April 9, 2013

Speaking of Apologies...

By Michael Curtis
In 1077 Pope Gregory VII excommunicated Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV. For three days Henry stood outside the gates of the castle of Canossa, barefoot in the snow according to legend, to apologize to the Pope for his actions and to beg forgiveness. Since then, thousands of apologies, a few sincere, have been offered by political leaders and prominent personalities for their policies or mistakes. One of the more enticing of them is the Apology for Printers offered in May 1731 by Benjamin Franklin who agreed to make a "standing Apology" for printing matters which people said ought not to be published. Among contemporary politicians British Prime Minister David Cameron has perfected the art of making apologies, having resorted to it on many occasions, including regrets for the 1919 massacre in Amritsar, India when British troops killed 379 Sikh civilians in what he called a "deeply shameful event in British history." It was therefore not unprecedented for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin...(Read Full Article)