[Speed Gibson,
Tuesday June 28, 2005 at 11:22pm]
Apologies Then and Now
Last week, Rush played back a number of audio clips of the media covering then U.S. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott's five - count'm - five apologies for his comment to his fellow Senator Strom Thurmond that cost him his leadership position. As Rush noted, Lott apologized profusely five times, even on Black Entertainment Television (BET), and not one of them was accepted. But Senator Dick Durbin apologizes once, really not at all, and it's immediately accepted.
I remember Dr. Laura saying a real apology has three parts - remorse, repentence, and restitution. You're truly sorry you did it, you resolve to not do it again, and you do what you can to set things right. Dennis Prager would add a clarifying prologue, a statement up front of what you did wrong that you are now apologizing for.
Senator Durbin's apology embraced none of this. He only wished we could understand him better, like his journalist friends do. Of course, if a teenage child of one of those journalists tried to float an apology like that, they'd be grounded for a week.
I remember Dr. Laura saying a real apology has three parts - remorse, repentence, and restitution. You're truly sorry you did it, you resolve to not do it again, and you do what you can to set things right. Dennis Prager would add a clarifying prologue, a statement up front of what you did wrong that you are now apologizing for.
Senator Durbin's apology embraced none of this. He only wished we could understand him better, like his journalist friends do. Of course, if a teenage child of one of those journalists tried to float an apology like that, they'd be grounded for a week.