ASKING PEOPLE TO TURN THE OTHER CHEEK

Most  of  the  participants  here  are  still  alive,  so  all  names  have  been  changed,  to  "protect  the  guilty."

Councilman  Rob  Smith  had  a  schizophrenic  wife.  She  was  on  medication,  which  helped  90%.  The  unmedicated  10%  was  the  problem.  It  emerged  as  bad  judgment  and  extreme  temper  and  demands.

One  day  Mrs.  Smith  saw  Maria,  her  next  door  neighbor,  carefully  trimming  the  hedge  between  their  back  yards,  and  she  flew  into  a  rage  and  complained  to  her  husband,  the  Councilman.  Her  husband  the  Councilman  worked  for  a  local  pest  controller  firm.  When  his  wife  demanded  that  he  put  a  stop  to  the  outrage  next  door,  he  lost  touch  with  good  judgement,  picked  up  on  her  extreme  rage,  ran  out  to  his  truck,  grabbed  a  tank  of  pesticide,  ran  through  the  house,  crept  into  the  back  yard  while  Maria  went  inside  for  a  break,  and  hid  behind  the  hedge.  When  Maria  came  out  and  resumed  cutting,  he  jumped  up  and  said,  "GOTCHA!"  and  sprayed  pesticide  in  her  face.

Maria  fell  to  the  ground,  sick  and  coughing.  Her  husband  Michael  came  out,  deduced  all  that  had  occurred,  and  called  an  ambulance.

Michael  also  called  me,  the  family  attorney.  When  Rob  saw  me  come  into  Michael  and  Maria's  backyard,  he  bragged  about  how  he  had  sprayed  Maria  in  the  face  with  poison  for  the  outrageous  act  of  cutting  a  border  hedge!

I  said,  "Rob,   you  don't  understand.  If  Maria  is  still  in  the  hospital  tomorrow  without  a  clean  bill  of  health,  police  are  coming  to  your  house  tomorrow  to  cuff  you,  take  you  in,  charge  you  and  set  bail.  You  responded  to  perceived  aggression  against  hedges  with  a  hedge  trimmer  by  attempted  POISONING.  That's  crazy,  and  it  will  certainly  earn  you  time  in  prison.

"If,  on  the  other  hand,  Maria  is  fine  tomorrow,  they've  agreed,  in  that  case,  since  you  are  neighbors,  to  let  the  matter  drop."

Maria  did  return  home  the  next  day  with  a  clean  bill  of  health.  As  far  as  Maria  and  Michael  were  concerned,  the  matter  was  over.

But  Councilman  Rob  and  his  wife  remained  angry  instead  of  counting  their  blessings!

One  day,   Michael  was  coming  home  from  work  as  a  contractor.   The  driver  side  rear  view  mirror  of  his  truck  happened  to  be  at  exactly  the  same  height  above  the  ground  as  Councilman  Rob's  van's  mirror.  So,  as  Michael  drove  his  truck  home,  Councilman  Rob's  wife  pulled  away  from  her  house  in  the  van,  and  her  van's  mirror  kissed  Michael's  truck's  mirror,  with  injury  to  neither  vehicle.

For  Councilman  Rob's  wife,  the  touching  of  mirrors  was,  as  far  as  she  was  concerned,  an  extremely  offensive  intentional  act.  Councilman  Rob,  intent  on  justifying  his  wife's  extreme  anger,   secretly  went  to  another  neighbor,  Rick,  and  asked  him  to  punch  Michael  in  the  morning  before  he  left  for  work.

While  the  neighbor  Rick  hid  behind  some  bushes  at  about  5:00  a.m.  the  following  morning,  Michael  came  out  with  his  usual  styro  cup  of  piping  hot  coffee  and  walked  toward  his  truck.

The  neighbor  sprang  up  from  behind  the  bushes,  ran  over  to  Michael,  and  punched  him  hard  in  the  belly  through  the  coffee  cup.  The  hot  coffee  shot  up  and  squirted  Michael  in  the  face  before  he  fell  to  the  street.

Michael's  wife  Maria  had  been  watching  through  the  front  storm  door  and  seen  everything.  She  and  Michael  called  me  at  6:00  a.m.,  and  I  told  them  to  call  police  and  file  an  assault  charge  against  the  neighbor  who  punched  Michael.  Only  later  did  the  neighbor,  Rick,   confess  that  Councilman  Rob  put  him  up  to  it,  for  allowing  car  mirrors  to  touch.

Michael  and  Maria  had  had  it  up  to  their  eyeballs  with  Councilman  Rob  and  his  wife.   They  had  me  add  a  conspiracy  charge  against  Councilman  Rob.

The  case  was  switched  to  a  neighboring  town  because  of  the  charge  against  a  local  councilman.  It  was  night  court.  I  warned  Michael  and  Maria  that  trials  are  scheduled  last  in  night  court,  and  that  our  case  would  be  one  of  the  last  cases  heard,  due  to  its  spectacular  nature.  The  presence  of  the  media  in  the  courtroom  made  this  even  more  certain.

By  2:00  a.m.,  our  case  still  had  not  been  heard.  I  made  a  suggestion  to  Michael  and  Maria:  Turn  the  other  cheek,  by  announcing  in  open  court  that  they  were  going  to  buy  $200  worth  of  groceries  for  Councilman  Rob  and  his  wife,  as  a  sign  of  forgiveness,  and  dropping  all  charges  "without  prejudice,"  meaning  future  charges  against  them  would  permit  a  reopening  of  the  case.

Michael  and  Maria  looked  at  me  with  astonishment  and  offense,  asked  me  if  I  "was  kidding,"  and  dug  in  their  heels.

By  3:00  a.m.,  the  case  had  still  not  been  heard.  The  prosecutor  suggested  a  dismissal  without  prejudice.  I  suspected  that  the  delay  was  "political"  --  the  case  was  intentionally  held  in  abeyance  to  grind  Michael  and  Maria  down,  to  get  them  to  agree  to  the  dismissal  without  prejudice  rather  than  go  to  trial.  Michael  and  Maria  were  so  disgusted  at  3:00  a.m.  that  they  consented  and  went  home.

The  hatred  boiled  in  their  neighborhood  for  years.

Until  about  10  years  later,  when  something  very  surprising  occurred.

Michael  caught  cancer,  and  he  decided  to  die  at  home.  As  he  lay  in  his  deathbed,  he  asked  for  Councilman  Rob  and  Rick.  Councilman  Rob  and  his  wife  had  moved  away  years  before,  and  were  nowhere  to  be  found.  Rick  came.  Michael  said,  "Tell  Pete  he  was  right.  I  should  have  forgiven  you  years  ago.  I  forgive  you  now.  I  hope  that  you  forgive  me."

And  he  died  shortly  thereafter.