Some of you may not be familiar with a story that is making
the rounds in Boston this week, but Marky Mark (Mark Wahlberg) is back in the
news. He has a chain of hamburger
restaurants and he wants to expand. The
problem is that he is not allowed by law because he has a felony on his record
from beating the crap out of someone when he was young and impulsive. Since then, he has atoned. He has found religion. He is a new man. And he wants a pardon from the governor (who
is leaving office this month), and has admitted that he is asking specifically
so that he can expand his hamburger chain.
I have a bunch of questions on this case. Perhaps the first question is why someone is
prohibited from expanding the hamburger restaurant chain because of a 20 year
old felony conviction. There are people
who get elected to state or national political office with felonies on their
record, but you can’t expand a hamburger chain?
Something is definitely wrong there.
But let’s put that aside for now and look at Mark Wahlberg’s
current problem. Is his atonement
believable? He admitted he is only
asking for the pardon because of the restaurant situation. But according to the news, he has been
practicing his atoned behavior for many years now and really seems like a changed
person. Except for one thing. Apparently, he never asked forgiveness from
the family of the guy he beat up. Only
from the governor. Does that call into
question the truth of this atonement?
Second question is the difference between legal forgiveness
and personal forgiveness. It is very
healthy to forgive anyone who has wronged you (link). But the government isn’t a person and doesn’t
need to worry about its psychological health.
If we imagine that there is a legitimate reason for a law that prohibits
felons from having restaurant chains, should the governor grant pardons to get
around it? He still did the crime and
did the time. What is a legal pardon
anyway? I have always wondered about
that. If a pardon is given because the law was unfair or perhaps changed
since. Or if the trial was unfair but
not enough to be overturned. But being
sorry is a good reason to be personally forgiven, but not legally. At least not for me.
I am not really sure what I think about this situation. I think the original prohibition is foolish
so my thoughts of the subsequent events is clouded. But it is a good strawman to think about
it. And it is always e kick to make fun
of Marky Mark since that is what many people called me in high school.
