Does A Crappy Apology Count As An Actual Apology?

Hetty Rosenstein via Twitter

By now, most of you know that the New Jersey Globe broke the story that last week, Hetty Rosenstein, the head of New Jersey’s largest state government workers union (CWA) wished a “horrible, horrible death” on U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos over proposed cuts to Special Olympics funding.

As if wishing a “horrible, horrible death” on someone wasn’t enough, Rosenstein decided to follow that up with perhaps the worst apology in the history of apologies. Again, according to the New Jersey Globe Rosenstein’s apology went like this:

“I should not have said it.  I am a leader and I should have mustered something to help to inspire others to continue to fight for justice and to fight the power and privilege and immorality of the politics of DeVos,” said Rosenstein. “Instead I carelessly gave in to my own pain.  I won’t again and I will choose my words more carefully in the future.    Every day, each and every minute of my life, I will continue to fight for justice, equality and peace and I will do better in my constructive resistance to evil and injustice in the future.”

I don’t know about you but the line “and to fight the power and privilege and immorality of the politics of DeVos” doesn’t sound very apologetic to me. It sounds much more like an attack.

Imagine a Republican wishing a “horrible, horrible death” on someone. The left would be screaming! In fact, the left would be screaming about less. Unfortunately, I don’t have to imagine it. Several years ago, while working in another state, I referred to a young female Democratic operative as a “radical bitch” on social media. The left immediately called me out for it and demanded my resignation. I was ordered to apologize, suspended from my position as county party executive director for six weeks without pay and forced to take a social media awareness course before I could return to work.

The Democrats called me a misogynist (and worse), they flooded our county party office with phone calls, the attacks from around the country on social media were relentless (thanks to a Huffington Post article) and it was on the front page of the local newspaper as well as network news. When I returned to work the press reported that I was back at the job making it impossible for me to perform my duties which forced me to resign.

All that because I called someone a bad name. Yet, here in New Jersey, the leader of the state’s largest government workers union wishes someone dies a “horrible, horrible death” and there is zero outrage. The same person offers up a crappy apology that she uses to launch another attack with, and not a peep.

And we all know why the Democrats aren’t calling Rosenstein out over her statement, or her crappy apology. VOTES. There are 32,000 workers in the CWA, or put another way, 32,000 Democrat votes. Don’t expect any Democrats to be outraged over Rosenstein’s remarks. It doesn’t matter that to wish someone die a “horrible, horrible death” one would have to be a terrible person.

If Rosenstein truly wanted to “help to inspire others” as she said in her pseudo-apology perhaps she could do like DeVos did in 2018 and donate 25% of her salary to Special Olympics.

We all know she won’t, but one can hope.