World’s Apology Epidemic Based on False Premises

First off, let me apologize. I don’t know for what just yet, but everybody’s doing it. I will try earnestly to think of something within the next 700 words.

The current epidemic of apologitis was extended last week by Rep. Anthony Weiner, a Democrat member of the House Judiciary Committee. He stood in the rain outside the White House to demand President Bush apologize for “smearing the names” of Clinton/Gore aides who were reported to have trashed their offices before fleeing.

Only thing Weiner accomplished was to show that he doesn’t have enough sense to come in out of the rain.

Washington, D.C., media types tried to whip up a fight between two presidents. Bush merely smiled. He said “there might have been a prank or two” but nothing that hampered the transition.

If there is anything that gripes a hot head, it is cool dismissal -- hence, Weiner’s tantrum. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer finally released a list and photos of vandalisms left by former administration juveniles. The media suddenly lost interest.

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights – not yet cleansed by the Bush team – also got in a last blow. It demanded an apology by Florida Gov. Jeb Bush for voting problems.

The commission is comprised overwhelmingly of left- wing Democrats. The only Republican member was not given a copy of the accusatory report until it had been published by the New York Times and the Washington Post.

Gov. Bush and Secretary of State Katherine Harris were charged with “a pattern of injustice, ineptitude and inefficiency” that denied African-Americans the right to vote.

Never mind facts revealed by three, separate newspaper consortiums re-counting Florida votes. They discovered the faults were due to “ineptness of poorly educated minorities” dragged to the polls by zealous Democrat precinct workers.

Every year for the last 13, Rep. John Conyers, Jr., an African-American Democrat, has introduced legislation mandating “reparations” (money) for blacks. He asserts they have been “irreparably harmed by slavery” before the Civil War.

Charles Ogletree, a Harvard professor aided by a team of African-American lawyers, promotes a Reparations Coordinating Committee. They have reason to be optimistic. The victim card is big trump these days.

The McDonald hamburger chain has apologized on its website to one vegetarian and two Hindus for not telling them its french-fries are enhanced with beef flavoring.

The Aetna Insurance Co. apologized last year for having issued polices more than 140 years ago to plantation owners on the lives of their slaves.

The Hartford Courant, a venerable Connecticut newspaper, ran a front-page apology recently for having once carried advertisements regarding the sale and capture of slaves.

It is difficult to resist jumping on the mea culpa bandwagon when Pope John Paul goes to Israel and apologizes for the Roman Catholic Church oppression of Jews centuries ago.

Thus emboldened, the United Nations World Conference Against Racism will discuss victimization in August. Heading the agenda is a demand for reparations from former colonial powers. Strangely the present slave trade in Sudan is ignored.

Professor Ogletree claims precedents for paying reparations. The U.S. government compensated Japanese- Americans who were segregated during World War II. Germany is paying Jews who were forced to work in munitions factories. Swiss banks are making restitution for Jewish gold accounts absorbed during the Holocaust.

Note, carefully, that the reparations are to survivors. Proposed payment to descendents, generations later, is based on the false premise of perpetual harm.

What is the statute of limitations on sin? Even if we accept the Biblical seven generations, today’s African-Americans fail to qualify for slavery benefits. Affirmative action laws are compensation for current bias.

Genuine apologies can be tendered only by original offenders only to original injureds. Anything more is extortion. Today’s reparation drive is based on race, not injury.

David Horowitz, president of the Center for the Study of Popular Culture, recently placed advertisements in several college newspapers detailing “Ten Reasons Why Reparations for Blacks is a Bad Idea for Blacks – and Racist Too.”

From the shrieks of campus liberals, one would think Horowitz had simultaneously committed treason, blasphemy, falsehood and insult to the “American way.” They demanded, and got, apologies from hapless college editors. So much for the First Amendment.

One of Horowitz’s anti-reparation reasons will suffice for today’s discussion: “Only a tiny minority of white Americans ever owned slaves, and others gave their lives to free them.” For the other nine reasons, get to a computer and log onto frontpagemag.com.

Oh, yes. I have decided I don’t need to apologize for anything.

PARTING SHOTS

Ex-president Clinton, still globe trotting, got a standing ovation in mid-game at the French Open tennis tournament, and heckling at Scotland’s St. Andrew golf course. Won’t Hillary let him come home?

* * *

Reminder to Trent Lott and Tom Daschle: “Failure is never fatal, and success is never final.”

Lindsey Williams is a Sun columnist

Williams – apology

sunday – june 10, 2001

6 col. head and byline logo for editorial column