The Difference

Yahoo! News

Commentary

Everyone makes mistakes. The action to correct the mistake tells the difference in a man's character. President Obama recognized his mistake and make amends immediately.

Let's hope those in the financial crisis, especially those who reaped untold benefits from the misfortune of others, will follow the President's example, and redeem whatever mistakes were made that led the world to the brink of disaster.

Excerpts

President Barack Obama has apologized to the chairman of the Special Olympics for his quip equating his bowling skills to those of athletes with disabilities.

Appearing on "The Tonight Show," the president told host Jay Leno he'd been practising at the White House's bowling alley but wasn't happy with his score of 129.

Then he said: "It was like the Special Olympics or something."

The audience laughed, but the White House quickly recognized the blunder. The Special Olympics, founded in 1968 by Eunice Kennedy Shriver, is a global nonprofit organization serving 200 million individuals with intellectual disabilities.

On his way back to Washington on Air Force One, Obama called the chairman of the Special Olympics, Tim Shriver, to say he was sorry - even before the taped program aired late Thursday night.

"He expressed his disappointment and he apologized in a way that was very moving,"Shriver said Friday on ABC's "Good Morning America. "He expressed that he did not intend to humiliate this population."

Obama, Shriver said, wants to have some Special Olympic athletes visit the White House to bowl or play basketball.

Still, Shriver said, "I think it's important to see that words hurt and words do matter. And these words that in some respect can be seem as humiliating or a put down to people with special needs do cause pain and they do result in stereotypes."