You want nice? Supportive? Forgiving?

Call a damn priest.

Seriously. I am not a priest, I do not have the exact same value system for my beliefs of faith that Christians have, but there are some things we have in common.

The spiritual process of absolution as a sacrament of forgiving sins.

I will not forgive your sins, but you don’t care about that anyway, do you?

You want me to forgive your crimes, exonerate you from prison time, not execute the traitor for this catastrophic disaster his treason caused.

Well let me tell you how the sacrament of reconciliation works for sins, because it’s very similar in my opinion for how I judge criminal activity.

First, you must perform an Act of Contrition that is witnessed by the authority who can absolve your sins, the priest. This is part of the confessional ritual.

Let’s look at how contrition is defined: (This is what my search bar A.I. pulled up with a surprisingly convenient arrangement of multiple sources.)

Contrition is a feeling of responsibility for wrongdoing 1. It is often associated with guilt, penitence, regret, and remorse1. There are two types of contrition: perfect and imperfect2. The two types are distinguished by a person's motive for repentance, rather than the intensity of one's feelings or emotions2. In perfect contrition, the motive is founded on God's own goodness and not merely his goodness to the sinner or to humanity.

So in this case, for the worldly punishment required for crime that you want forgiven by our limited goodness as human beings—- beings subject to passions we experience with suffering caused by injustice and crime, mind you— and thus you want imperfect contrition. This is not about how you feel, this about how you acknowledge the wrong you did to the authority whom you wronged. For the president, the authority they are subject to is always the citizen population above all else, but may also be a foreign dignitary who was betrayed, subjecting the president to their authority with the wrong they did and thus demanding an apology as to a neighbor. The citizen population may require this of the USA government, just as a judge may require of a neighborly dispute in a court of civil law.

To have contrition, you have to specifically do an act that demonstrates your humility before the forgiving authority. To prevent cultural confusion, consider what the customs for answering to an authority are. You are called to the principals office, sit at the desk, and talk with the principal, who hears your explanation and then decides what to do with you because of it. I a workplace it is very much the same thing, except instead of the principal the authority is the boss. On a sports team, the miscreant goes to the coaches office, and in my experience, that rarely ever happened and was never a routine thing for players to be summoned for. The coach would step into the locker room and either speak to us where we are with our friends and teammates present as usual, or will address the entire team and identify you specifically by name if you did something to sully the team’s reputation. Then the entire team would be punished, not just the player at fault.

In military environments, it varies case to case. In the Navy I experienced multiple situations. Divisional discipline by the LPO as a non-commissioned officer possubly with chief and division officer present, but not required, and is generally the most favorable outcome. Whatever that dispensation is likely will not leave the divisional area to filed formally on record in a way that would affect your career advancement criteria, which is a major concern. However, regardless, the LPO certainly would talk to the chief, or at least should, because that is an important relationship requiring trust, Then the chief maybe told them his dispensation as appropriate for the time being. Then later in the Chief’s Quarters would likely talk to the chief of the boat or command master chief who is the head chief of the chiefs and that is also a relationship that requires trust. Then, the CoB or CMC would talk to the commanding officer for the same reasons.

There has to be trust between both personnel groups which are distinctly different for very important reasons and do not intermingle casually. Civilians are of course able to do that freely and it should never even be considered an issue in the civilian world because there is no chain of command between neighbors! That is only necessary in a military environment because of [war theory]. Veterans give up that liberty among many other personal freedoms simply by being in the military. You don’t need to be afraid of befriending each other professionally, or enjoying some command sponsered activities together if you share a mutual interest, like a trip to Mount Fuji, a run up the Rio de Janeiro Jesus Mountain, but you get it… fraternization is what that is called. Whether intentional or not those kind of relationships can disrupt the health of any organizational environment, such as between managers and employees, doctors and patients, hookers and trout. That’s one of the reasons why I get so mad when prostitutes contact me via dating apps. If you require me to buy you first, there is no way I will love you after, and you aren’t fooling me as an easy target. In fact, I am offended that you would even present yourself as a romantic candidate in such a treacherous way with no respect for love, and you are lucky if I don’t send you off with a rebuke and insult, depending on my mood.

