Last week the Texas Senator Ted Cruz made a crude "joke" to the effect that the Obama Administration probably hired Nigeria email scammers to run his troubled healthcare website. Protestations came quick and fast, from the Nigerian ambassador, from Nigerians in Texas, and from a global online signature initiative, all demanding an apology. In response, he sent out something that was meant to be an apology, but to many Nigerians his apology is at best disingenuous. To me, he does not have to apologize (in which case he will have to deal with Nigerians in America either now or down the road). But if he believes he needs to distance himself from that statement, then he should just simply do so, and not try to sound like the anti-Obamacare smart-arse that he is. What follows is a statement from one of the organizers of the signature drive.
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Dear Friend,
Thank you for signing the Nigerians Demand Apology from Senator Ted Cruz for his Offensive Remarks. Now! petition. With your help, we've reached 679 signers in just two days.
However, you must have heard or read that after feeling some heat, the Senator "apologized" with words as follows:
QUOTE
It’s unfortunate that we’re living in a time where just about every joke can be misconstrued to cause offense to someone.
To the good people of Nigeria — a beautiful nation where my wife lived briefly as the child of missionaries — no offense was intended.
I am fully appreciative of the range of mutual economic and security interests that make Nigeria an important friend to the United States.
And even to those few unscrupulous email scammers who were the subject of the joke, I apologize to you for the unfair comparison to the utterly dysfunctional Obamacare website
UNQUOTE
Is this apology from the Junior Senator from Texas genuine? I don't think so, what with his accusation of anachronistic hyper-sensitivity, with his repetition of a reference to email scammers, and his tongue-in-cheek apology directed to them in his continued dig at the Obamacare website. Besides, the apology is not even on his own website - maybe the link there is not working, or is invisible? - neither have we seen his signature beneath the statement.
But the call is yours, either to end this petition drive now, or to make more impact by proceeding with our aim of getting up to 1,000 signatures before we deliver the petition to Senator Ted Cruz's office, asking for an unqualified, simple and straight-forward, no-frills apology, viz:
QUOTE
I apologize to the good people of Nigeria — a beautiful nation where my wife lived briefly as the child of missionaries — about my recent joke which was misconstrued. No offense was intended.
I am fully appreciative of the range of mutual economic and security interests that make Nigeria an important friend to the United States.
Heidi and I hope that we can put this issue behind us, as we look for better ways of collaborating with the Nigerian community in the future.
UNQUOTE
So can you please forward this email to five of your friends right now?
With your help, we can extend and win our campaign! Share this link: http://petitions.moveon.
Thank you for taking a stand on this important issue.
Bolaji Aluko
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Dear Friend,
Thank you for signing the Nigerians Demand Apology from Senator Ted Cruz for his Offensive Remarks. Now! petition. With your help, we've reached 679 signers in just two days.
However, you must have heard or read that after feeling some heat, the Senator "apologized" with words as follows:
QUOTE
It’s unfortunate that we’re living in a time where just about every joke can be misconstrued to cause offense to someone.
To the good people of Nigeria — a beautiful nation where my wife lived briefly as the child of missionaries — no offense was intended.
I am fully appreciative of the range of mutual economic and security interests that make Nigeria an important friend to the United States.
And even to those few unscrupulous email scammers who were the subject of the joke, I apologize to you for the unfair comparison to the utterly dysfunctional Obamacare website
UNQUOTE
Is this apology from the Junior Senator from Texas genuine? I don't think so, what with his accusation of anachronistic hyper-sensitivity, with his repetition of a reference to email scammers, and his tongue-in-cheek apology directed to them in his continued dig at the Obamacare website. Besides, the apology is not even on his own website - maybe the link there is not working, or is invisible? - neither have we seen his signature beneath the statement.
But the call is yours, either to end this petition drive now, or to make more impact by proceeding with our aim of getting up to 1,000 signatures before we deliver the petition to Senator Ted Cruz's office, asking for an unqualified, simple and straight-forward, no-frills apology, viz:
QUOTE
I apologize to the good people of Nigeria — a beautiful nation where my wife lived briefly as the child of missionaries — about my recent joke which was misconstrued. No offense was intended.
I am fully appreciative of the range of mutual economic and security interests that make Nigeria an important friend to the United States.
Heidi and I hope that we can put this issue behind us, as we look for better ways of collaborating with the Nigerian community in the future.
UNQUOTE
So can you please forward this email to five of your friends right now?
With your help, we can extend and win our campaign! Share this link: http://petitions.moveon.
Thank you for taking a stand on this important issue.
Bolaji Aluko
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