If, 10 years ago, some gays had been expelled from Harvard, I can see apologizing to them and to the gay community.
But Harvard today apologized because - in 1920 - some suspected gays were expelled for being gay.
Why? No one alive today had anything to do with what happened in 1920 - why apologize for it.
in 1920 - that's the way it was. Women weren't treated well, blacks weren't treated well, gays weren't treated well. That's the way it was, and over the last 90+ years we have all gradually obtained our rights, so that today - or at least since 1969 and the Civil Rights Act - we all expect to be treated in the right way. And if someone mistreats us today - damn straight we'll expect apologies and so on.
But to apologize for something that they had nothing to do with - as the folks at Harvard have just done (they're also going to award these people posthumous degrees!) - that's just stupid.
And of course it opens the door for every relative of everyone who has been mistreated down through the centuries to say - because my grandmother or granddad was denied their rights in 1920, I didn't grow up in a wealthy household and you owe me $100,000 or more to make up for that.
Its stupid, but that's what's going to happen, because now that the door has been opened, you just know the blood-sucking lawyers are going to go right through it.
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