{"id":11329,"date":"2016-04-03T07:17:46","date_gmt":"2016-04-03T13:17:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=11329"},"modified":"2016-04-03T08:23:22","modified_gmt":"2016-04-03T14:23:22","slug":"prairie-lights-so-many-apologies-so-little-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2016\/04\/prairie-lights-so-many-apologies-so-little-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Prairie Lights: So many apologies, so little time"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Butte\"<\/a>

Just another St. Patrick’s Day in Butte: so many opportunities for subsequent apologies.<\/p><\/div>\n

David Carpenter\u2019s phone call to Montana Attorney General Tim Fox, to apologize for coldcocking Fox <\/a>at the Radisson Hotel last week, was quite moving.<\/p>\n

Carpenter had too much to drink and did something really stupid, but then he manned up and did the right thing. There\u2019s a lesson here, friends, and not just for Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

\"Ed\"<\/a>

Ed Kemmick<\/p><\/div>\n

I mean, if Trump had to call and offer apologies to everybody he\u2019s offended with his stupid comments and actions, he wouldn\u2019t have time to run for president, and then where would we be?<\/p>\n

No, I\u2019m talking about the rest of us, who may have done numerous things in our lives that we\u2019re not proud of but never went to the trouble of trying to make amends. Thanks to David Carpenter, today is the day I start seeking forgiveness for the damage I\u2019ve done, the people I\u2019ve hurt, the elected officials I\u2019ve coldcocked in a drinking establishment.<\/p>\n

Former Gov. Marc Racicot for one. You remember that, Marc? Late 1976, early 1977? I think you were a deputy county attorney in Missoula then, or something. We were at Red\u2019s Bar and my buddy started racking up the balls on the pool table and you said something like, \u201cDude, that was my quarter.\u201d<\/p>\n

And before I knew what was happening you and my buddy were in each other\u2019s faces and then the punches started flying. I\u2019m not going to lie. I\u2019d been drinking. Hell, I\u2019d been drinking for five or six hours, and I walked up from behind and whacked you right behind your left ear.<\/p>\n

You went down hard and my buddy and I ran out of the bar. I\u2019ve never mentioned the incident to another soul from that day to this one. But it\u2019s haunted me. That\u2019s not the kind of person I am. If you can remember that (for that matter, can you remember when a pool game cost 25 cents?), please, please forgive me.<\/p>\n

Then there was St. Patrick\u2019s Day 1980, I think it was, in Butte. How many people did I punch in a bar that night? God only knows. But some friends told me one of the guys I coldcocked was Mike Cooney, then a state representative and now our lieutenant governor.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s kind of hard to apologize for something you\u2019re not sure you did, much less why, but I remember seeing Cooney the next day and his head was all bandaged up. Mike, if I was, in fact, your assailant, my deepest apologies.<\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>This is good. I feel a great weight lifted from my shoulders already. So, while I’m at it, I\u2019d like to go all the way back to 1963. Sister Mary Frances, if by some miracle you\u2019re still alive (and I know you believe in miracles), I was the one who purloined your sandwich that one day.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know what came over me, but when the opportunity presented itself I couldn\u2019t resist. Would it be impious to say the devil made me do it? Anyway, what little pleasure I took in my misdeed evaporated when I saw the look of disappointed sorrow, and hunger, on your face a little while later.<\/p>\n

If I hadn\u2019t already flushed your sandwich down the toilet I would have returned it, I swear. As it is, all I can do now is ask you to absolve me of that one sin. Thanks.<\/p>\n

And Sue, in high school, when I left that Army entrenching tool on your doorstep, with the cryptic note? I was trying to explain that I had dug myself into a hole I didn\u2019t think I would be able to get out of, but of course you didn\u2019t see it that way because of my poorly worded note. I was not only a cad but an idiot.<\/p>\n

I would have apologized at the time, if not for the aforementioned hole I found myself in. I\u2019m really, really sorry.<\/p>\n

Hmm. I could run out of room long before I run out of apologies. Allow me to slip into shorthand here and apologize by category. For those fires, whether accidental or intentional, I\u2019m very sorry. God, I used to love fire.<\/p>\n

For all things broken, fractured or bruised, including cars, crockery, hearts, windows and bodies, words cannot express how bad I feel. Please forgive me.<\/p>\n

For all the dumb things I\u2019ve said or written that caused people pain or mental anguish, particularly when my words bordered on slander or libel, I offer up my apologies, and also remind people of the statute of limitations.<\/p>\n

All that remains is a blanket appeal for forgiveness for all the things I\u2019ve forgotten or suppressed.<\/p>\n

Oh, and this: To that one politician I walloped in the alley behind the Crystal Lounge\u2014and you know who you are\u2014in about 1992, I will never apologize. You had it coming.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

David Carpenter\u2019s phone call to Montana Attorney General Tim Fox, to apologize for coldcocking Fox at the Radisson Hotel last week, was quite moving. Carpenter had too much to drink and did something really stupid, but then he manned up and did the right thing. There\u2019s a lesson here, friends, and not just for Donald […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11330,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[4121,2853,4120,4122,1782],"class_list":["post-11329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-prairie-lights","tag-david-carpenter","tag-donald-trump","tag-marc-racicot","tag-mike-cooney","tag-tim-fox","prominence-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}