No Apology Needed

Calvin Henshaw made a mistake, but I don't think his error was anywhere near as egregious as he seems to believe it was.

But then I don't have the guts Henshaw has, so what do I know.

Here's what I do know:

Last Friday was the 66th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Dec. 7, 1941, is, without question, one of maybe a handful of truly pivotal dates in American history.

On Friday neither Henshaw, a National Guardsman who works at the Baker City Armory, nor any member of his staff lowered the armory's American flag to half-staff, as is customary at military installations on Pearl Harbor Day.

This was, from my perspective, merely an unfortunate oversight.

To Henshaw and his fellow soldiers, it was considerably more than that.

So it was that Henshaw e-mailed a letter to the Baker City Herald, a letter which he asked us to print on the Opinion page.

We did so. Henshaw's letter was published on Page 4 of Monday's issue.

It is perhaps the most unusual letter I've ever pasted on a page ("pasted" in this case meaning the sterile, click-of-a-mouse way we do it these days, rather than the old-fashioned, sticky and messy procedure).

It's not just that Henshaw and his staff admitted their gaffe in the decidedly conspicuous forum of a daily newspaper — although owning up in that fashion is rare indeed.

No, what stunned me about the letter is the severity with which Henshaw and his staff chastised themselves. It seemed to me the written equivalent of barking out the order for a couple hundred pushups.

Henshaw termed the incident a "drastic error" and "an embarrassment." He apologized to anyone who might have been offended by the misplaced flag.

I respect the soldiers for that, but I wish they hadn't judged themselves so harshly.

They, as much as any group of citizens, have earned at least a couple free passes for patriotic miscues. Just a couple years ago the soldiers stationed at the Baker City Armory served in Iraq.

But there's more to the letter than an apology.

There is as well the blunt admission that Henshaw and the others on whose behalf he was writing had messed up. It occurred to me, as I read the letter, that almost no one, even those who publicly acknowledge their guilt, gets right at the heart of the matter like these Guardsmen did.

We are, it seems to me, as a society more inclined to cower within the dubious shelter of the passive voice, where "mistakes were made," but we never really know who made them.

Henshaw shunned such soft language.

"The staff made a drastic error," he wrote. "We wholeheartedly admit there is no excuse. . . . we send our deepest apologies. . . we have changed our policies to ensure an embarrassment like this will never happen again."

Simple stuff, that, as straightforward as a slap to the cheek. We know who botched the job, and we can discern, even from a 91-word letter, the plain truth of their regret.

The same day we published Henshaw's letter, another event happened that seemed to me so starkly different that I felt compelled to contrast the two.

Michael Vick, the disgraced football player, was sentenced to 23 months in prison for participating in a dog-fighting ring.

Vick initially denied he was involved. Only after three other men admitted their roles did Vick plead guilty. But even as he stood before a judge on Monday, Vick seemed incapable of expressing real remorse for helping to kill several dogs.

Vick admitted that he used "poor judgment." He was "willing to deal with the consequences."

What Vick means, of course, are his consequences. One of his lawyers, Lawrence Woodward, made Vick seem even more selfish.

"He doesn't want anyone to feel sorry for him," Woodward told reporters.

It's insulting to even imply that anyone would feel sorry for Vick.

Henshaw and the other soldiers didn't kill dogs and then lie about it. What they did was fight for their country. And on one day they forgot to lower the flag.

They didn't need to apologize.

But they did.

And that's the difference.

Jayson Jacoby edits the Opinion page for the Baker City Herald.