Foxy Writer Chick

One of my favorite cartoons comes from the pre-Simpsons Matt Groening circa the 1980’s. I came across it in Baltimore’s hipster publication, The City Paper.

Interestingly, Matt Groening was not the first person to use the passive-voice construction as a deflection device with Mistakes were made.

Ulysses S. Grant, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, Chris Christie, and John McCain along with a host of others–both famous and infamous–have invoked the same exact non-apology apology. Even the IRS used it in 2013 after admitting it had targeted a group of individuals.

Given its rich history, mistakes were made has to be the mack-daddy of non-apology apologies.

And yet, there are many different variations of it:

You misunderstood my words…

This entire situation has been difficult for me…

Haters gonna hate…

The events that transpired are inconsistent with my values…

You must be projecting your (choose one or more): sexist, racist, homophobic, xenophobic feelings on the situation

But lately, we’re hearing a whole lot of these non-apology apologies by freshman congresswoman, Ilhan Omar (D-MN).

Last week, Omar gave a speech to CAIR (Council of American-Islamic Relations) in which she spoke of 9/11, America’s national day of mourning and profound loss–you know, the day we were attacked by radical Islamic men who used jet airplanes as their weapons of mass destruction.

But she didn’t speak of 9/11 as a tragic day for Americans.

Nope, instead–well, here are her words:

“CAIR was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something, and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties.”

Yeah, some people did something. Some radical Islamic terrorists used commercial airliners to slaughter almost 3000 innocent American citizens.

And all Omar can say about it is how unfair it was to members of CAIR?

Why am I not surprised?

I should expect as much from someone who continues to make anti-Semitic statements, followed by non-apology apologies.

But I digress.

Back to downplaying 9/11…you know, Omar is not alone in this.

Facebook now covers up photos of 9/11 to keep people from seeing “disturbing images.”

Disturbing images, indeed. Mistakes were made.

What in the hell happened, folks? We said we’d never forget.

And yet, less than a score of years later, our fellow countrymen are censoring the images of 9/11 for “our protection.”

Here in 2019, the tyranny of the god of political correctness expects the same blind allegience in every public aspect of our lives–including our remembrance of 9/11.

Failure to comply will brand you with the Scarlet Letter of (choose one) sexist, racist, homophobe, xenophobe–or the new go-to, hater of brown people–and there goes your permanent record.

(News Flash to Omar, AOC and Talib: we mourn all American victims of 9/11–people of all races, creeds, national origins, sexual orientations, genders, and any other demographic that you and your identity politics use to divide us rather than unite us.)

Enough is enough.

Clearly, we have lost our damn minds if we allow ourselves to simply say, “Mistakes were made.”

Without apology but with xoxo,

Susan J. Anderson

Foxy Writer Chick