Tiger Woods
"I have let my family down, and I regret those transgressions with all of my heart. I have not been true to my values and the behavior my family deserves. I am not without faults and I am far short of perfect." It's an apology, but not an admission. After golfer Tiger Woods' bizarre Nov. 27 car accident outside his home in the gated Isleworth community in Windermere, Fla., rumors swirled that the crash stemmed from marital discord between Woods and wife Elin Nordegren. Woods is alleged to have had affairs with club hostess Rachel Uchitel and cocktail waitress Jaimee Grubbs. While Uchitel denied the rumors (though she later hired high-powered attorney Gloria Allred for representation), Grubbs said Tiger had been seeing her on the side since 2007, even leaking a voicemail she alleges was left by Woods. In response, Woods issued a carefully worded apology that admits nothing, only his regret that he "let [his] family down." Indeed, most of the statement is devoted to excoriating the media for creating the firestorm that now surrounds him and his family. "Personal sins should not require press releases, and problems within a family shouldn't have to mean public confessions," Woods said. An admirable sentiment, but Woods' apology is likely only fuel for the fire.
Barack Obama
"Because this has been ratcheting up and I helped contribute to ratcheting it up, I want to make clear that in my choice of words I unfortunately gave an impression that I was maligning the Cambridge Police Department or Sergeant Crowley specifically, and I could have calibrated those words differently."It's the comment that wouldn't die. After President Obama used the end of a prime-time news conference on health care to note that Cambridge, Mass., Police Sergeant Jim Crowley had acted "stupidly" when he arrested Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. on disorderly conduct charges in Gates' own home, the words sparked a controversy that overshadowed Obama's health care message. Seeking to relieve the pressure, Obama walked back his remarks during an impromptu appearance at a daily press briefing, but he stopped short of apologizing entirely. Despite a White House meeting that later took place with Gates, Crowley and Obama, some said the President needed to go further — Michigan Congressman Thaddeus McCotter vowed to introduce a House resolution calling on Obama to issue a formal and direct apology to Crowley.
Ashley Dupré
"I'm sorry for your pain."
When Ashley Alexandra Dupré watched New York Governor Eliot Spitzer's televised resignation on March 12, 2008, the former $1,000-an-hour call girl said she realized for the first time just who "Client No. 9" was. "I knew the name, but the face ... I'm not really a TV person," she told People of her tryst with Spitzer at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C. "I was there for a purpose — not to wonder who [he] could be." But what really shocked Dupré about that ill-fated press conference was Spitzer's grim-faced wife Silda, who stood dutifully by his side. "When I think about his speech, I think of her face, her eyes, the hurt," Dupré said.
Plato
"The unexamined life is not worth living."
It was the "apology" that started it all. Written around 360 B.C., Plato's famous essay (from the Greek word apologia, meaning "defense") recounts how Socrates defended himself against charges that he was corrupting Athen's youth and blaspheming local gods with his philosophical musings. As a witness to the trial's proceedings, Plato recalls how his mentor refused to express regret for his lifestyle, even going so far as to liken himself to a "gadfly" trying to arouse a "lazy horse" (read: Athenian society). But while Socrates' speech would go on to shape thousands of years of Western thought, a jury of his peers remained unconvinced; at the age of 70, he was found guilty of impiety and sentenced to death by hemlock poisoning — a verdict that, according to Plato, did not surprise the sage in the least. "The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our ways," Plato quotes Socrates as saying at his sentencing. "I to die, and you to live. Which is better God only knows." So much for saying "I'm sorry."
Mel Gibson
"I want to apologize specifically to everyone in the Jewish community for the vitriolic and harmful words that I said to a law-enforcement officer the night I was arrested on a DUI charge."On July 28, 2006, an intoxicated Mel Gibson was pulled over by a Malibu cop for driving under the influence. The enraged actor-director launched into an anti-Semitic rant, which included the statement, "Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world," according to a police report published by TMZ. Gibson, who had already been labeled an anti-Semite after directing The Passion of the Christ, became an industry outcast; many in Hollywood vowed never to work with him again. He publicly apologized the next day, but his sentiments were deemed insufficient by many within the Jewish community. On Aug. 1, Gibson issued a written second apology, expressing his hopes of beginning a "one-on-one discussion [with Jewish leaders] to discern the appropriate path for healing." Gibson later checked into rehab for alcoholism. (Read more...)
source: Time.com
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