as he develops an argument for “rigorous forgiveness.”  Brooks describes this active and formidable type of forgiveness that contains four different elements: “pre-emptive mercy; judgment; confession and penitence; and reconciliation and re-trust.” 

In “pre-emptive mercy,” the forgiver is proactive rather than reactive. As Brooks says, “The forgiving person makes the first move, even before the offender has asked. She resists the natural urge for vengeance. Instead, she creates a welcoming context in which the offender can confess.”  By initiating the process, the forgiving person enables the process of redemption to begin.

In the next phase called “judgment,” the forgiving person ascertains what kind of wrong has been committed, so he can determine what is the correct path for forgiveness.  As opposed to saying that all acts are morally relative, the person who holds the power to forgive should maintain his moral standards.This ensures the authenticity of the reparative process.

During “confession and penitence,” the person who has committed the wrong must be active in acknowledging what she has done and demonstrate her sincere desire to repent.  Finally, in “reconciliation and re-trust,” the wrongdoer and the wronged come together in an attempt to rebuild their relationship and move forward in a spirit of true reconciliation. 

This type of active forgiveness is difficult and demands much from everyone involved. However, it may allow all parties to create a culture where they remember and acknowledge that people make mistakes, and it is both admirable and imperative to refrain from mockery and abuse if healing is to occur for all.

At Bosque, another of our core values is community, both inside our school and outside in the world at-large, yet “living in community” does not mean that there is never conflict or hurt feelings.  People may err by saying or doing things that do not always reflect the “better angels of our nature,” as Abraham Lincoln once said.  However, if we can all be as rigorous in our forgiving of one another as we are in our commitment to our other core values—scholarship and integrity—we can create a community where instead of people cowering in shame or feeling ostracized, they may grow from their mistakes and become better people along the way.