Quote:
Originally Posted by Thunderball
That's most of why I hate these public apologies. We're sorry because we got caught, got pressured, and found a way to politically spin this to make us look nice with an election looming in the next 12 months.
I also find the whole apologizing for past generations a little comical and hollow in and of itself. "I'm sorry for something I was not alive for, and am only superficially aware of. As leader of a nation that bears little resemblance to the one that wronged people who may or may not be even alive to hear this apology, I offer my most heartfelt apology and stoic look I can muster from drama class..." is all they ever sound like to me and probably to the people they are apologizing to.
Yes, there's shared history, and yes there's something to say about acknowledgment, but its not like saying sorry and dishing out a few million is going to make the pain go away or allow some mystical white-out to erase the incident from the books. It happened, it was bad, it was ended by a wiser generation, acknowledgment was made for the sins of the fathers (literally and hypothetically)... a politically convenient photo-op apology isn't going to change anything... I doubt the hate will simply vanish. The First Nations are not simply going to say, "alright, apology accepted. Lets move on." More concrete actions and difficult decisions are needed, not superficialities.
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While I do understand what your saying I cant agree with it... I think these acknowledgements/appologies do mean something to the victims. I think the least we can do considering it doesnt affect us either way is silently or vocally support the movement, second guessing the motivation behind it cheapens it more than it already is by its nature...
I have never had an experience that a nation needed to appologize to me for... but ask a Polish person what it meant to them when Russia finally admitted in 1990ish that they not Hitler's Germany executed 22,000 poles during the 2nd world war, something everyone knew but they would not admit... A pole friend of mine had teary eyes when he told me the story... so hollow as it may have been for Russia to admit it, I guess it meant something to him.
I think the sincerity and meaning of the appology is up to the victims to decide....
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/908253.stm