[Mis]Rule Britannia

Although it may be true that it's better late than never, some things happen so late that it's almost like never. The fact that the Queen of England has pardoned Alan Turing 60 years after his conviction for homosexual acts that were then criminal is, in and of itself, shameful. Turing was a mathematical genius who, through his development of a machine that deciphered the Nazi encrypted messages, made an enormous contribution to the war effort. Worse than his conviction is the fact that he was "chemically castrated", something that led to his suicide two years later. It is just incomprehensible that it has taken Britain so long to recognize this grave injustice and something that, had it happened anywhere else, would have been considered "barbaric."

When a person, an institution or a country takes so long in admitting an error, you have to wonder about how sincere the mea culpa really is.

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