you know what's really really ironic about this whole apology debate is that a week ago in the news aboriginal elders in halls creek were asking childcare authorities to TAKE THE MISTREATED AND UNCARED FOR CHILDREN into emergency care 

keej said:I'm not sorry for what they did, because I didn't fucking do it.
You live here because all that shit happened. Saying you don't agree with it or it is not your fault seems a little rich when you live off the fruits of what happened.How about instead of sorry, we say that we wish it hadn't turned out that way. Sorry is the wrong goddamn word to use, and the points people are making about why we should say sorry could be resolved by expressing that we believe it was a bad thing that happened.
I can't speak on behalf of the people that committed these acts 200 years ago because of the tenuous link that we *may* be distant relatives, or because I've possibly benefited from their actions. I'm not sorry for what they did, because I didn't fucking do it. I can't even speak for my parents, or anyone who isn't myself. What gives us the right to apologise for what they did? All we can do is say we don't agree with it.
The whole 'sorry' debate is merely symbolic - as dreamtime has been saying, the least the aboriginal people deserve is an apology. I know that actions speak louder than words but simply acknowledging the fact that we did something wrong would lay a great foundation to start helping today's aborigines to lead themselves out of the rut that we essentially placed them in. It may just be a word, and a fairly innocuous word at that, but it's the recognition behind the word that is important.
keej said:Who's we? Australia?
I've never had a particularly strong sense of patriotism, and I don't feel the need to inherit the baggage of this counry simply because I was born here. I'm also part German, and in the same light I don't feel guilt for what the Nazis did because a distant relative happened to be born there.
If you read my posts you'll note that I'm not against the social responsibility / humanitarian aspect of it, and my statements haven't been against recognition of what happened to them. However, I don't believe in personally feeling accountable, responsible, or faulty for it though as some have charged I should feel.
"The white man," rasped Thorpe, part-white himself, "he's a liar, he's a thief."
"So evil was he that he'd "exterminated 99 per cent of the (black) population here".
"Weapons of mass destruction were used on innocent people in a pre-emptive strike, namely smallpox . . . (using) a cargo of disease".
"And this "pariah state" was still committing a "premeditated criminal genocide of the indigenous people ongoing for 237 years".
MoeBro said:fuck you all, posting before i got in
beatlebot: correct me if im wrong, but you don't really seem to have been 'talking' very much in this thread. it looks like a singular post about fascist whites, and the other two complaining about keej?
Zero the hero said:Preacha- You seem to have little to no understanding of the broader issue, you're arguments are blatantly racist, hateful and pathetically simplistic.
preacha said:i just thought people were having Keystroke withdrawl, so i had to step up to the plate :D