So Oscar will hear his fate this week.
This last weekend may have been his last Sunday braai for a while.
At least, we can hope so.
Before you ask the question, yes, I watched “the interview.” Yes, I saw how he wept. Yes, I agree, he is a broken man. But as I have said before, I would also be crying my eyes out if I had taken such a monumental fall from grace and made such a huge stuff up of my life.
It’s his fault. He owned the gun. He bought those exploding ‘guaranteed to kill’ bullets. He fired four shots into a tiny toilet cubicle through a solid door. No one forced him to do it. There is no one else to blame. Let the punishment fit the crime.
I know, and perhaps will one day be thankful, that the law can not be that clear cut. We live in a democratic and just society where rights are exercised even to a fault. There were mitigating circumstances that need(ed) to be taken in to account; well, so they say.
High crime rates, a history of personally stressful experiences relating to crime, clinical depression and being an amputee were all exacerbating elements his defence team tried to bring to the fore. And yes, even if he were telling the truth and those elements were to be considered, I don’t think they are an excuse for his actions.
And now I want to say something that may surprise you, (especially given my previously heated piece about this same topic, Haven't read my first rant about Oscar yet? Get it here. ) but its not about Oscar Pistorious. I want to live in a world where a guy who owns a gun and keeps it next to his bed WILL be heavily punished for shooting it off accidentally. Where a life taken equals a criminal punished. He is a person who owns a gun, loaded with ammunition designed to destroy whatever it strikes, and sleeps with it next to his bed. That part alone should raise alarm bells to most people in the world, and I actually will go so far as to suppose that it does. Its like a person who has gas linked to their personal alarm system at home, where some would have tear gas (i.e. normal bullets) and then macho man goes and gets hold of sarin gas. There is no misunderstanding what his intent with this gas is. It doesn’t matter what his name is, Paul, Pieter, Sipho or Oscar. The aim of the weapon is to kill. It is a simple fact that he was the guy who slept with a seriously deadly weapon next to his pillow.
That in and of itself should not be the crime and in South Africa, it isn’t. What IS a crime, however, is shooting through a solid object to an obscured target. One can’t shoot any kind of bullet into an unknown target, let alone a bullet that is designed to explode on impact. So he – the man charged with this crime who’s name is irrelevant – broke that law.
Then let’s forget that it was a beautiful blonde up-and-coming-actress/model behind the bathroom door and imagine it was a seventeen-year old, high-on-TIK burglar. Why does it make a difference at all? A life is a life. The fact that it was Reeva’s life is more tragic to some, yes, but it shouldn’t be the sole reason we’re aggrieved. Do we really want to live in a society where a life can be taken and no one is held accountable? Do we really want to live where a person can shoot someone we love, a child or a friend, with exploding bullets through a closed door and not be punished for it?
All lives matter. Even that seventeen-year-old TIK addict. Even Reeva’s. Yes, even Oscar’s life matters.
But he’s ruined it (his life) already. It’s in tatters. I cannot see how he will ever come back from this. There is absolutely the chance of redemptive grace that will heal all wounds and right him with God and heaven. Yes, I have to believe that as I rely pretty heavily on it for my own faults. So let's say thats what happens to Oscar. He undergoes a life changing spiritual epiphany. Lets say he walks free and becomes an ordained minister. Should that happen, he will always be referred to as ‘The Priest who shot Reeva.” And his church will always stand divided on what he actually did that night.
Let’s say he becomes a politician. He will always be plagued by what happened in the dark on Valentine’s Day 2013. The constituents will always stand divided over whether or not they can believe his words.
Let’s say he becomes a maths teacher. The kids in the school will all love him until someone tells them that he was that guy who shot that pretty blonde and then the pretty blondes in the school will get nervous and he will be stigmatised as the teacher you don’t want to make angry in case he shoots (kids are nasty that way.)
Let’s say he goes to jail and comes out in ten years. He’s not going to be seen as a reformed man, now he will be labelled as an ex con, a criminal who’s served his time. And only those who truly know the spirit of forgiveness will be able to see him as anything else but the guy who went to jail for shooting that pretty blond. Remember him? He used to run in the olympics and stuff? Ja! but isn't he also the guy who shot his girlfriend?
He is labelled for life.
And that is how it should be. Clearly, if we are to believe the tears, he has a conscience. Perhaps not one that came to the fore at the appropriate time, but still, it exists. Some of those tears may even be genuine. We don’t want to see our once-hero sullied as a criminal and cold-blooded murderer. So it suits all of us that he is viewed through slightly more forgiving lenses. But, only slightly.
No one (alive) knows what truly happened that night, except him. No one understands the height he has fallen, apart from him. He carries the truth of how Reeva really died and why she was the victim of such a senseless and stupid act, and the sadness of it is; he took a life, feels really bad for doing so and now feels that he has been punished enough. Our judiciary should have mercy on him because he is really sorry. So sorry, he cries on international television. So sorry he can hardly speak or look the interviewer in the eye. And although we don’t live in a society that condones an eye for an eye treatment, without the honesty so many are desperate for, or a confession of fault and ownership of his crime, we can only assume the worst and apply the harshest judgement. At least those of us with any common sense will do so.
Because a life was lost and ALL life should matter.
He has made this situation worse for himself. Unlike an anonymous little skollie who shoots another anonymous little skollie in a bar in a seedy part of town, this is a big deal – it’s a big story. It’s a big story because he asked to be recognised as an athlete, recognised as a celebrity and recognised as dating this gorgeous blonde. He has, so to speak, made his bed. He has, in more realistic terms, dug his own grave.
And perhaps most prophetically – he has created the prison of his own demise. Oscar, who once stood tall among athletes and paralympians across the globe, now faces the future where he will always be known as ‘the alleged’ or ‘the accused.’ Where his waking thoughts will be clouded by the truth of what happened that night and his nights of sleep will be overshadowed by dreams where unfulfilled realities and alternate outcomes play before his sleeping eyes. The blood that covered his hands and clothing and disfigured legs will forever feel warm to him. The screams he allegedly screamed begging someone, a neighbour, God, to help will echo forever in his memory. And from now until the day he chooses to admit otherwise, a foolish, careless ‘mistake’ will be the noose he has to wear. So whether or not he spends a single night in jail, he is already, and probably rightfully so, in hell.
Comments
Post a Comment