There is a disconnect between the calls for healing coming out of Miami and the behavior exhibited by the people making the calls. With feelings of anger and confusion still running deep in the hearts and minds of many, it is difficult to trust the calls for healing. It is difficult to follow the call when not one of those issuing it seems to be taking steps towards healing themselves. Those who are calling for calm must first find their own calm. They must begin to set an example for the community, teaching it how to begin letting go, and reconciling themselves with the loss of a child who had become a trophy to many, a meal and fame ticket to others, a prisoner of his Miami family, and a hostage to an entire community.
Anger is one stage of grief.
It can lead to healing when it is accompanied by an acknowledgment of one's powerlessness over loss. Anger can lead to healing when there is an acceptance of pain, a recognition of one's own erroneous thinking. Anger can lead to healing when there is an admission that one has not always proceeded on the best or the healthiest of tracks. All of those healing elements seem to be missing in Miami in it s community leaders, in the Miami Gonzalez family, in the politicos and attorneys representing them, and in the Congressional Republicans who along with two Florida Senators, have called for hearings on the method used by Janet Reno to return Eli n Gonzalez to his father. Instead we see raw anger, the kind of anger which leads to chaos, confusion, the throwing of bottles and plastic chairs onto the streets, or to the burning of tires.