And then they learned.

The story reached them, row by row, and the moment it did, the moment they understood, they changed, completely and instantly, from a laughing mob into a weeping congregation, and they rose to their feet as one.

And there is something almost hopeful in that, something I have held onto since.

Because it means the cruelty was not the truth of those people; it was only their ignorance.

Underneath the laughter, when they were given the truth, was a whole gymnasium full of people capable of profound reverence, of tears, of standing ovations for a stranger’s act of love.