Who's Responsible?

Photo by Kane Reinholdtsen on Unsplash

“Mistakes were made..”

“Excuse me? Don’t you mean you made mistakes?” Jonah skewered the owner of Roberts Industries with a look. Then he lit the flame. “You can’t distance yourself from your actions—actions that resulted in the deaths of ten of your employees.” He hoped the scrum of reporters was getting all of this.

Roberts squinted in the sunlight in Jonah’s general direction. “That’s what I said” He turned away to continue with his statement.

“No, sir,” Jonah interrupted again. “It’s not what you said. There was no subject in your sentence. It was a clear attempt to diffuse responsibility for your actions. I doubt either the public in general or the jury in particular will be taken in by your, at best, feeble efforts.”

“What jury?”

Jonah smiled at the executive’s discomfort. He had chosen this moment carefully. At his nod, the process server stepped onto the podium and handed Roberts an envelope, saying “You’ve been served.”

Jonah turned to the reporters who now crowded around him, shouting questions.

“You’ll note,” Jonah said with a smile, “that papers have been served and a lawsuit will commence. Oh, wait, I don’t want to diffuse responsibility. On behalf of my clients, I have filed a lawsuit against both Roberts Industries and Mr. Roberts himself for their negligence in ensuring employee safety.”

The reporter nearest Jonah let out a loud laugh before saying, just as loudly, “A robber baron’s goose has been cooked.”

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One of the things I do as an editor is to change vague language to specific words that convey real meaning. I was thinking about times when companies and politicians use non-specific language to deliberately mislead. This story came from my musings on the topic. I hope you enjoyed it!

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