Darn it. We all make mistakes. I’ve never won a Spelling Bee in my entire life. That ought to tell you something. Mistakes are everywhere. It isn’t by mistake that I am writing about them again. It is just that to error is human, and we seem to do it so well.
Take this January 8th date, back in 1982. George H.W. Bush was visiting Japan on this date, and he sat down to dinner with Japan’s Prime Minister, Kiichi Miyazawa. The two of them seemed to be getting along great during Bush’s trip. In fact, they had played tennis earlier that day, and old George was badly beaten by the little guy.
Anyway, that night, there was a big banquet, and all, honoring the Bush’s. It was a big to-do. And George leaned over and puked, right on the Prime Minister’s lap. Hooey. Then he passed out. Simple mistake. Most of us, five minutes earlier, probably would have asked for a restroom. More than likely, someone was standing up in the front of the room, giving a big speech in Japanese, and George didn’t want to interrupt. Instead, he thought the feeling would pass. Well. Big mistake.
Yes, they happen.
Perhaps it is the politics that are the mistake.
It was also on this date in 1978, when Harvey Milk was elected, becoming the first openly gay person to hold a public office in California. Ten months after he was sworn in, Harvey Milk was shot dead in his office. He was shot five times, twice in the head.
He ran a camera store on Castro Street before he got into politics. I bet no one would have killed him over that. While his election was groundbreaking for the LGBT community, it didn’t do too much for Harvey.
Then there is the mistake of Georgy Maximilianovich Malenkov. Most of us don’t know Malenkov, but I thought I’d brush us up on a little Russian history, just in case Trump keeps his office for the next 12 days, and we wind up being overthrown by his coup who unknowingly are being puppet-strung along by Vladimir Putin. So think of this part as a public service announcement, this Russian history piece.
It is Malenkov’s birthday (1902). He is the guy who succeeded Joseph Stalin as the leader of the Soviet Union after Stalin’s death in 1953. But it was brief. You see, Malenkov had been Stalin’s favorite for much of the war period and before. His right-hand man. He helped Stalin in his great purges of political opponents.
But once Stalin died, so did his only friend, one and the same. As such, Malenkov’s leadership was short-lived when he was outmaneuvered by his opponents. It only took nine days after his succession for the Politburo to force him to give up his position in the Communist Party. They let him retain his premiership, sort of.
Malenkov was plucked out of number one and then served in a duumvirate with Nikita Khrushchev. Two cooks, stirring the pot. He attempted a coup against Khrushchev, but he failed. Immediately, he was stripped of all his offices.
Typically, when you attempt a coup in Russia, you disappear shortly thereafter. He was sent to Kazakhstan and became the manager of some industrial plant there. He put all his eggs in Stalin’s basket. That was his mistake. Then, he attempted a coup. Mistake number two. And we humans keep tripping and falling.
This week, we saw a terrible thing happen. I’ll probably continue to reference the riotous attack on the Capitol for a long time to come. It was orchestrated by Donald Trump. He incited violence, rioting, and a breach on our nation’s sovereign process of the transition of power. Trump’s followers are already regrouping and planning another attack on the USA. I fear we are really in for it. Brush up on your Russian. You’re going to need it. Mistakes are being made everywhere.
Conversely, there are a lot of people who see the truth and understand the magnitude of the situation. There is no mistake in being on the right side of life.
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“Nowadays most people die of a sort of creeping common sense, and discover when it is too late that the only things one never regrets are one’s mistakes.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
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“Smart people learn from their mistakes. But the real sharp ones learn from the mistakes of others.”
― Brandon Mull, Fablehaven
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“Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment.”
― Rita Mae Brown, Alma Mater
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More on mistakes, because we can’t seem to get enough of them.
