In a message dated 3/3/2004 7:18:08 AM Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> OK so this is politics and a very emotive subject. > > I don't think that we current Australians have anything to answer for. Not > that I agree with what has happened to the Australian > Aboriginal people. > > There are two things I want to say. <rest of messaged snipped> Brian, You've just hit on the same problem that is faced by us all on subjects such as slavery and the holocaust. I have two stock answers for any accusation that I am to blame for these events 1) I am sorry that they happened, they were wrong but me, personally I am not to blame, my family, personally were not to blame. But this does not stop me from being sympathetic to the historical suffering but does not mean that I am responsible for anything more than educating others to prevent it happening again. If that doesn't work I usually get flippant and say: 2) I'm sorry, I wasn't alive then to have done anything about it. My main circle of aquantances are Orthodox Jews and regular as clock work they bring up the holocaust and how 'little' the UK did about it. This is worse when it is brought up by people my own age (under 40) who weren't alive then either. When they say the usual 'what were you (the Brits) doing about the holocaust' I always say the same thing; 'well I'm sorry my Dad didnt' do anything about the holocaust, he was too busy fighting the Japanese in Burma to give it his full attention. Oh and my mum was only 12 and had just lost her father. What were your parents doing?' It usually gets an apology at that point. I had a (white) guy have a go at me about slavery once. As I pointed out to him, none of my family have ever been invovled with or profited from slavery as my father's side of the family were, until my father's birth, famers in Surrey (not a big growth area of slavery) and my mother's side of the family were all musicians. Of course, we don't mention my sister's second husband who's family were on the privateer side in the 1600s ... no we don't mention that. Liz Regards Liz Beecher I'm <A HREF="http://journals.aol.com/thelacebee/thelacebee";>blogging</A> now - see what it's all about To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
