The recent atmospheric shift felt by many across the country wasn’t hell freezing over — it was Marjorie Taylor Greene apologizing for years of participating in what she called “toxic politics,” taking responsibility for herself and her own actions.
For those of us who have spent years thinking her words venomous, self-serving and fantastical (the secret Jewish space lasers come to mind), it is hard to accept that her current words are sincere.
Shannon Small
I have struggled with how exactly to process this apology. I am not a politician. I am not a journalist. I am a citizen — a Jewish woman of both Puerto Rican and Italian descent, married to a Black man and raising two biracial children, a citizen who has seen the rise of hate speech since Taylor Greene’s appearance in Congress in 2021.
Now I am trying to reconcile the woman who once likened mask mandates to the treatment of Jews during the Holocaust with the woman who now states she does not wish to espouse “toxic rhetoric” and has turned over a new leaf. She plans to leave Congress altogether in early January.
I have felt targeted, personally and on behalf of my family, by Taylor Greene’s words on more than one occasion. And yet, as I so often try to impart to my young son and daughter, mending a relationship and restoring a bond doesn’t just start with an apology, but with an acceptance of that apology.
For more than 10 years, ever since a certain White House occupant descended a gold escalator, our country has grown more and more divided, bitter and just plain mean. The childhood maxim that one catches more bees with honey has been cast aside. The electorate today seems to reward the politician who can be the most outlandish and hyperbolic, the one who can capture the news cycle by being the cruelest or garnering the most “likes” or follows on social media. Our cell phone screens and feeds have replaced spoken conversations, leading to the isolation and division of so many in our country.
“It would be simple to dismiss Taylor Greene’s current about-face as empty or self-serving.”
It would be simple to dismiss Taylor Greene’s current about-face as empty or self-serving. After all, until the vitriol was aimed at her, she spewed her own brand of toxicity, frequently parroting or amplifying conspiracy theories and hate speech.
But if we ever hope to become a public where truly civil discourse and discussion is the norm again, we must start by taking people at their words. And this means practicing the acceptance I teach to my children.
So, an apology, no matter how overdue, must be taken in good faith and accepted. After all, in Judaism, forgiveness is a core value, reflected upon every year on Yom Kippur. The New Testament calls for Christians to “turn the other cheek,” while Islam views forgiveness as a central principle.
To be sure, an apology alone is not enough, and those who accept an apology still should keep their eyes open. (“Trust but verify” to quote a Republican of an earlier vintage.) I’ll be watching to see what Taylor Greene does after her resignation. Perhaps she genuinely does want to see people just “be kind to one another,” as she stated to Dana Bash. Or perhaps she is content to collect her pension and retire from public service all together.
Whatever her next steps are, I cannot control them. But I can control my willingness to move past my initial instinct to dismiss her words as nothing more than a politician rebranding herself. I can choose to show acceptance on a path toward forgiveness.
Many of us will be seeing our extended families and old friends over the holidays. In recent years, our dinner tables too often have been places where disagreements over social, economic and political topics boil over, leading to divides that can last years. Learning to forgive can begin here, with those we love. Remember that while you may vehemently disagree with your Great Uncle John, he may have deep and sincere reasons behind his beliefs, just as you do.
To forgive is to find a way forward. If I can find hope in my heart that Taylor Greene’s remarks are genuine, that her resignation from Congress signals a choice to begin using her voice to speak kindness instead of toxicity, then perhaps we as a nation can take one step closer to healing ourselves. To showing our children that acceptance is a necessary choice on the road to a true and lasting forgiveness. This is our path forward.
Shannon F.R. Small is an assistant professor of surgery at the Yale School of Medicine and a Public Voices Fellow of the OpEd Project.