Opinion: I accept my apologies

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Pull out his eyes,
Apologize.
Apologize,
Pull out his eyes.
Apologize,
Pull out his eyes.
Pull out his eyes,
Apologize.

Fans of James Joyce will remember this quotation from ‘A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.’ I thought if the other day when some colleagues and I were discussing whether it was fair to hold John McCain (or even Sarah Palin) accountable for what some wacko reportedly said at a GOP campaign rally in reference to Barack Obama -- to wit, ‘Kill him!’ (The Secret Service is investigating whether a threat in fact was made.)

Should McCain -- or Palin, who was speaking when the ‘kill him’ cry supposedly went up -- apologize for the fact that her attack on Obama’s relationship with a reformed domestic terrorist incited at least one listener to give vent to homicidal thoughts? I do think McCain and Palin should apologize about their exaggeration and exploitation of Obama’s acquaintance with Bill Ayers. It’s a demagogic and unfair line of attack. But is it an incitement to murder for which McCain-Palin should apologize -- or even denounce?

Such a denunciation may be good politics, but I don’t think it’s necessary as a moral matter or even as an exercise in political accountability. Concede that the guilt-by-association gibe at Obama is unfair and even sleazy. It doesn’t involve, even implicitly, a call for Obama’s assassination, any more than denunciations of George W. Bush as a ‘war criminal’ agitate for someone to organize a U.S. version of the plot against Hitler. Incitement to murder is legitimately a crime; making an emotional argument -- against abortion, or for Palestinians -- isn’t, even if a psychologically aberrant disciple takes the argument an obscene step further. It’s hard to imagine a political or religious cause that hasn’t driven such people to violence.

Also, there is a long history of partisans trying to get the one-up on opponents by demanding that they apologize for people ‘on their side’ who behave criminally or outrageously. It’s a trap. By apologizing for something (like the shout of ‘kill him’ by a political supporter), you seem to accept that somehow it’s your responsibility. Does anyone really believe McCain and Palin want their supporters to off Obama?

Sometimes it’s necessary for governments or leaders to denounce ‘their’ extremists, even at the risk of seeming to accept blame. Israel is smart to condemn terrorism committed by some West Bank settlers, because the settlers have political allies and there might be some confusion about whether the government condones what they do. Likewise, the Roman Catholic Church should condemn abortion clinic bombings, not because it accepts responsibility for them but become some of the more militant faithful might jump to the conclusion that when abortion is equated with murder, killing an abortion doctor is justified homicide. That is not, and never has been, the church’s position, and the church ought to affirm that fact regularly. All the same, that won’t prevent some sociopath from connecting the dots in his or her own insane way.