In any event the acts of contrition in a miltary situation happen in four ways I know about. The LPO/CPO discipline that is resolved at the lowest level of authority possible, which is still substantial. Then there is the Chief’s Beating Board. Or whatever it is called. The same thing, but that is resolved in the Chiefs Quarters where all the chiefs have something say about the miscreant’s fuck up and bring out the highly feared Oar of the Seaman’s Shame. A terrible cursed thing that is known for turning even the blackest of men as white as ghosts when they return, and I am lucky not to have had to suffer it myself. The other two things are the real deal. These are actually courts of law with legal jurisdiction. Those are Captain’s Mast, which happens one of two ways: in private or with the entire command called to attention. Those are unnerving situations too… but those are technically an official court of law like in the real world, except the CO is the judge, jury, and executioner.

Those have been known to cause people to lose rank, forfeit their earnings, and be restricted from leaving the ship at all. Can you imagine having to tell your wife that you got in trouble at work and if the kids want to see you for dinner, they need to come to ship after working hours and eat there? I shudder at the thought, but that’s not so bad. I’m sure that would mean a lot to everyone to see that kind of support from the homefront. Because people make dumb mistakes from time to time and it is what it is. The punishment is what makes them better and no longer something to be concerned about. That’s how you stop feeling bad about it, guilty, and uncomfortable all the time, sick with the feeling of shame. Do your punishment and be done with it, I say, and nobody should fault another person for that.

For officer discipline, it’s probably similar except with the CO instead of the CMC or CoB, and in worst case scenarios those go to court martial which would require whatever they do for that on land with the top brass in the chain there most likely. Not ordinary jury or judge like in civil court, with senior military officials.

In short… in the USA this brief examination of contrition customs amounts to: presenting yourself in person to the appropriate authority for the crime and answering for what happened. No matter what the president does, they have to answer to the citizens, and if a foreign nation has a dispute with the president they can ask the citizen population to provide a dispensation if the president is being a turd about something, like backing out of an agreement, being sneaky, walking their dog on the lawn to lay a poop and not picking it up. They do not need to go through the USA government. They can use general media to address the general public the same way the president does when doing the State of the Union address. The citizens will come up with an answer for that and see the situation corrected, because there should never be issues like that with the USA government. We are friendly, trustworthy, good, honorable, and proud. We will not let our disgraceful government representatives dishonor Freedom and Democracy like that. You have my Word from now on for that too, but you should never need to use that again the same way I did.

Do those rich people not covet the status symbol that being the president is? Then it is fitting that their embarrassment for dishonor is the punishment to secure the value of that status symbol for everyone else, by denying it of the miscreant. If you ever go into that office to work, you’d better not forget that you are being judged by the citizen population, not God.

So first make an act of contrition if you want mercy and forgiveness for you crimes. I will not entertain any of your desires for leniency until then, nor will anyone else. You do not owe that act of contrition to me, you owe that to the entire general public. As the citizen who presided over the public trial, prosecution, and sentencing, I will give my response, but I expect I won’t be the only one who has something to say. At the end of the day, the course of action is already a policy that is not being enforced. This is not a mutiny because the commander in chief was never a commander in chief. He was a traitor, spy, and domestic terrorist. The next credible authority in the chain of command is fully authorized to mobilize the appropriate armed forced of the Department of Defense to arrest Trump, throw him the brig, and detain him for a court martial for the violation of the UCMJ article concerning espionage. That is the official process that I demand an answer to from the military why that has not yet happened. How low in the chain of command did your authority sink? All of you need to be court martialed for that as appropriate. Promote new brass as necessary, and I’m sure you are not lacking worthy candidates with a military the size of the USA’s. If you can fight the Taliban in Afghanistan effectively, you can puzzle out how to make that work without a former second class petty officer telling you what military actions need to be taken by active duty officers.

That’s about it for the sacrament of reconciliation though to use as an example model of forgiveness at any time in the USA.

