When a person accidentally steps on the toes of another person he says "I'm sorry." When a person accidentally shoves another person on the subway he says "I'm sorry."
These and similar occurrences are the accepted reasons for apologies.
But when the head of a corporate giant, the head of one of the world's largest automaker says "I'm sorry for the mistakes we made and I take full responsibility for them" that sounds very fishy to me.
That apology is as phony, insincere and unbelievable as the one mumbled by a famous athlete last Friday who apologized for his sexual escapades.
I just hate when grown ups who happen to be public figures apologize for various indiscretions they committed.
And it is a fairly long list that includes former state governors, a current state governor, presidential hopeful, senators, professional athletes and God knows who else.
I can not believe that these people, most of whom possess above average intelligence, ever imagined that they could get away with whatever indiscretion they were doing.
Let's just go back to Toyota. The head of the company apologized for the problems caused by his company's products. Too bad! He will go back home to his nice cushy job and I am sure will not lose a moment's sleep over what happened to those people who got killed in their car.
He apologized and as far as he was concerned he said what was expected of him.
But this seems to be the fashion today. People do things that they are not supposed to do and when they are caught they apologize and as far as they are concerned the slate is wiped clean.
Is this what today's kids are supposed to learn? Don't worry about what you do because you can always apologize for it?
Most of these hapless souls are supposed to be important people. I am sure they thought they could get away with whatever they were doing because of their status. But they were wrong, they got caught.
I would hate to think how many important people get away with stuff simply because they are well connected.
It seems that the most important English word today is: sorry.
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