Confession and justice-making

Theresa Latini has a thoughtful blog post up where she brings Marie Fortune’s elements of justice-making for victims of sexual abuse to the discussion around Jerry Sandusky. These seven elements — truth-telling, acknowledgement, compassion, protecting the vulnerable, accountability, restitution and vindication — strike me as important elements in many processes of justice-making. I’m thinking of them particularly this month, as we ponder various parts of the 150th anniversary of the US - Dakota War here in MN. I can’t help thinking that these elements ought to be part of our response to that trauma and oppression as well. But I think we’ve barely begun the first two steps of truth-telling and acknowledgement, and have not yet even begun the rest. For those of you in the area, who are interested in learning more of this history, join us on October 15th at Hamline University for a showing of the film Dakota 38. Then come join us as we seek to Heal MN’s Stories.