It’s time to come clean.
Spill the beans.
Make amends.
Apologize.
I admit it. In this crazy — no, lunatic — times we live in, I have come to the conclusion the only chance I have not to be “cancelled” by the “progressive” people out there is to get a hold of and control my own narrative. Sooner or later, they’re gonna’ come gunning for your hero (that would be me). With over 1,700 columns totalling close to a million words under my belt, I know I have offended some folks.
So, before anybody decides to look back at eveything I have said, written and done, I am coming out first. I am gonna’ beat ‘em to the punch and fall on my proverbial sword.
My mea culpa (which means “through my fault” in Latin) follows.
I know, somewhere down the line over the past 35 or so years, I have called someone a “snowflake.” It’s probably in print somewhere, too. I know I questioned outloud and in print (because I am not the sharpest knife in the drawer), why the LGBT alphabet brigade allowed another letter into their group — Q (for questioning).
I openly confess that before I was of double-digits in aged, I played “smear the queer.” Of course, back then — back before sexuality was something all kids thought of before they turned four years of age — queer to us just meant the guy to tackle or the guy who was “it.” Queer did not refer to sexuality in our little, white-washed part of the world.
(I know, I know . . . ignorance is no excuse for offending those who wish to be offended.)
I acknowledge I am not “woke” or politically correct. I profess to searching out information, even if I don’t like what I find and I admit I expect the same from every American.
It’s true, I believe many liberals of today are not. I think they are something other than liberal. I think they have tarnished the term liberal and turned it into something it wasn’t meant to be. True liberalism brought the world the Enlightenment and the ideals of individual liberty versus mob rule; reason over emotionalism and the right to dance to your own tune, even if someone else doesn’t like the song.
It may come as a shock to some readers out there, but I also declare I have opened doors for women and girls (and boys and old folks and young folks and black folks and white folks, unicorns, leprechauns and even those pesky teenaged folks). Why? Why would I do something so unforgivable? Maybe because it’s the polite thing to do. Holy cow, I have just come to a realization: I am a serial door opener.
I hope Heaven can forgive me.
As I have stated in the past I am sure I have microagressed. I accept the fact of having chauvinistic tendencies. Please forgive me, for I have complimented women on their hair or outfits (of course I have complimented men on their hair and outfits, too).
Yup. It’s true. I rooted for Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to win the Super Bowl.
I own up to the notion that I do not understand why so many people want to be segregated into so many different groups. And, I reckon that is because I have toxic masculine ways about me — you know the ways, like failing, dusting yourself off, trying again, doing your best, expecting nothing from nobody and believing the world is not fair. Oh, dangit! My Neanderthal personality is coming out again. Please forgive me.
Holy crap. All this reminds me of when I was a kid and Catholics had to attend confession in a little darkened booth.
“Forgive me Father, for I have sinned. It’s been seven day since my last confession . . .”
And, then I would make stuff up to confess.
“I have yelled at my sisters three times . . .”
“I ate the last piece of cake and said I didn’t when Dad asked if I had.”
Man, that means I even lied to a priest!
I am guilty of those things and many, many more. So many things I cannot even remember them all. Please forgive me. Please don’t cancel me, Bro’ because I am kinda’ contrite. I will try to do better. I won’t compliment people, hold doors, question politicians and trends. I will keep my mind and mouth closed. I will blend in and try to find something that offends me. I promise.
Comment to: DontRushDon@gmail.com
Apologizing for everything. added by Don Rush on
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What the heck is happening in this article? I will admit that I haven’t read much of what Don has written because this is the first article I have seen by him, or by the Lake Orion Review in general. I see that he is the assistant publisher, which is simply terrifying. I am glad that I don’t live in Lake Orion and I was only on the site to check out possibly moving to Lake Orion and taking a job I was offered. Clearly, this isn’t the place for me or anyone I care about.
If I were the Editor & Actual Publisher of this paper, I would HIGHLY suggest taking this idiotic article off of the front page of your website and consider not letting this boso publish articles in your paper anymore. He sounds like a misogynistic problematic chauvinistic a** hat that shouldn’t be writing articles for any public newspaper, let alone possess the title of “Assistant Publisher”, maybe a private blog would be a good enough place to let out his “micro” aggressions.
This article was meant to be an “apology” and I don’t even want to know exactly for what. I’m sure it’s a long list of disgusting things this “man” has said and done in the past. In this “apology” article, he listed off every single way he could possibly be problematic in 2021, and by the end of it, he sarcastically half-a**ed asked for an apology, but anyone with a brain can tell that he is just covering his ‘you know what’ because he messed up, and he clearly doesn’t understand what he ever did wrong in the first place.
By the way, it’s perfectly acceptable to compliment people in the right setting, at the right time, and not in a creepy middle-aged man fashion. If you don’t know how to do that, then just don’t say anything at all, it’s really not that hard to not be creepy. Also, holding doors open is a common courtesy and no one (of sound mind) would ever be upset with that.
I truly hope that Don can reconcile the clear mistakes he has made in the past. This article was not the way to do that. I feel sorry for the Lake Orion Review because I am very sure that when this article is read across the town (if anyone even reads his articles anymore) you’re going to receive a whole slew of emails regarding this despicable “apology”. Hopefully, Don has to take care of the responses by himself and no one else has to read through all of the “liberal” responses that I am sure he’s going to receive. Maybe then he might actually understand what he has done wrong and take real responsibility for whatever he did to feel the need to write this idiotic article.