Paul Greenberg writes:
For an example of how to apologize, allow me a little local pride in the Catholic Diocese of Little Rock. It seems the diocese had discouraged support this year for the Susan B. Komen Foundation, which sponsors the Race for the Cure against breast cancer. Why, for heaven’s sake? Because of the foundation’s supposed ties to Planned Parenthood and abortion providers. As it turns out, no funds raised by the Race for the Cure in Arkansas are used to finance abortions through Planned Parenthood, and Monsignor J. Gaston Hebert, who currently heads the diocese, minced no words when he apologized for the church’s earlier statement:
“To let that statement stand would be an act of injustice,” said the monsignor. “With apologies to Komen, to those fighting breast cancer and to the survivors, to the Catholic clergy and faithful who were embarrassed by the mistaken policy, I rescind the position statement in its entirety.”
Now that’s an apology. No excuses, no “explanations,” no weasel words. Just a cleansing act. Result: Trust is restored. Sherrye McBride of the Komen Foundation in Arkansas responded in kind, saying of the monsignor: “He realized he had made a mistake, and he was a big enough person and a fine enough man to say so.” Which is how making a proper apology respects and reconciles all concerned.
Greenberg is correct. Real apologies have all but disappeared from public life and from much of private life. I think that the apology is a casualty of lawyers and political correctness.
First, consider the way that PC usually works. Person A says something to which person B claims to take offense. Person A then either refuses to apologize, or expresses sorrow that B took offense.
Second, upon learning that one has made a mistake that may have offended others, most lawyers recommend that one clam up and not say anything. Deny, deny, deny. An apology is an admission of fault, and that leaves one open to a lawsuit.
The apology in particular, and the manners that are the lubricant of civilization, are the casualty of this PC and legalistic development.
Darn lawyers. And darn marxists with their class-warfare PC idiocy.
Trackposted to The Virtuous Republic, Rosemary’s Thoughts, Nuke Gingrich, Right Truth, Pirate’s Cove, Global American Discourse, The Pink Flamingo, Leaning Straight Up, Cao’s Blog, Wolf Pangloss, and The Yankee Sailor, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.
March 14, 2008 at 23:32
UN calls for the genocide of Israel
The UN is at it again. This time they are participating in the destruction of Israel. They will not come right out and say so, but they might as well. They cannot even define terrorism, because they are cowards. Please sign this petition …
March 14, 2008 at 23:35
Nicely put. I’ve noticed this myself, but I try to ignore it. I will not, I refuse to, allow the Commies to take away my dignity.
March 15, 2008 at 22:29
Keep your dignity. That’s an important thing. I had another thought on PC. After answering PC complaints with non-apology apologies, it becomes easier and easier with every repetition to treat all complaints, justified by non-PC, non-insane reasons or not, as unjust complaints based on PC premises.
We must therefore learn to identify PC complaints and treat them differently than we treat just complaints (here I mean “just” in the same sense as justice, injustice, and justified, not as a synonym for “simply,” “only” or “solely”).
Typically PC complaints are on behalf not of an individual as an individual, but an individual as a member of a group, or on that group’s behalf. The group might be real or it might be imaginary. A complaint might be brought by an American of average stature and heterosexual sexual orientation on behalf of lesbian Egyptian dwarfs. This is a clear giveaway of a PC complaint.
PC complaints can also be easily identified by simply replacing the referenced group in the complaint with white Anglo-Saxon Protestant males. If the complaint suddenly seems ludicrous, then it’s clear the complaint is based on class warfare. That’s PC.
So when faced with complaints that are clearly of PC or other ideologically Marxist provenance, non-apology apologies are de rigeur. But if not, then real apologies must be considered: Especially if one can identify a possibility that one might have been wrong.
October 23, 2008 at 08:47
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