Basic HTML Version
PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, SEPTEMBER 14, 1984
PAGE 11
And while it would be unkind to seek to add to Miss Williams's
pain,� should notice that her behavior� never a 9 tually co �
demned BY opinion-makers. On the contrary, TV interviewers, edi
torialists, and others have been at pains to grant Miss W1lllaiiis
a forgiveness"sbe has never requested Her own stated reason for
resigning was�e�otent1al harm to the pageant and the deep
division that a bitter fight may cause."
Vanessa Williams acknowledged that she felt embarrassed, but she
has not, as yet, shown contrition. The distinction is important.
We can feel embarrassed by lots of things that are not inherently
shameful: forgetting the name of a colleague just when an intro
duction is required, leaving a personal letter in the office
Xerox machine. But we feel contrite only when we �now we were
wrong C..e.;:, !.,2 � another old-fashioned idea, sinfHl).
Yet this utter lack of contrition didn't trouble Susan Taylor.
She wrote in U.S.A. TODAY that "Vanessa Williams should not be
held responsible•••• I don't think that any of us would wari't to
"6elleld accountable for everything we ever said or did." Miss
Taylor doesn't explain who, if not ourselves, should be held ac
countable for our actions••••
If there is unanimity on·anything, it is that PENTHOUSE publisher
Bob Guccione's behavior was loathsome•••• It points up just what
a slender reed the law can be if you rely on it to enforce ethics
and morals. Mr. Guccione's actions were well within the law.
Second, if he were not utterly shameless {another old-fashioned
idea), his detestable magazine would not even exist•••• His is
the moral stature we can expect from a pornographer•••• This man
doesn't blink at sado-masochistic bestiality. Should we expect
him then to blush, to display delicacy of sentiment, at the
thought of embarrassing Miss America? "Man," said Mark Twain,
"is the on�I animal� blushes•••..e.;: needs to." This sorry tale
s'Fioul:'crrem1nd us just how much we need to.
Miss America pageant officials at this year's event (Saturday night, Sep
tember 15) are hoping that the latest crop of contestants have no skeletons
in the closet.
--Gene H. Hogberg, News Bureau