More than two months after Herman Cohen made his unprovoked, depravedly hateful and arrogantly insulting comments about the Amhara people, he has issued a Twitter apology “about the pain and discomfort I caused within the Amhara community”.
On June 26, 2019, I wrote a commentary entitled “Herman (Harm Man) Cohen’s Second “Coup” in Ethiopia? We Demand an Apology!”, lambasting Cohen for his insensitive and downright despicable comments about Amharas in Ethiopia.
Despite protestations of innocence in making his statements, it was obvious that he had animus for the Amhara people. There is no doubt in my mind Cohen sought to foment ill-will, hostility, revenge, contempt, fear and loathing towards Amharas.
His statements resonated the ignorance and reckless indifference of social media imbeciles. Such statements could not be expected of a high level U.S. diplomat with decades of international experience.
In concluding my commentary I observed:
The teachable moment for Herman Cohen is this: Should he continue in his defamation, demonization and persecution campaign against Amharas or any Ethiopians, I am ready, willing and able to defend and wage a vigorous and unrelenting anti-defamation campaign against him and his ilk. We demand an apology from Herman Cohen for his defamation of Amhara people. Apology not forthcoming, NOTICE SERVED.
Without mincing words, what Herman Cohen tweeted in June was pure and simple hate speech.
He demonized an entire group as ethnic hegemons in exactly the same way others have demonized Jews over the centuries.
If Cohen had vilified a religious or ethnic group in the U.S. as he did the Amharas, there would have been hell to pay.
But Cohen undeterred, expanded on his venomous comments in a BBC interview.
Over two months later, Cohen now issues an apology.
Is that a “crocodile apology” or a genuine act of contrition?
In my June commentary, I noted, “Herman Cohen will be held accountable in the court of world public opinion!”
Cohen may be willfully ignorant but there is a massive anti-Cohen global Ethiopian grassroots movement coalescing to hold him accountable.
To be perfectly frank, I do not know if Cohen is apologizing now out of genuine remorse or because he sees a global gathering storm of grassroots campaign coming together to expose him as him as wicked racist and stone-hearted bigot.
I understand some Ethiopians have even taken their protest to his office door in Washington, DC.
Could it be that Cohen fears the appearance of a steady stream of protesters at his office door?
Is damage control and cut your losses strategy that has impelled Cohen to issue his apology?
I wonder!
Following my commentary in June, Cohen was unrepentant. He completely ignored the outcry against his outrageous remarks.
Even when Ethiopia’s Deputy Prime Minister H.E. Demeke Mekonen condemned his remarks publicly, Cohen remained tone deaf, contemptuously dismissive and arrogantly defiant.
What brought about the sudden change of heart?
“I will be more mindful of how my views are stated in the future,” atoned Cohen.
Regardless, Cohen has apologized, and as the first Ethiopian to respond to him following his outrageous remarks and demand an apology, I accept his words of contrition in good faith.
One of the most important lessons I have learned from observing H.E. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in action over the past year is the fact that we must forgive even in the absence of apology.
We must forgive because it is in our self-interest.
I do not want to carry with me anger and antipathy every time Herman Cohen’s name is mentioned.
I don’t want to bellow vulgarity every time someone mentions his name.
That would be giving Cohen enormous power over my mental state.
Gandhi said, “The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”
I am one strong Ethiopian.
By accepting his apology unconditionally, Herman Cohen to me becomes a figment of my imagination.
In other words, Cohen becomes one of those brain dead windbags and empty barrels in my book.
I treat such people with my long standing policy of mind over matter.
I don’t mind and they don’t matter.
I have buried the hatchet and have no beef with Cohen. I have moved on to more important things.
But I offer Cohen free advice.
In the movie Magnum Force, Harry Callahan advises, “A good man’s got to know his limitations.”
So should an 87 year-old twit on twitter.
I urge all who have been offended by Herman Cohen to follow my policy of mind over matter and accept his apology.
