Apologies And Cockroaches

Posted: February 24, 2012 | Author: peggysue22 | Filed under: abortion rights, birth control, Feminists, fetus fetishists, Girl Scouts, Planned Parenthood, PLUB Pro-Life-Until-Birth, religion, religious extremists, Reproductive Health, Reproductive Rights, Republican politics, War on Women | 10 Comments

I’m always amazed when politicians/public personas do or say something truly idiotic, catch flack for it in the press and/or the court of public opinion, and then apologize in a half-ass way

This is often referred to as: Making A Bad Situation Worse!

And so here comes the utterly pathetic apology of Bob Morris, Republican State Rep from Indiana, who went on a moral crusade against the Girl Scouts of America, charging they were a secretive arm of Planned Parenthood [automatically bad in Morris’s opinion] and as such were indoctrinating our daughters in the corrosive ideas of feminism, lesbianism and yes, even communism.  Morris made these accusations in a ‘letter of concern,’ which he sent to fellow Indiana legislators.  How could he know that his written opinion [the result of tireless web-based research by his own admission] would go public, putting him and his ravings on review?

The world is truly an unfair place!

No doubt the publicity proved problematic for Morris because he has now offered an apology.  Of sorts.  He’s willing to admit that his words were: emotional, reactionary and inflammatory.  He did not mean to impugn those families active in Girl Scout organizations that are run in a responsible manner, those promoting leadership, community involvement and family values.

This flies in the face of earlier comments [Tuesday of this week] to a local radio station, where Morris said:

“The Girl Scouts of America don’t stand for anything. They let those girls do what they want in their troop meetings.”

How quickly these righteous warriors fold when exposed to the daylight.  Now Morris says he should not have painted the Girl Scouts with “such a broad brush.”

“Had I known this letter would have gone to a wider audience, I would have cited further evidence for my position,” Morris wrote.

Let me play a little inside betting on this one: I’ll stake you 10:1 that had Morris known the letter would have gone public, he would never have written it.  It’s easy to be a bully and nincompoop when you think the team is squarely on your side.  It’s an altogether different scenario when you’re exposed for what you are: a religious reactionary with an axe to grind, in this case against anything or anyone connected to Planned Parenthood.  And where would a Bob Morris get the sense that smearing the Girl Scouts and Planned Parenthood was A-okay?

From the rah-rah being given to the likes of Rick Santorum, whose recent ravings have been heralded ‘as sincere, steadfast.’  I’m sure the judges in Salem were viewed with the same sanguine eye.

Morris’s full apology can be found here.

But men like Morris just cannot help themselves.  Yes, they want the public attention to go away but they just cannot or will not back down.  Even in apology, Morris feels the need to challenge:

On March 5, 2004, the Girl Scouts of the United States of America’s CEO, Kathy Cloninger, stated in an interview on the NBC Today Show that the Girl Scouts USA partners with Planned Parenthood with regard to sex education for Girl Scouts. To my knowledge, the Girl Scouts USA have not rescinded, corrected or denied that statement.

There you go.  Sex education = sexualization.  Why?  Because we all know that ignorance is bliss.   In fact, Rick Santorum disclosed to Mania Meister Glenn Beck that higher education is a dangerous thing, that the President’s plan to extend college educations to ever more students is a dark, nefarious plot:

On the president’s efforts to boost college attendance, Santorum said, “I understand why Barack Obama wants to send every kid to college, because of their indoctrination mills, absolutely … The indoctrination that is going on at the university level is a harm to our country.”

He claimed that “62 percent of kids who go into college with a faith commitment leave without it,” but declined to cite a source for the figure. And he floated the idea of requiring that universities that receive public funds have “intellectual diversity” on campus.

Yes sir,  keep those kids down on the farm ‘cause, golly shucks, you give ‘em an education how you going to convince ‘em the earth is only 6000 years old or that cavemen saddled up the dinosaurs.

Why let scientific evidence stand in the way when magical thinking is so much more soothing.  And ideologically correct.

Oprah has her own list about making ‘good’ apologies but here’s Peggysue’s suggestions for future mea culpas:

If you don’t mean it, don’t say it. This is a turn on the Thumper philosophy: If you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say anything at all.

Do not come kicking and screaming to an apology, regardless of what your pollsters say. Resistance shows and just makes you look like a bigger cockroach.

Do not state an additional challenge in an apology. Example: Okay, I got caught with my pettiness and religious right-wing bona fides showing but here: PROVE THIS WRONG.

The essence of any apology is humility.  If you can’t manage humility and/or your acting abilities are subpar?  Just hang it up.  You are a cockroach and will likely remain a cockroach.

You can avoid apologies altogether by remaining in the shadows.  There’s a reason cockroaches hang together in the dark.  Because the light makes them vulnerable.  In the light, the rest of us get to see what a nasty piece of work a cockroach really is.

Btw, here’s a factoid about the insect world:  a cockroach can survive weeks without its head.

Color me positively unsurprised!

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