“SORRY! -The Game of Sweet Revenge”
Sorry-
1 : feeling sorrow , regret, or penitence
2 : MOURNFUL, SAD
3 : inspiring sorrow , pity, scorn, or ridicule : PITIFUL <their affairs were in a sorry state>
synonym see CONTEMPTIBLE
To be sure… sometimes it is advisable to express true sorrow.
Michael Richards… Mel Gibson… others come to mind.
But is it going too far? For K-Fed to apologise for his Super Bowl commercial because fast-food employees might be offended… that’s just dumb. Now if he wants to apologise for his career, we may have something there.
Now Delegate Burns is proposing Maryland express sorrow for slavery. Is such an act a precursor to wanting reparations?
Is that the “Sweet revenge” they are after?
There’s a risk in true expressions that one is “Sorry”… there is no guarantee that the apology will be accepted. If it is not, the expression could be an admission of guilt. Thus insurance companies drill into us that we are to never, ever, ever admit fault in an accident. That’s what lawyers are for.
Nobody alive today in the US has ever owned a slave, as far as I know, so the guilt is misplaced. To apologise for something you didn’t do may be as bad or worse than not apologising for what you did do. It’s a mere “feel-good” empty gesture.
Other possible candidates for the “Sorry!” bandwagon:
(Great… great grandchildren of the) Blacks who caught and sold their brethren into slavery…
Descendants of those who ridiculed, harassed, and abused the Irish, Jewish, or Italian people who settled here.
The ACLU, for harassing and suing Christians.
Hillary & others on the fringe, for unfairly ranting and raving against Republicans.
Saddam Hussein, for not coming clean on the whole WMD inspection thing and training ground for terrorists, he could have avoided the war. The fact that he’s dead doesn’t mean others couldn’t apologise in his stead, evidently.
Any other candidates?
* * * * * UPDATE: Now Virginia has joined this bandwagon. * * * * *
