Somewhere along the way, we stopped making excuses. Coming up with the perfect excuse or alibi was once such a fine art that even author Arthur Huxley offered his opinion, "Several excuses are always less convincing than one." Instead of excuses or a simple "I’m sorry" we now have the non-excuse. It may sound like, "I just want to put this behind me and move ahead" or "I only want to put this behind me and get on with my life." Non-excuses have many variations, but they basically mean the same thing — take it or leave it, I refuse to be responsible for my own actions. Don’t expect an apology or an explanation. Non-excuses have been revealed from steps in the nation’s capitol, on brief stops between courthouses and jails or at press conferences. The most celebrated non-excusers in recent months have been politicians, professional athletes, Hollywood personalities and even the world’s most famous kitchen diva, Martha Stewart. When Stewart announced last September that she wanted to go to jail immediately to serve her five-month sentence for obstruction of justice, she added that she wanted "closure," "finality" and "to put this nightmare behind me." After interviewer Geraldo Rivera asked him about possible steroid misuse, baseball legend Barry Bonds responded, "I only want to get on with my life." Rapper Eminem offered a non-excuse three years ago when a Michigan court found him guilty of carrying a concealed weapon. "I just want to get it behind me," he told reporters after the trial, "and get back to spending time with my little girl and making music." Quite interestingly, he didn’t offer a non-excuse for his particular style of music. Convicted killer Charles Manson gave Rolling Stone magazine his own version of a non-excuse, "Past, get behind me. The Devil is in the past." In spite of his slightly different and creative wording, he remains imprisoned. A pattern of non-excuses is definitely developing in our country. When President Bush mentioned Iraq with European leaders recently, he urged them to "put this behind us." Non-excuses can happen to the best of us. Instead of groveling, humbling ourselves and begging for forgiveness, we project the appearances of winners. Taking a cue from HBO’s Tony Soprano we can do all sorts of wrong things and laugh, "Fuhgeddaboutit." Non-excuses possibly began when golfers started taking mulligans after bad tee-shots on golf courses. Casual do-overs became socially acceptable. It might have begun when both children and adults stopped saying, "I’m sorry." It wasn’t that long ago when children were expected to say, "I’m sorry," "please," "thank you," "May I please be excused from the table?" and "You look pretty today, Mama," if they hoped to reach adulthood. It’s a far stretch, but actress Ali McGraw might have started non-excuses in the 1970 movie, "Love Story," when she told Oliver (Ryan O’Neal), "Love means never having to say you’re sorry." If that’s the case when it comes to excuses or admissions of guilt, we’re a lovesick society. When non-excuses truly become mainstream, whether we burn a dinner in the oven, dent a car fender, run into debt or forget a birthday, we will only have to smile and say, "Let’s just put this behind us and get on with our lives."