Way too much wisdom and insight above to possibly comment on all of it. Thank you so much to all of you for contributing to this thread and for helping me so very much.

I think I realized reading and reflecting on what all of you shared that this really is pretty much all about me. I have a few things from my past that I keep reliving again and again. When I do this, I become hurt and angry again and it is like it is happeneing all over right now, today. Then, I go through this whole song and dance where I feel I must tell these people that what they did to me was wrong and immoral. And damaging. I don't have a desire to exact revenge, that's not what it is. But I do have a strong need, when I am reliving all this, to inform people that I know what they did and that it hurt and that it was immoral and wrong. And I have never done that, in any of these situations. I just slunked off to my corner. I think a big part of my discomfort comes from the idea that I "let them get away with it" and did nto stand up for myself.

So, yeah, the idea of forgiving these people when they will never acknowledge what they did, much less apologize or be held accountable, is, I think, causing me pain. Don't really know how to do that.

But, as my incredibly wise father has said to me at least 20 katrillion times from, like, the age of three onward, "Nobody ever said life was fair, cyclist."

Truer words were never spoken. Maybe that's where I should be looking. Acceptance. Other people are going to do what they are going to do. They will be exactly and perfectly who they are, good, bad, or indifferent. I don't have to "attach", as the Buddhists like to say, to any of that. I can just observe it and be amused at the wackiness of this life.

I do find the term "amnesty" appealing, for some reason. Maybe I should just officially pardon all these people and move on...

Thanks again, all of you!!!