People with hurt feelings, please line up
Are there any more groups out there that need apologies? If so get in line because there will always be craven, grovelling and vote-seeking ploiticians willing to utter any apology necessary. Today it was the Australians apologising for accepting thousands of kids, who would have starved, and the British PM will follow suit next month (Extracting the most political mileage from the situation Gordon Brown announced he will apologise next month!). As readers may deduce from the words today I have little truck or trade with political apologies. They are a political device that works for Pols but not people. If Pols want to apologise for their transgressions why don't they apologise for not fixing Society's ills. The 30 odd billion spent on the war in Afghanistan could have paid for an expanded heath care sytem an unemployment relief system that maintains families and a host of other remedies to lift us from this man-made recession.
3 comments:
The remarks of Aussie PM Rudd, as reported by The Toronto Star:
We are sorry. Sorry that as children you were taken from your families.... Sorry for the tragedy--the absolute tragedy--of childhoods lost.
This apology was offered not because of the hurt feelings of the still living, but because of the abominable behaviour of the long dead. I'm thankful for it, as apparently are those who endured the tragedy.
As Ben implies, apologies are not enough. Progressive politicians will not stop with apologies for the past. They will seek to identify events occurring today that might require apologies in the future and they will work to change the course of those events now.
When I saw the headline on this post, I guessed that Ben was going to speak about Wally whining about the way Deb calls him out on his attitude towards women.
Anonymous' post made me laugh. Mr. Burd, being an offical "White Male Feminist" (check out his license plate) would not dream of intervening in my defence. He knows I am a Big Girl who can stand up for herself.
Besides, I have publically apologised for and retracted my intemperate remarks about Mr. Keeler on his own blog, and hopefully we have made peace. Both Wally and I have better things to do than fight with each other.
Post a Comment