Staff Ed: It was a half-hearted apology

Clint McCance, vice president of an Arkansas school board, recently published an inflammatory tirade on his Facebook page in response to the online initiative to wear purple to honor the latest gay-bullying suicides.

“Seriously, they want me to wear purple because five queers killed themselves. The only way I’m wearin’ it for them is if they all commit suicide. I cant believe the people of this world have gotten this stupid.”

This part of McCance’s post, with violent bigotry and unfortunate grammar, reeked of a juvenile temper tantrum. He went on to say that he “like(s) that fags can’t procreate,” and “enjoy(s) the fact that they often give each other aids and die.”

Being a middle-aged man with authority in a school board, the attention paid to his comments was far greater than he anticipated (and God knows he didn’t see this coming).

The response was viral, causing families of the victims, his supervisors and the general public to respond in favor of him resigning from his position. 

CNN’s Anderson Cooper ripped into the school board member about the coals in an interview that exercised his trademark interrogational flair in a manner that paralleled a parent saying to their naughty child, “Now, what are you apologizing for?” Cooper received a response that was far from satisfactory. 

Although McCance admitted his irrational behavior and announced his resignation, it was clear that his stance on the issue had not changed.

When asked what he would do if his kids did one day turn out to be gay, he could only stumble through saying, “Well, you know, I don’t know what I would do yet. I’m — uh, time will tell.”

His fumbling delay to answer many questions showed an honest confliction in whether he would actually run off his own children. When asked if he would ever use such offensive language again, McCance said, “Uh, that’s in the — the future.”

McCance’s pitiful articulation exhibited the emotional sincerity of a footstool. He was clearly struggling to find the balance between withholding his extremist beliefs and appearing sorry for his prior, destructive actions.

Cooper later interviewed Dr. Phil McGraw regarding the matter of his “non-apology apology,” as it was apparent McCance was only sorry he was caught and reprimanded.

His enormously destructive assault on the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender community now requires us to repair what we have already tried to mend.
“Educators across the country need to step up and not just say they don’t endorse this, but that they do accept children from all walks of life, all sexual-orientations,” McGraw said.

McCance added insult to injury when he spewed hatred, profanity and bullying to victims even after they had already suffered. This action, as a person and a public figure, was as good as kicking over a gravestone, as he disparaged them even in death.

A forcefully destructive, publicized opinion should yield a far greater apologetic response to counterbalance the harm he has done, as he put a face to the reason students could be so unsafe in their educational environments.