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:: Saturday, November 21st, 2009Toward Democracy
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NEW GOVERNMENT? ONE CAN ONLY HOPE
03/18/08 · 1:00 pm :: posted by Zep
My stepdaughter Evie recently spent a month in Australia, and sent me an article from the Byron Shire Echo, serving an area on the east coast of the continent. Ttled “Long overdue but heartfelt apology.” it was issued by newly elected Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.“We apologize for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians.
“We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their communities and their countries. For the pain and suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry.
“To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers nd the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry.
“And for the indignity and degradation on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry.”
The article goes on to say that “With these simple words Prime Minister Kevin Rudd altered the psyche of a nation and set hands clapping with a deafening roar across Australia.
“For many Austrailians it was an emotional and historic moment but for Aboriginal Australians particularly it signalled the acknowledgement of ‘the stain’ across white Australia’s history and a hopeful new wave of reconciliation.”
New government, overdue acknowledgement. One can only hope.
5 comments
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03/18/08 @ 4:01 pm
Monponsett [Member] writes:
Deval should make the same speech, but end it with "But now that we're giving you a casino, you have to stop complaining.... and thanks for the syphillis, by the way."
[ Show all comments by this user ]
Solon [Member] writes:
Zep, your heart is in the right place, but your attempt to project your own guilt complex onto an entire nation is misguided.
All who have read "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" know what shameful systematic wrongs our leaders have perpetrated against the American Indians. I recommend this book to everyone of all ages. It is a must in understanding our history.
But the wrongs were done by other generations against other generations. To whom else would you like our country to apologize?
To the Greeks, the first of whom were brought to America as "indentured servants" (aka slaves), and 50 percent of whom died the first year in the swamps of Florida, alongside Seminoles?
To the Irish, when stores and barrooms were festooned with signs reading, "Dogs and Irishmen not welcome"?
To the blacks for the KKK and the Jim Crow era?
We could go on forever. Right now, I'm out here in Arizona among Navajos. They're a fine people with a great sense of history and tradition, and the last thing they really want is a white speaking for them.
All who have read "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" know what shameful systematic wrongs our leaders have perpetrated against the American Indians. I recommend this book to everyone of all ages. It is a must in understanding our history.
But the wrongs were done by other generations against other generations. To whom else would you like our country to apologize?
To the Greeks, the first of whom were brought to America as "indentured servants" (aka slaves), and 50 percent of whom died the first year in the swamps of Florida, alongside Seminoles?
To the Irish, when stores and barrooms were festooned with signs reading, "Dogs and Irishmen not welcome"?
To the blacks for the KKK and the Jim Crow era?
We could go on forever. Right now, I'm out here in Arizona among Navajos. They're a fine people with a great sense of history and tradition, and the last thing they really want is a white speaking for them.
Zep [Member] writes:
Solon, We have very different views about the accumulated injustices down the generations, stemming from original ones. It's presumptuous of you to assume I'm projecting my own "guilt complex" and I find it ironic that you speak for the Navajos in saying that "the last thing they really want is a white speaking for them." But then, since I don't know you, perhaps I'm projecting my whiteness on you. Zep
Solon [Member] writes:
I see you can only deflect the issues and fall back on the twisted logic of the left. I don't see Berkeley in your academic background. Did you go there?
Your arguments are reminiscent of those of friends (yes, friends) from Berkeley who espoused the teachings of Mao in America long after Maoism was already dead to the Chinese. Reality was never an issue with them. Only misguided beliefs and empty moral-high-ground rhetoric.
And they always accused their opposition of what they were doing themselves. I'm out here talking TO the Indians. You're the one who thinks she's talking FOR the Indians.
Your arguments are reminiscent of those of friends (yes, friends) from Berkeley who espoused the teachings of Mao in America long after Maoism was already dead to the Chinese. Reality was never an issue with them. Only misguided beliefs and empty moral-high-ground rhetoric.
And they always accused their opposition of what they were doing themselves. I'm out here talking TO the Indians. You're the one who thinks she's talking FOR the Indians.
Zep [Member] writes:
Ah, Solon, when all else fails, fall back on red-baiting and presuming to know what and how I think. Over and out!
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