Forgiveness is one of the most important virtues we as humans incorporate into our everyday life. It has become a prepositional phrase or emotion that people are programmed to say. Imagine you take your child to the park and he/she accidentally pushes a child onto the sand box, the first thing you tell them to do is apologize simply because of manners. Thus, from a young age we are taught to say “I’m sorry” for something wrong we have done. In fact, not only do we use the words “I'm sorry” to express forgiveness we also use it as a method to comfort ourselves to at least know we have done some sort of “good.” Nevertheless, the constant practice and repetition of the words “I’m sorry” shows that forgiveness is thrown around way too often. Ergo, forgiving has lost its meaning. People believe that saying sorry fixes the problem; they are just empty words. I mean, no one can truly forgive and forget. Simon Wiesenthal, a Jewish survivor of the holocaust wrote, The Sunflower a story about a Jew and SS man saying “I must tell you of this horrible deed--tell you because… you are a Jew.”(Wiesenthal). As a matter of fact, the SS man wanted Simon to forgive him for what he had done. Simon could not grant him that wish. In the story he describes why he…show more content… Now you are left with looking for forgiveness from anyone who is willing to accept it. The dying man made it seem like he was asking Simon to play “God” so that he could feel some type of peace with what he has done. While Simon and, his friends and family were all dying. It might of not been the SS man that killed Simon’s friends and family but, for all we know it could have been him if he was not dying. “One could cannot, and should not, go around happily killing and torturing and then, when the moment has come, simply ask, and receive, forgiveness. In my view, this perpetuates the crime.”