Do an act of contrition to humble yourself before the person you wronged as apropriate for the situation. Ask for forgiveness from that authority. Then the authority can decide to forgive you or not and tell you what they think about all that. Lastly, that authority should give a penance, which is to say a punishment, because when you do that, you will do the act that confirms that you have accepted the forgiveness. Not so much about how you feel, but about what you do.

Can you conceptually imagine the flow of spiritual energy in this situation? You have nothing to be ashamed by completing that exchange, only by avoiding it.

For neighbors in the ultimate situations of daily life before you end up in a war with the family next door, here is my opinion:

As a neighbor… maybe bake some cookies to give, buy a gift card to show your sincerity even if you look bitter and unwilling because your wife is making you do it, or at the very least put on some decent clothes and the walk over to their door, knock, and apologize. Ask what you can do to make it better. Then agree on what that is. If that’s not enough, go to civil court and have a judge decide, but do not take up the judge’s time if you have not already made an effort to do that much. If it was a crime, call the police and file a report. If you don’t think that offense is something you can forgive yourself for whatever reason, go directly to the police to ensure matters are resolved lawfully without further crime.

I guess… all citizens/human beings are entitled to equal dignity under the lay. This is the official honor system here. That is an equal level and does not change at all unless you do something to subtract your own honor value. Either you give that to someone else as praise, in which case that is a temporary blessing, like a boost of honor value that gradually decreases and returns to the original person to equality again. That is a private exchange between the people involved, which may be expressed as a group with a leader. That’s a good thing and hopefully that happens often among neighborhoods from now on, keeping life vibrant and interesting with all people are doing to improve life in the community.

The other way, which would require reconciliation, is the not so good way. If you cause a neighbor offense and you know you did, even if nobody else saw, that subtracts honor as a deficit that goes to the person who suffered the offense to make them the authority who can reconcile the wrong that was done. If you reconcile properly and agreeably, the honor levels will restore to equal after penance, but if not… well you may not ever get that honor back unless you can forgive yourself for what happened, but that is much more difficult to do. Better to just admit you are sorry and get it over with, because any great works you do to restore honor won’t be credited to your equality, but will be used to fill the deficit instead and that costs a lot more because of the arrogance of refusing to apologize. However if that is just not possible or pracical, it’s not so bad. That will work itself out over time for most small things as long as you are doing your best to be good. Last thing, after a judge’s sentence has been carried out and acknowledged as complete by the court, then honor levels are restored. Take about some powerful penmanship… be glad I’m not a king of America like Jesus is to the Jews, or all of you’d be in hot water. As it is, all of this is essentially only hot air you don’t need to worry about personally unless I call you out personally, but it is high pressure air that is pushing water out of the ballast tanks so the nation doesn’t end early with a watery grave in Davy Jones Locker now that the turbines are fubar for whatever reason. Be glad it was Taco Tuesday when this began and I was around to supply that hot air personally with some record setting gas delivery as Johnny-on-the-spot this time. Don’t count on that happening again, because I didn’t even know that was possible ‘til I tried. Also, don’t take that air too lightly either, because if you’ve never heard about what can happen if a high pressure air line ruptures… suffice it to say that air can be made to cut like a blade.

Make sense? If you have any questions feel free to write, and I will tell you what I think. With this system, it is entirely possible for every citizen to have the dignity of the king even if they aren’t a king themselves or something else like that. That ensures equal rights are protected for everyone. Race has nothing to do with it, nor religion, gender, or anything else. Honestly, you should be this way with all people at all times no matter how dignified you are. However, if a line of authority needs to be drawn to limit the definition of this official honor system of equal dignity for everyone, then it is citizenship in the USA. However, it is my personal opinion that all people enjoy this benefit and I practice it everywhere I go. That’s one of the reasons why laws and government must function a certain way. This kind of system is not possible in a monarchy or theocracy. It is more difficult for some people to live this way and more difficult for others to live in the alternative, and that’s the reason why it is in everyone’s best interest to restore lawful Democracy to the USA, and depose the despot tyrant buffoonery that replaced it like it had been plotting to do so for decades and was just waiting for the opportune moment to strike all the designated points to complete their plan and seize control. Not on my watch, you Nazi bastards.