AT THIS POINT, perhaps the less said the better about an Arkansas legislator’s brief but atrocious comment on Twitter last Friday, just when the whole country and much of the world was still watching the manhunt in Boston and still counting the victims blown apart near the finish line of the Marathon.
That’s the moment Nate Bell (RMena) chose to send out his worse thantasteless comment. (“I wonder how many Boston liberals spent the night cowering in their homes wishing they had an AR-15 with a hi-capacity magazine?”) The response was quick, massive, and growing more massive by the minute. By late morning, there had been 3 million references to hisinsult on Twitter, and that was just on Twitter. The thing was spreading like a kind of loathsome infection.
The responses to his insult could scarcely be called complimentary. Mr. Bell had succeeded not just in embarrassing himself, the Legislature, and the whole state of Arkansas, but just about anybody with a shred of decency. One Boston city councilman told him: “You are a moron.” Which is scarcely fair. To morons. They may be slow, but even morons can be taught manners.
It didn’t take long, three or four hours, for Mr. Bell to return to Twitter and apologize to “the people of Boston & Massachusetts”-but even then not for what he had said but for the “timing” of his message. As if it would have been all right to insult folks up there, just not right then.
Mr. Bell’s first message was bad enough-surpassing bad-but the man doesn’t seem to know how to apologize, either. What an appalling performance. Again.
This time Nate Bell had the ill grace to blame his stupid tweet on his being “a staunch and unwavering supporter of the individual right to self defense.” And so succeeded in embarrassing all of us who believe in the SecondAmendment by dragging Americans’ right to bear arms into this unseemly discussion of his considerably morethan-inappropriate comments.
Before the day was out, the speaker of the Arkansas House had the grace and decency to extend his “deepest apologies” for his colleague’s words, and he was joined by others in the House just as offended.
Representative Bell put Arkansason the map, all right-in the worst way.
THE MORAL of this story: Some people shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near guns; others shouldn’t go anywhere near Twitter, among them state reps like The “Hon.”Nate Bell. There are other lessons to be drawn from his kind of instantaneous idiocy, among them:
The most useful key on anybody’s laptop may be the one that says DELETE.
Wait 24 hours before sending an irate email
And then don’t send it.
More of us need to learn how to apologize properly, for who hasn’t said something stupid? Though maybe not on such a grand scale.
A simple “I’m sorry” remains the best way to apologize-no ifs, ans or buts. And certainly no attempts at rationalization or justification, which tend only to aggravate the original offense. (“As a staunch and unwavering supporter of the individual right to self defense . . .”) Forget the excuses. A simple “I’m sorry,” the way many of us were taught in the service, is still best.
If anything must be added to that model apology, a promise that “it won’t happen again” may be permissible. Nothing more, or the offender runs the risk of just digging himself in deeper.
If there’s anything useful about Nate Bell’s embarrassing conduct, maybe it’s the lesson it teaches. For those capable of learning it.
Editorial, Pages 14 on 04/23/2013