Nobody says “I’m wrong” anymore. Heck, maybe that’s been an “eternity” truth! It’s fair to say very few if any “enjoy” saying “I’m wrong.” But most of us at least occasionally say that. It applies to most Americans — except politicians! There must be a creed for politicians, a handbook, a rule book, or maybe it’s just understood that politicians are not required by law, by their oath of office, nor by integrity (which few have anyway) to say “I’m wrong.”
Let’s take the most recent and certainly the ugliest “non-admittances of incorrectness” uttered by several of America’s well-known members of “Politica” — that new political fraternity/sorority:
President Donald Trump: “We have a crisis at our southern border.”
Responses from Democrats:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: “We have no crisis at our southern border. It’s just another Trump talking-point.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer: “There’s no crisis. All Trump says that for is to ramp up the hatred in those in his base against all immigrants.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., broke from the earlier party line last week, and said conditions on the border have been so abhorrent, they rose to the level of Nazi concentration camps. She saw women being forced to drink from toilets, babies forced to sleep on concrete floors, and Border Patrol agents following her while making threats against her during her visit to one detainment center. “The Trump Administration must give these immigrant families humane treatment, good food, healthcare, and stop treating them like criminals!”
CNN host Don Lemon described the Trump administration’s immigration policy as an act of desperation this past January on “CNN Tonight” and asked if the American people were buying it. Lemon’s fellow network anchor Chris Cuomo weighed in and said if the crisis were real, CNN already would have investigated the matter and reported on it. MSNBC’S Eddie Glaude Jr. also used the word manufactured to describe the chaos in January on “Morning Joe” and said, “This is a manufactured crisis. At the heart of this whole thing are a whole bunch of lies.” Steve Schmidt, a former adviser to the late Sen. John McCain, accused Trump of going on TV to “lie and lie and lie” to promote a fake catastrophe.
The Truth about our southern border immigration crisis:
“Media pundits and anchors seemingly switched gears in recent weeks and now consider the immigration problems at the southern border a ‘crisis,’ after months of downplaying the issue and blaming President Trump. Recent reporting on the southern border has shown overcrowding of federal facilities, outbreaks of disease, issues with migrant children and general chaos — raising questions of ethics and legality regarding immigrant detention and processing. Grabien News published a media montage earlier this week of various news figures and commentators from major networks minimizing the crisis and accusing Trump of being untruthful. Trump and Border Patrol Officials proposed a $4.4 Billion bill to Congress for emergency border funding for food, clothing, medical care, and facilities for temporary housing of illegals. The funding is additionally to hire a large number of immigration judges and staffing to hurry legal proceedings to process these asylum requests.”
Responses from Democrats:
Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer: “Finally the House and Senate have united and pushed the Trump Administration to agree to commit $4.4 Billion of new funding approved by Congress to assist the
poor immigrants living in deporable and inhumane conditions Border Patrol agents force on immigrant families simply seeking assylum.”
AOC: “I have joined with three other members of the House of Representatives and voted NO on the proposed $4.4 Billion bill the Trump Administration has black-mailed House leadership to pass. None of that money is dedicated for exclusive use for immigrants at our border and we cannot trust the Trump Administration to use it for immigrants the way this bill is written.”
Here’s the bottom line: No Congressional leaders — who were ALL wrong in their assessments about the border crisis — admitted they were wrong. Chuck and Nancy tried to take credit for the funding bill that had been begged for by the Border Patrol from Congress for months! And AOC just a couple of days after her visit in which she screamed about the Trump Administration refusing to care for illegal immigrants voted to not give the funding for all of those needs she herself claimed were necessary! (By the way, there were only 4 “No” votes in the House of that bill.)
I paraphrased a little in some of the quotes above. But you get it — you understand. In context, Democrats refuse to accept anything and everything from this White House and perpetuate stories of every sort of wrongdoing they can possibly imagine supposedly happening under Donald Trump. When confronted with the truth, THEY NEVER ADMIT THEY WERE WRONG!
