Excuses, Excuses
This, by Jay Bookman, from the Atlanta Journal Constitution:
Rich Iott is the Republican candidate to represent Ohio’s Ninth Congressional District, a seat now held by Democrat Marcy Kaptur. But as Josh Green of the Atlantic points out, Iott has had a rather unusual hobby for someone with ambitions of serving his country in Congress.
He likes to dress up in the uniform of the Waffen SS.
For several years, in fact, Iott was a member of a group calling itself the Wikings, created to honor those who fought in World War II in the 5th SS Panzer Division…. Iott explains his former hobby by likening it to Civil War re-enacters, noting that “you couldn’t do Civil War re-enacting if somebody didn’t play the role of the Confederates. I’ve always been fascinated by the fact that here was a relatively small country that from a strictly military point of view accomplished incredible things,” Iott told Green. “I mean, they took over most of Europe and Russia, and it really took the combined effort of the free world to defeat them. From a purely historical military point of view, that’s incredible.”
So is the excuse, seems to me. And, by the way, dressing up in a Confederate uniform carries its own reprehensible implications, even if the wearer doesn’t mean it to. Maybe it’s just better in general not to put on a Nazi uniform or a Confederate one.
Excuses for a mistake or an insult or an oversight seem to me always to be feeble unless they are absolutely true. This is why the public apologies by public figures often fall into lameness when the excuses start. Better to leave an apology as an apology, and, especially, in private life, to avoid saying things like “I’m sorry I didn’t return your call, but don’t forget that you didn’t return my call last time.” That “but” after “I’m sorry” tends to undermine the apology. And those two proverbial wrongs continue not to make that proverbial right. On the other hand, when you really are two hours late because you were caught in horrendous traffic, then there’s no need to manufacture any further excuses.
It’s extremely difficult to own up to the kind of deep psychological flaw that might lead one to put on a Nazi uniform. I’ve never put one on, myself, but I have dressed up as the evil monk Rasputin. No, I haven’t. But like most of us (I believe), I have made some very serious mistakes in judgment and behavior. The way to stop making those kinds of mistakes is to admit them and apologize for them to others, but mainly to face them directly yourself and not make excuses to yourself.
