thoughts on the news of the day: correction

hmmm…..

            Sometimes you just get it wrong.  Has that ever happened to you?  The folks I wrote about yesterday – the ones who were headed to the Bahamas right as the hurricane hit -- changed their mind.  They didn’t go after all.  And so here I sit owing apologies and wanting to make amends.  I got it wrong.

            How do we fix the mistakes we make?  Sometimes it’s easy.  We say we are sorry and ask for forgiveness.  We pay for what we broke or took.  We recant or retract the stories we told. 

            But sometimes it’s not so easy.  The harm is done and it can’t be taken back.  What do you do when that happens?  Do you shrug your shoulders and just say, “Oh, well…”   The news media is bad about that.  They tell a story on the front page and then realize that it is wrong.  But where do they put the retraction?  On the back page where virtually no one sees it.  I am for getting it out in the open where the truth can be told and where amends can be made. 

            Sometimes people just make stuff up.  They distort the truth for their own purposes.  You see a lot of that in politics.  They call it “spin” and somehow that makes it OK.  I am for telling the truth and apologizing when we get it wrong.

            That’s what I am trying to do today.

            hmmm…..