Take it Back

Dick,

I was sorry to hear the pressure got to you, and that you decided you needed to make a teary recantation the other day for your remarks about Gitmo.

The bad news is the wingnuts and freepers calling for your head still hate you, and liberals sympathetic to you are disappointed you allowed yourself to be bullied.

The good news is you can still take it back. You can recant your apology. Because what you said needed saying. I know Daley is a force in your state, but Daley also happens to be on crack. And his mother dresses him funny.

The more good news is you don't even have to spend anytime on a replacement speech. Someone in your state has prepared a suitable draft for you already. Go read it.

Recanting previous recants has a proud history. Consider Jerome of Prague, the compatriot of the Protestant reformer, John Huss. Jerome was bullied by the church to recant in order to save his life. Although he initially succumbed to this pressure, he later recanted his recantation. True, yes, he was finally burned at the stake for it. But men and women whose stories live on are those who exhibit courage in the face of severe obstacles and threats.

Think about Galileo, too. Galileo, building on the work of other astronomers such as Nick Copernicus, argued, on the basis of evidence derived from telescopes, that the earth was not the center of the universe, after all, as the church fathers, relying on the bible for their guide, has assumed. Rather, it was the earth that revolved around the sun.

Now, it turns out the church fathers didn't dig what Galileo had to say. They demanded he recant his scientifically derived observations on the pain of death. Although Galileo recanted under this duress, his conclusions were later determined to be correct, and the catholic church admitted as such, finally, in 1991 when Pope JPII apologized on the behalf of the faith.

Time will later prove you to be on the right side, as well.

Best,

Jay Bulworth