There are times when words come out of the mouth that as you speak them, and they become readily audible, you wish you could suck them back in and have a do-over.

But hindsight doesn’t work like that. There’s no rewind switch — once it’s out there, it’s out there.

Chris Furbert experienced such a phenomenon on Tuesday when he proclaimed: “The America’s Cup is in great threat of being derailed in June and July. The America’s Cup will be in jeopardy. The membership is not going back to work until those two matters are resolved.”

Even for someone of the Bermuda Industrial Union president’s bent — ie, possessing the innate ability to pick a fight in an empty room — these were comments worthy of instant recall.

Notwithstanding that he confused the dates for the greatest event ever to hit Bermuda’s shores, exactly whose membership did he speak of, for “those two matters” relate to the airport redevelopment plan and the rejected work permit application of the Reverend Nicholas Tweed?

Neither is an issue that should concern the BIU and its membership — at least not until work is commenced in the vicinity of LF Wade International Airport involving unionised labourers. And the People’s Campaign does not have an official membership; nor is it recognised by the Bermuda Government as a union of any distinction.

The opportunity to recant was resisted in the subsequent 48 hours but there can be no doubt now, given the public backlash, that Furbert has bitten off a bit more than he can chew when he dragged the America’s Cup into the argument.

For, with that, he opened the door for the Government’s bona fide big hitter to weigh in on the ludicrousness that an immigration issue could have an impact on a month-long smorgasbord of opportunity for Bermudians that has the potential to yield a $350 million windfall.

Anyone who caught even a whiff of the World Series event in October 2015 would have to appreciate the feel-good factor that swept the vicinity, if not immediately feeling returns in their pockets. That is for the naysayers and race baiters to emphasise while reminding of the worst in our characters.

So Grant Gibbons, chiefly responsible as Minister of Economic Development for bringing the “Auld Mug” to Bermuda, was right to chastise Furbert for wholly irresponsible statements that have already done the island reputational harm.

As insular in their thinking as so many on this island appear to be — even in this digital age when the world can be brought to our shores in an instant — our Wednesday front-page splash titled “BIU threatens America’s Cup” has been seen globally.

We took no pleasure in doing it, for what it might mean to the prospects of the 35th America’s Cup, but you cannot run away from the news; nor can you bury it.

But what must San Diego think?

They kicked a right fuss after losing the bid to “upstart” Bermuda in December 2014 — “how dare an American team defend the Cup away from the US mainland for the first time in history”; “what could that little place have that we don’t?”

What must New Zealand think?

They were, and probably still are, the harshest critics among the five original challengers of AC35 coming to Bermuda, their gripes having more to do with lost sponsorship deals in the wake of Auckland being overlooked as host for the Qualifiers than with the location.

Speaking of sponsors, what must Louis Vuitton think? BMW? Sail Racing? Oracle? Heavy hitters, the lot of them.

One of the hoped-for legacies of this event is that world-renowned sponsors may see Bermuda as being an attractive place to do business.

And what are the thoughts of billionaire Larry Ellison, the man behind Oracle Team USA and who in no small part played a crucial role in getting the America’s Cup Event Authority to look beyond the United States as a host?

Ellison will be in Bermuda; if not for the start of the Qualifiers on May 26, then most definitely by the time of the Superyacht Regatta on June 13. Among Ellison’s many toys is a superyacht — one of the many that will be seen in Bermuda this summer.

These superyachts, which are high-end by nature, will be carrying high-end passengers. High-end passengers spend big. That spending will take place in Bermuda, whether you can see and feel the greenbacks or not.

And what will be going through the heads of those 11 young white and black — or black and white — athletes who make up the fledgeling Team BDA for the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup?

They have survived a rigorous selection process that began with 40 applicants and are soon to be put on the international stage as never before, with the possible exception of Olympian Cecilia Wollmann.

And then, finally, we have the children of Bermuda, many of the same young folk who were stranded trying to get to school this week, or who required alternative transportation, because buses were not running due to the issue of a foreigner’s work permit.

You know, those several hundred young people who have benefited from the Endeavour programme and who will be the truest legacy of AC35, and those others in our public schools who have been given early access to the AC experience.

What the likes of Sir Russell Coutts have contributed to their lives through sailing is immeasurable.

But it could all be for naught if Furbert’s threat is effected — notably amid yesterday’s climbdown, he said that the chief demands remained “on the table” — leaving so many broken pieces of our reputation in its wake that not even the Progressive Labour Party would feel up to putting Humpty Dumpty back together again should it form the next government heading into 2018.

This is what Furbert’s utterance means — and the PLP’s statement yesterday supporting the America’s Cup exemplifies the gravely serious nature of what came out of his mouth in such a fit of pique that it could not possibly have been scripted. Old-school “Butch” Furbert, hardman of the vaunted PHC Zebras back four of yesteryear; not the comparatively more measured operator of modern times.

For context, the closest tangible comparison that can be made for when you leap before you look is the flash crash last October of the British pound, which fell by 6 per cent against the dollar in a matter of minutes in the wake of reported comments from François Hollande, the French President, who called for tough Brexit negotiations with the United Kingdom.

It showed that your money, and your reputation, can be gone in a blink of an eye.

Surely, the Reverend Nicholas Tweed does not wish that for this island, his “ancestral homeland”.

Far from Jason Hayward’s proclamation that there is no People’s Campaign without any of the “marching triumvirate”, Tweed is the glue that makes the social activist pressure group stick — make no mistake about that.

Without him, there is all brawn and mania but little panache, the sort that moves even people who do not want to be moved.

Without him, the People’s Campaign might as well become Move Bermuda.

Furbert and Hayward, president of the Bermuda Public Services Union, representing white-collar workers, both have day jobs — and the latter may want to revisit loyalties given a visible lack of support from his members this week.

And when he does hold his next general meeting to see what they think — what they really, really think, as Furbert learnt yesterday — he may want to explain the quote “I can’t drag the BPSU out. Unfortunately, my members do not operate in the same vein.”

If the accusations are correct that this work permit kerfuffle has been designed to break up the social activist pressure group, the Government can be criticised, and rightly so because people — not “the people” — need a voice that is not steeped in politics.

If not, and remember that the much maligned home affairs minister Patricia Gordon-Pamplin has a “get out of jail free” card because regulations have not been followed to the letter of the law, Tweed and the AME Church can have only themselves to blame for whatever fallout settles on this country.

They say misery loves company. In a worst-case scenario, there will be a lot of it to go around.