Sometimes when I was a child, my mother would say to me, "That's an explanation, not an excuse." It took me a long time to understand that she was trying to help me understand the difference between making a sincere apology and defensively arguing that I was justified in say, hitting my brother because he hit me first.
This hilarious article in the New York Times illustrates how often public figures go through the motions of apologizing but end up compounding the original offense.
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OT: for observing the cosmos, your blog needs to know about this Equinox software:
http://lisachase.blogspot.com/2007/10/software-sunday-equinox-6-by.html
and the article is funny. and who came up with that line, "I am sorry you were offended," anyway? I have had people tell me it is the *diplomatic* thing to say and I wonder what seminar they attended.
Don't you know that joke where the punchline is one Southern woman saying to another, My husband paid for me to go to that charm school where I learned to say "That's nice" instead of "fuck you"?
I'm sorry you were offended is the passive-agressive way of saying "you were offended? fuck you"
So that must be why people learn to say it in classes on 'effective communication' - !
I hate false apologies. Whenever I read one or hear one, I just want to hurt someone. The one "I'm sorry that you are offended" is the worse.
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