By: Jeffrey Dicker
One of the fundamental shortcomings of the American legal system is its failure to address moral injury. This flaw is most apparent when contrasting the common legal remedy of monetary damages to the often ignored moral remedy of an apology. All that is required of an apology is an acknowledgment that a wrong was committed.
In her March 18, 2009 column in Time magazine, Nancy Gibbs writes on the “Lost Art of Saying I’m Sorry.” In the article, she observes that in all the crises that have made their way into the headlines each day, very few of the people responsible for these crises have issued authentic apologies. By authentic apology, she refers to an acknowledgment that a wrong was committed. Too often the apologies that are given are only superficial. Alex Rodriguez was not sorry for using steroids, but for getting caught. The holocaust denying Bishop Richard Williamson was not sorry for the statements he made, but rather that the comments may have offended people.
Gibbs mentions evidence that in jurisdictions allowing doctors to apologize for mistakes without the apology being admissible in court, the number of malpractice suits has dramatically declined. She even details evidence of the biological effect that apologies have on the body.
Perhaps the sheer audacity of executives receiving tremendous bonus payments after their corporations were given huge taxpayer funded bailouts would be somewhat easier to swallow and put behind us, regardless of whether they were right in the first place, if the executives would simply give an authentic apology. As Gibbs says, “an apology is just a start. But it’s free and it’s right…”
