Why do we get so defensive even when we’re wrong? Maybe especially when we're wrong.

Last week talk show host William Bennett (former secretary of education and author of The Book of Virtues) said, "I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could, if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down. . . . That would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down. So these far-out, these far-reaching, extensive extrapolations are, I think, tricky."

I’m just going to talk about the secondary problem with this incident—which in my view becomes the primary problem. His attempt at damage control in the days following focused on his opposition to abortion and that he was not racist. The emphasis was on why his statement was okay. I didn’t hear him say why his statement was wrong.

Thanks, Bill, for reminding me that there is no virtue in making an offensive and inflammatory statement and not saying “I’m sorry.”