Everybody Makes Mistakes (Oh, Yes they Do)

Nobody likes to be wrong. Very few people enjoy admitting their mistakes.

My mom has a song she like to sing about how every makes mistakes (oh yes she does). I hate it. She doesn’t seem to care.

I remember my time as a Legion baseball coach. Players, opponents, parents and umpires often would point out my mistakes.

Sometimes they would find indirect ways to point out what they perceived to be my mistakes. Using phrases like “did you ever consider” or “maybe next time.”

Sometimes they would just directly say “you should have” or “I would have.”

I remember often coming home after games and confusing to my family I figured I made a handful of mistakes during the game. I would typically follow it up by saying “but they aren’t the same ones the parents and players think I made.”

Those days are over. Not my mistake making days but my coaching days.

Those days of public mistake making pale in comparison to one of the largest mistakes of my life.

Back in the early part of this century I held the honor of serving on the Willmar City Council. As an elected official I took very seriously my role of making sure we didn’t waste the citizens tax dollars. It wasn’t my money and I felt I was obligated to spend it wisely.

During my city council service a move was a foot to put Automated External Defibrillators (AED) in public buildings. The argument was by locating these device in public buildings lives could be saved.

I didn’t buy the idea of buying AEDs. I thought it was a waste of money. Would non-medical professionals even know how to use them? I remember thinking this was just a move by the manufacture of these devices to profit at the publics expense.

I not only voted against spending the money, I try to get others to join me. My memory says nobody was convinced to join my opposition. I recall the vote being 7-1. I was upset.

As time moved on I saw AED devices installed all over America. I heard stories of non-medical professionals saving lives with them.

Recently at a ceremony opening Cianbro’s, a large contractor in Pittsfield Maine, first-class training center my foolishness hit me full force. As the speaker went through the safety moment and pointed out the location of the AED, should it be needed, I was mentally thrown back in time to my time on the city council.

It left me sitting there wondering what if I had won my argument and saved money by not buying these life saving devices? Could it have caused somebody to lose their life? What if I had carried my passion to the next level and crusaded against AEDs outside of the city of Willmar?

I was wrong and I realized it. I realized my wrongness years ago but scale of my mistake just hit me as I sat in the audience last week. The impact of being wrong had no effect on the rest of the world because the rest of the council didn’t listen to my pleadings. Thankfully!!!

I also wonder how often are current politicians realize, and admit their mistakes. Lately it seems the trend is “double down” on their mistakes.