A Story of Forgiveness Story aired: Friday, November 17, 2006
Janice Jackson-Burke said God had a purpose for her son. His purpose was to heal.
For three years after he was shot, paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair, Johnson lectured teenagers about the danger of guns, a reality Johson faced after refusing to give up his Allen Iverson jersey.
Johnson not only forgave his assailants, he even befriended one of them, an act difficult for his mother to comprehend.
While she was full of rage, her son was at peace.
For a few months Jackson-Burke abandoned her faith. She sat next to her son's hospital bed wanting to harm his shooters.
But Johson wouldn't let her.
"Just forget it, Mom," he would say. "Just go home."
Raymond Ferguson, the then 15-year-old who shot her son, had a difficult life. His parents died of AIDS and his half-brother was murdered.
But Jackson-Burke said anger is no excuse.
Guests:
Janice Jackson-Burke
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