The One Essential Ingredient to Healing Harms

I recently finished a college course where we were assigned to read Nelson Mandela's "Long Walk to Freedom." This reading assignment was part of a larger discussion of memory, in this case cultural memory.
I was fascinated in reading about Mandela's life, but not because he was a saint. Mandela had his flaws, like we all do, but he was committed to healing his nation despite the terrible injustices that had been afflicted on him and his people.
Mandela recognized that for the nation of South Africa to heal from its apartheid legacy, that past must not be ignored nor embellished. He knew that truthfully dealing with the past is essential to healing and also to avoiding repeating the mistakes of the past. Mandela recognized that the oppressed can easily become the oppressor if they do not deal in truth.
Too often, victims of crime may believe they are ensuring justice by stretching the truth, embellishing their story, or caving to the pressure to lie by an over-zealous prosecutor.
Likewise, offenders may believe that they are protecting the fairness of their prosecution if they deny their involvement in the crime, minimize their involvement or responsibility, or cast doubt on their victim's character.
Finally, zealous prosecutors, law enforcement, and courts too often push for quick closure of a case at the expense of uncovering the truth.
None of these scenarios lends itself to healing for the victim of a crime, for the healing of an offender's brokenness, or for the avoidance of crimes being repeated. Perhaps this is one reason the re-offense rates are well over 50% nationwide.
Only when courageous prosecutors, judges, victims, and offenders follow the example of Nelson Mandela and begin to deal only with the truth can we begin to see real healing take place. Only when we choose to deal only with the truth can we avoid repeating the mistakes of the past.