DISD update: When is an apology no better than hari kiri?

There was a time in Japanese society where suicide was thought to be noble, something a samurai warrior considered heroic (hari kiri) and something a Japanese businessman did to take responsibility for failures at his company. Outwardly, Japanese society publicly celebrated the heroic nature of the personal sacrifice; behind the scenes, however, friends and family of the fallen man weren't so sure that death was the only way for society to gain its measure of revenge — I mean, how many business mistakes are really worth taking anyone's life over?

I thought about this while reading Jacquielynn Floyd's columns in last week's DMN; the columns (links here and here) suggested that DISD Supt. Michael Hinojosa should consider sitting down with the district's remaining teachers to directly apologize to them and to clear the air after budget problems resulted in firing and transferring several hundred teachers and other district employees.