6 thoughts on “Apology

  1. Kelsey,
    I’m not sure, but I assume you’re talking about the immigration post.
    While I disagree with you far more often than not, I just want to say that it never occurred to me that you were engaging in any type of racist hate speech, or, for that matter, that you intended to offend anyone. I’m glad you posted this, because I was frustrated by the fact that I’ve been too busy to express my disagreement with Cole’s post accusing you essentially of doing that. Frankly, I didn’t want to be presumptuous, but I honestly had the sense that your observations were more a matter of intemperance and frustration than anything else, and that you’d likely have retracted them if you could.
    Unfortunately, there are those always ready to take advantage of a mistake, and to attribute the worst of motivations to someone simply because they can. I can’t help but be reminded of the appalling incident some years ago involving Al Campanis of the L.A. Dodgers. There wasn’t a scintilla of evidence that the man had ever engaged in an act of bigotry in his entire life, yet he was actually fired from his job because he was guilty of phrasing an impolitic observation in an awkward and tactless manner. Racism is a fucking disgrace, and it’s sickening that certain people try to excuse monstrosities like Rush Limbaugh and Michael Savage because they don’t scream “I hate niggers.” On the other hand, it trivializes the phenomenon of race hatred to equate it with a slip of the tongue.
    Lastly, a sincere apology is as rare as it is commendable, and I’ll be damned if I’ve come across anyone here in a position to reject yours.

  2. Oh my how the mighty have fallen. This is a sad day for freedom of speech. I may not have agreed with everything you said but I will go out on a limb here and ask, is it so wrong to demand from prospective immigrants a certain measure of loyalty to the country they want to move to? Is it so wrong to expect them to honor an oath of loyalty? Notice none of what I am saying is couched in racial or religious terms. I’m not making any broad generalizations or blanket condemnations. I’m just asking – isn’t there a better way? Most Western countries have allowed far too many people to immigrate who turned out to be destructive and disloyal. I know it’s a hard thing to quantify and difficult to determine but surely there has got to be a better way to keep the whackos out, while still respecting civil and human rights, no?
    There’s nothing wrong with this discussion. There is however something wrong with uh… brownshirt Khmere Rouge heavy handed tactics used to squelch legitimate discussion. A sad day indeed.

  3. Thing is, David, I didn’t think you meant it. It’s becoming increasingly difficult — even in the US — not to erupt.
    PS How refreshing — an honest apology through the media!

  4. As usual, I second miriam’s sentiments here. Racism does not exist soley in an individual–there are larger, cultural dimensions to the phenomenon. That said, it is good to smell our own shit often, and remind ourselves that we are human–all too human.
    Transcending cultural pathologies is no the easy road.
    But I really hope that you see how outrageous your racist suggestions really were.
    ck–what define’s ‘loyality’ on one’s country? Would i be disloyal if i grapped GW Bush and held him as a war criminal?
    Were Germans hiding Jews ‘disloyal’ to Germany?
    When you live in a world ruled by criminals, honesty and decency become criminalized. Don’t fall for the group-think–be bold and call crime ‘crime’ from whereever it comes–the Pope or the rabbis, the iams or politicos.
    Before they blow us all up, let’s stop excusing the mass criminality that is shilled-off as sage behavior.
    But the easily convinced and the lazy intellects will hate you for it. They (the servants of empire) will do you like they did Jesus.

  5. David, may I ask you to clarify what post specifically you’re apologizing for? Is it the post about restricting Muslim immigration? If so, I welcome the apology.
    CK, your reference to “brownshirt Khmer Rouge” tactics, even when you use a strikethrough, if just the kind of thing that I suspect Mobius was referring to in the previous post. I find it sad that you resort to that sort of name-calling. it is a disgrace to victims of those slaughters to compare Nazis (bronshirts) and the Khmer Rouge to the regulation of the language used in a web forum.

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