Ignorance is Bliss

I read Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings while I was in my sophomore year of high school.  It was on a list of books we could choose for our required reading in my literature class.  I also read Strange Fruit by Lillian Smith around that time for the same class.  Both of these novels were enlightening to say the least.  At the time I was simply a young and naive girl.  It was astonishing to read the stories of bad things happening to people as if they were normal and almost expected.  I learned that in some places your background or your past experiences somehow brings justification for further immoral acts. 

What an innovative justification!  To do wrong and continue to do so because you've already got your hands dirty or you've already been exposed to a crummy, hard life.  But your past--however crummy--does not justify reliving it in your future.  Make amends and live better. 

I tend to be an optimist and hope that everyone can easily overcome their struggles.  I try to give people the benefit of the doubt as long as possible, because it seems more difficult to find reasons to mistrust people than to just give them a chance.  However, would you give someone a chance when the odds are quite terribly against them? Would you give them a chance if they've only showed minimal signs of progress? How much would you need to know about them before trusting them to do what's right without oversight?  Do we need to know someone's past to be able to fully trust them? 

Did I need to learn why the caged bird sings?  What if I had never known?

beck