One of my great political heros is Desmond Tutu, the South African cleric who seemed to be on the right side of every moral issue, starting with apartheid, running through human rights abuses in Zimbabwe and including the Anglican church's views on homosexuality.
But to me his greatest legacy was in being an instrumental part of the South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which understood the critical role that asking and receiving forgiveness MUST PLAY in ending any significant conflict.
The commission was empowered to grant amnesty to those who committed abuses during the apartheid era, as long as the crimes were politically motivated, proportionate, and there was full disclosure by the person seeking amnesty.
And here's where I'm going to ask you to make the big leap...
...UNDERSTANDING THAT THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO COMPARISON BETWEEN APARTHEID IN SOUTH AFRICA AND THE DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY SEASON the reality is we soon will come to a moment where those of us who are activists in one of many forms will have to both ask for and be willing to grant forgiveness for the "sins" of the past few months.
We've all lost our cool... have written heated things that we would have been unlikely to say if we were face to face with an actual live human being... have wished that there were some way to make a comment or a series of comments go up in smoke.
In that spirit, I'd like to put forth my own personal mea culpa from a period of time just before John Edwards and Bill Richardson and Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
I was an ASSHOLE during the whole "impeachment" era at DKos.
I just simply didn't get it.
Not legally or morally, but POLITICALLY.
There were never going to be enough votes in the Senate and I worried like hell that a failed attempt to bring the President to justice would somehow allow him to don the mantle of "victim" and thereby empower him.
Or worse yet, would empower the Republican party, letting them cast Democrats as obsessed with King George at a time when the country had real problems.
So, I waded into one impeachment diary after another, pounding my fists and screaming about logic and votes and consequences and the danger of being a purist.
And while I still believe ALL OF THE ABOVE, I was completely and utterly WRONG.
The President committed impeachable offenses and should have been held accountable and the fact that it was never going to happen was beyond the point.
Reason and logic and consequences and pragmatism are like a wings on a tricycle in the face of a man who sees the American Constitution as little more than an inconvenience.
I should've stayed out of those diaries with my finger wagging and my approbation and let all who felt understandable anger and disgust express whatever the fuck they felt.
Anger I felt... but couldn't express.
Anger I truly didn't want... and therefore refused to see.
Anger I wrote of... but directed at all the wrong screen names.
So, if YOU were one of those folks I went after or shook my head at or just acted holier than thou... please accept my unequivocal apology.
And if anyone else wants to use the space below to get anything off their chest... to a certain someone or to a whole class of people... feel free.
We're going to need a lot of that before we get to November.