The following is one of the most significant stories I have ever heard. If its moral and morals were followed to a lesser or greater extent by the world's governments, leaders, businesses and citizens the entire universe would change immediately, and change for the better.
It was 1974 in Miami, only a few days before Christmas. A 10-year-old boy named Chris Carrier stepped off the school bus, his head filled with thoughts of the presents he was going to receive from his parents. Or maybe, just maybe, from Santa Claus. As the small, trusting boy walked toward his home a man approached him.
"We're arranging a surprise for your dad," he said. "Could you come with me and help?"
Carrier loved his dad. He got into the truck with the nice man.
After a few minutes of driving, the man told Carrier he had to look at the map and check directions. Carrier nodded his head. And then, suddenly, Carrier was on his back and the man was on top of him, slashing at him with an ice-pick. The thrusts did not hurt as much as shock the boy. The same questions, drenched in terror, smashed into his mind. Why was this happening, what did the man want, where is my dad?
As suddenly as the attack started, it stopped. Silence. The man seemed almost apologetic, and then drove on until he and the fear-frozen child reached the Everglades.
"Get out of the truck and I'll call your father and tell him where you are," said the man. The boy got out, walked a few yards and then sat down on a rock.
The man followed, then turned away. As he did there was the loudest crack the boy had ever heard. And then blackness.
Carrier had been shot through the head. The bullet entered his right temple and exited through his left, leaving him blind in one eye. Dazed and semi-conscious, this starving, bleeding little boy wandered around in the wilderness for almost a week. It was on Boxing Day that he was found, 120 kilometres from his home, and returned to his father.
It was, of course, a miracle that Carrier survived. The medics found that not only was the boy shot and stabbed but his body was also covered with cigarette burns. The police had a suspect but did not have proof. They believed that the abduction, torture and attempted murder was committed by someone who had worked as a nurse for Carrier's aged uncle but had been fired for drinking. The case was forgotten and Carrier learned to live with the injuries and restore his life.
The scene moves to 1996 and Carrier is a 32-year-old bookstore owner, married with two children and very happy. Suddenly he receives a telephone call from a police officer who worked on the case two decades ago and has never quite let go. He explains that the man has been found and has confessed to his crimes on tape. He is in a North Miami Beach nursing home, blind and wasted. A pathetic wreck of a man.
His name is David McAllister and he is 77. He will not be charged because of the statute of limitations.
Carrier drives to the nursing home, gets out of his car and walks to the room of his persecutor. He stops. Then enters.
"I am the boy you tried to kill," he says. The man says nothing. Then a pause. Then this from Carrier: "I forgive you."
He visited David McAllister every day, cared for him and read him the Bible, right up until his death.
"I have everything, he has nothing," says Carrier. "I no longer see the man who hurt me, just a figure near death who has nobody."
So what are we to make of this? Simple. Justice is paramount, but in a world where so many of our policies and actions are infected by violence we need to hold up Carrier as a torch of inspiration. He certainly inspired me; and of all of the good and the great and the famous that I have interviewed, this soft-spoken man has made the greatest impression.
"As we forgive those who trespass against us." Not new, but still revolutionary.
