Tupac Lives!

By now you've probably heard about this story. Basically, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear called a press conference to complain about people filing for unemployment benefits under fake names -- a practice which slowed down processing for real Kentuckyians facing real needs. The example he gave was a guy named "Tupac Shakur" -- obvious fake, right? Wrong. There is a real Tupac Shakur living in Kentucky (though presumably not the Tupac Shakur) who really filed for unemployment benefits. Upon learning this, Beshear called the real Tupac to apologize. And Tupac accepted, saying "I understand, he’s dealing with a lot. Mistakes happen."

There isn't really anything substantive worth saying about this. The reason I'm writing is because the story seemed like a rare instance of everybody involved being nice and reasonable.

• Gov. Beshear was reasonable in thinking the name "Tupac Shakur" was fake.
• The actual person with that name was reasonably embarrassed to be called out like that.
• Beshear, upon realizing his mistake, called Mr. Shakur to apologize.
• Shakur graciously accepted the apology.

Really, I can't ask for much more from either of them. Mistakes happen, apologies are made, people are understanding. It was just nice. And sometimes I like focusing on nice.