Did Rep. Gary Condit, D-Calif., make mistakes?

Possibly, the most misused word in the English language besides "change" is the word "mistake." Everything these days seems to be a "mistake." After all, everybody makes them. They can't be helped. So, by calling every transgression a "mistake," those engaged in all manner of egregious behavior stand ready to beg the public's forgiveness when they get caught. It is interesting just how willing the public is to equate the word "mistake" with the word "crime." The latest round of activities involving a certain congressman caught with his hand in the proverbial cookie jar has resulted in his admission to making "mistakes." It is as though this is enough of an explanation, and since everyone makes a mistake every now and then, we should move on and say, "There but by the grace of God go I." The members of the media are quick to point out that "mistakes" were made and that it is time to "move on." You get to move on after a mistake. I believe there should be more of a distinction between a mistake and a crime, or a mistake and a lie, or a mistake and a calculated act. A mistake is when you put on the wrong cuff link when going out. A mistake is when you forget to carry the 1, adding numbers together. A mistake is when you show up for a movie an hour before it starts.

It isn't a mistake when you lie to the police during a missing-person investigation. It isn't a mistake when you take money for an action and then perform the action for which you took the money. It isn't a mistake when you drive off with furniture that doesn't belong to you. It isn't a mistake when you cheat on your wife, or rather, the act isn't a mistake. The decision probably was. A mistake is an error, not an offense. A mistake is a blunder, not a transgression. A mistake is a gaffe, not a felony. Everyone makes mistakes; everyone doesn't commit felonies. Felons, at least the ones who are caught, shouldn't get to "move on." While changing the offending cuff link corrects the mistake, giving back the money doesn't erase the bank robbery. It is amazing to me that journalists – people who go to school in order to learn the intricacy of language – are the worst offenders. What is even more curious is their uneven application of that knowledge. I distinctly remember that Newt Gingrich committed sins and transgressions against his first wife, while Bill Clinton and Mr. Condit made mistakes. I may be mistaken, but it seems less a mistake than a calculated effort to lessen one person's complicity and heighten another's in an instance of the same type of lapsed behavior. Could it be bias?

As a people, our standards of education have been plunging like a barrel over a waterfall. As a result, we must be on the alert for the subtle use of language employed by reporters and pundits in the media to mislead us into thinking one man's actions somehow are less egregious than another's simply because the first offender shares the journalist's ideology.