The Bigger Story
Let’s face it: politicians don’t have an exclusive on never being wrong. Everyday Americans are just as guilty. We all know some guy at work who is intolerable to work with. The guy that says stuff all the time, is corrected, and either argues about the correction or just doesn’t say anything. Of course, he never admits he was wrong.
It happens at home, too. Phone charging cables constantly disappear. The wife just grabs any one she can find whenever hers disappears. That happened at OUR house today.
I’m meticulous with my “stuff” — especially electronics. I keep a charging cable for my Ipad, a separate one for my iPhone, another for my iPad’s wireless keyboard: 1 of each in my briefcase and 1 of each on my bedside table.
Today we came home from a two-day trip to a 7-on-7 football tournament. I brought my briefcase in from the car that had all my “travel” cables neatly rolled up and in their places in my briefcase. She confronted me about one of the cables I have kept in my briefcase for over a year. “You have my charging cable in your briefcase. I put it on the console in the car when we left the hotel.” I didn’t bring any cables in other than the ones that had been in my briefcase the whole time. And I told her that. She then repeated her story, only 3 times louder. I reminded her that any cable that came into the house in someone’s hand came in HER hand, not mine. My 3 travel cables were zippered up in my briefcase. As you can imagine, the story wasn’t over!
This time she played the “Well, OK. I guess I’m stupid and left mine somewhere.” But, of course, she didn’t stop there: “But I KNOW I put my cable on the console in the car and it’s that one in your briefcase.”
One more time I wanted to make sure she “heard me” and repeated my story to her. She continued, and I had enough. I opened my zippered briefcase, pulled all three cables out and laid them in front of her. I held each up and showed her that 1 was for my iPad connectors on it, 1 was for my iPhone and had connectors on it, the 3rd — the one she knew for certain was hers — was for my iPad keyboard and had a USB2 connector on it.
I turned around and walked away just as she muttered something really low. Knowing her pretty well, I turned around and asked, “What did you say?” She almost screamed as she said, “THAT CABLE DOESN’T FIT MY CHARGER!”
I knew it didn’t and had already pointed that out to her.
I bit my tongue and said absolutely nothing — as hard as that was. But as I walked outside and calmly slammed my fist through the windshield of her car, (I’m just joking!) I thought of something: She admitted she was wrong, even if it was in a roundabout way. But she didn’t apologize. And it hit me: Admitting we are wrong is a really good thing. And for many of us, we seldom if ever go beyond that: we don’t follow “I’m wrong” with “And I’m sorry.”
Summary
Almost all of us know what the word “repentance” means. In the context of Christianity, defined, repentance is “to turn and walk away from.” Follow along with me:
When we do something wrong — commit a sin — as Christians, we are to in prayer ask God for forgiveness for that sin. But according to the Biblical instructions, we are supposed to “repent,” or “turn and walk away from that wrong.”
Could that possibly combined be the same thing as saying “I’m wrong,” or “To turn away,” and then the follow-up “And I’m sorry,” meaning “To walk away from?”
Relationships are essential to living a good and happy life. Families require relationships not to just exist, but to thrive and grow. We all know those that seem totally dysfunctional that makes us wonder how in the world they have lasted. We certainly do not want our family to exist in that way.
We also know that each of us is certainly wrong — usually more often than we care to admit. Hopefully, we are mature enough to understand when we’re wrong that it’s better for our fellow workers, friends, and certainly applicable family members to hear us admit we were wrong. And it’s good for us when we do that, too.
But in the act of forgiveness, turning from that sin is just part of the process. Walking away from that sin seals the deal.
I really believe that the two go hand in hand just as in a difference with others: admitting wrong is just half of the deal. The other half is to say loud enough for the other to hear,” I’m sorry!”
I know today’s story is shorter than normal. But I have to hurry downstairs. I’ve got to go find my wife — she needs to talk to me. Why? SHE DIDN’T SAY I’M SORRY!”
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
