Could you forgive someone who tried to kill you?

For Brett Hurt, the sixteen-year-old survivor of  a school stabbing attack  on Wednesday, the answer is yes. About his attacker, he tells reporters: 

I just hope that one day I can forgive him, and everyone else who got hurt can forgive him. Most of all, he needs to forgive himself.

Not everyone agrees with this perspective. In response to the Boston bombings, Huffington Post writer Elad Nahorai claimed in his blog post “Stop Forgiving the Boston Bombers,” 

What matters is that we realize that when we excuse the acts of killers, we in effect, justify those killings. Whether we mean to or not.

Internationally, the topic of forgiveness is being discussed in conjunction with the 20th anniversary of the horrible 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Survivor Alice lost both her baby and her right hand to a machete-wielding militant, but still declares that 

Forgiveness is possible.

What’s more remarkable? Alice is now friends with her attacker.