A little bit of Politics

In the new again today is a story about Prime Minister John Howard not saying sorry for the actions of people in the past.

The actions of white people in the past have been terrible, but neither he, nor I nor you were around in the seventeen and eighteen hundreds when these things started happening. Even things that happened in the twentieth century where not ordered by him.

My personal feeling is that if he was to apologies, it would mean nothing. If he was apologising for his actions I could understand the calls from indigenous leaders for an apology, but for him to apologies for the action of others, in the past, is like asking George Bush to say sorry to the American Indians for all the atrocious they suffered. It doesn’t make sense and it’s never going to happen.

It has been acknowledged that the Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders were the original inhabitants of this wide brown land. It has also been acknowledged that they have been treated badly. Please accept those acknowledgements by way of an apology. Surely this is better than a meaningless apology?

I have conducted a small, informal survey around the office and 8 out of 11 people think a sorry would be meaningless.