Hawaii state government appears to be actively proving the observation by American scientist Paul Ehrlich that “To err is human but to really foul things up requires a computer.”

Gov. David Ige spent the past week on a television and social media apology pilgrimage to make amends for his administration scaring the living daylights out of Hawaii’s citizens with the erroneous computer-sent cell phone message: “BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.”

The retraction was followed by Ige saying, “I deeply apologize for this false alert that created stress, anxiety and fear of a crisis,” on the morning of the Jan. 13 monumental mistake.

Later, during a live statewide television address, Ige said, “I want to begin by offering my personal apology for the fear, anxiety and heartache caused by the false alert on Saturday.”

Picking apart the state’s botched missile warning is easy. As WIRED noted in a report quoting retired Adm. David Simpson, former chief of the Federal Communications Commission’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, any exercise message should begin with the words, “EXERCISE EXERCISE EXERCISE.”

“This was probably a state-run emergency exercise that doesn’t have the strong controls that DoD (Department of Defense) has learned the hard way from 50 years of screwing up,” Simpson said.

The Ige administration seemed to rush to compound the mistake by repeatedly offering up incorrect explanations for what went wrong.

State officials first said they took 20 minutes to get federal permission to retract the missile alert, then they found out no permission was needed. Later officials offered up a screenshot of what the computer operator saw before clicking the wrong warning. Then that had to be retracted and another view was offered up.

Negative reaction came in from all corners of the globe. Basically if you are getting praise from Donald Trump for owning up to your mistakes, and Frank De Lima is composing songs about the bungled message, and The New York Times headline reads, “False Missile Alert Looms as a Black Eye for Hawaii and Its Governor,” you can assume that things are not going well for Ige and his political future.

While Ige was on his mea culpa tour, he was neglecting a big part of the reason he should be saying “Sorry.”

Yes, the alert was a mistake and there are plenty of questions of why Hawaii is the only state that thinks it needs a preprogrammed statewide ICBM warning, but how about the governor saying sorry for being so slow getting out the correction?

As the Star-Advertiser noted in a Thursday report that should embarrass Ige, “Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen said Tuesday that she has asked FEMA to work with Hawaii to ensure that the state gets clarity on the proper protocol and procedures for issuing and retracting an alert.”

Also KHON-TV reports that William Heyler, a 17-year-old junior at ‘Iolani School, got the incorrect cell phone warning, used a phone book to look up the number for Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, reached someone who said the alert was incorrect and started a one-person social media campaign to call off the alert.

Heyler sent his first tweet at 8:12 a.m. and Ige got off his first retraction at 8:20. And it wasn’t until hours later that the public could actually see Ige discuss the error.

Ige has always acknowledged that he is a poor communicator — now both he and the state are learning the consequences.

Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays. Reach him at 808onpolitics@gmail.com.