True, forgetting a harm inflected on us is impossible, for it remains itched on our memory especially if it is a harrowing experience, but forgiving is within the realm of possibility. The latter is rather a best way out, for it helps navigate hurdles putting dark spots in our history behind our back. It helps us avoid licking a wound, nursing a grudge, lamenting the past and wielding an axe. The serenity that ensues on the wake of forgiveness could allow people with a united heart to catapult to affluence.
The atavism witnessed on Good Friday is atoned by the resurrection on Easter. Forgiveness made that possible. Similarly dark spots in history could be replaced by brighter ones on the wake of forgiveness.
Forgiveness is what Easter embodies aside from love, considerateness s, selflessness and sacrifice. What the crucified lover of mankind homed in on was these ideals.
Ethiopia is a country marked for religiosity, which obligates offering the left cheek when the right is slapped and praying for assailants. If such virtues are very much demanding, we must at least nurture doing away with intolerance that has a potential of wrecking down an ancient nation that passed through thick and thin to portray images of an aura of freedom and a beckon of victory over blatant aggression.
But it goes without saying that mending wrong turns is expected from offenders.
Hence, calm, cool and collected as well as sitting around a horseshoe table ironing out bones of contention to forestall development-detracting clashes erupting time and again and joining hands and hearts to spur rosy days-promising common growth are must-dos. That is why a national dialogue commission is established to create a national narrative of growth relegating verbal and physical altercations to the limbo of history via a healthy discussion.
Cognizant of the aforementioned facts when we celebrate our victory day that overlapped with Easter this time round, it must be with the consensus of collectively maintaining such victory in all fronts. Atop must come rapid –development-calibrated projects such as the flagship project GERD, via which Ethiopia is showcasing its rise to the level of countries enjoy the amenities of prosperity. GERD is a living billboard that exhibits the miracle Ethiopians could do if they display chemistry on par with the one showed in Adwa and subsequent ones. It also shows the boons that accrue to region and the continent when the country harnesses the resources it is bountifully endowed with. It is possible to enumerate additional projects like Green Legacy that make Ethiopia sickout as a rising nation.
Brighter days await resource-endowed-and-resilient Ethiopia, if it unleashes its potential taking citizens united in purpose aboard the bandwagon of thrust for affluence.
The takeaway is, our heart must have room for forgiveness, deliberation, win-win deal, peace and development. Embracing the future overcoming inimical trends of the past, magnifying bright spots in history as well as scaling up the best turnouts must also come atop our characteristic features. Let us work towards this end mindful of the generations to come which must be insulated from the repercussions of our missteps and which must bask under our wise decisions.
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD SUNDAY EDITION 5 MAY 2024
