I don't know why you are so defensive about your age. There are many young people on the list. Some younger than you are.
You ask why an apology is necessary and how it will make reconciliation work. An apology is only a part of reconciliation but a very necessary part.
Let me pose you a scenario:
You are married and have children. You live with your extended family
on a very productive farm and everyone gets along pretty well and have
enough to eat.
Then, some people you've never seen before come onto your farm and
begin shooting your family. Your husband and 2 of your 5 children are killed
right in front of you.. Most of your extended family, your mother and father,
aunts and uncles are killed. Some of the men come and rape your two young
daughters and bash your young son. Almost all the people you have known
and loved all your life are dead and you have no one to comfort you or
to help you. They take your farm and everything on it and leave you a small
plot to live on but only if you work the farm for barely enough food to
live on. You have no choice because you don't want your children to starve
to death so you work for the people who took everything you loved from
you.
Eventually, your two daughters give birth to a child each but they
look different from your family and before long, the people you work for
tear the the children away from your daughters and leave with them. You
are grief-stricken for your daughters and the loss of your grandchildren,
you are angry but helpless to do anything about it. Your son has never
been the same since his bashing and is sullen and refuses to do anything
except destroy everything he touches. You can't reach him no matter what
you do and you fear for his life. Your daughters become distant and begin
drinking to forget what has happened to them and one morning you find one
of them dead. She is 18.
The years pass and you are now getting old. The people who took everything
from you are dead and their children are now in charge. They still make
you work hard and give you a little extra now and then.
Then, one day they come to see you. They want everything that has happened
to be forgotten. They now want to live as equals. They offer to give you
a bit more land so that you can grow things for yourself and have a bit
more to eat. Of course, you will no longer get anything extra from them.
Also, the conditions attached to this land are that everything is to be
done as they instruct. You cannot follow the practices of the past. They
offer to educate your new grandchild but insist on choosing what is taught
and only in their language.
They want to go forward as if nothing has happened and they want you
to forget what their parents did to you and your family and not live in
the past. They refuse to apologise because they don't feel responsible
for what their parents did even though they know what their parents did
and they are growing rich on what the farm produces. They cannot even bring
themselves to tell you that they are sorry for what you have suffered....
How would you feel, Karen? Would you forgive them and go forward as
if nothing had happened? Would you think you now had equality?
Would you betray the love of your children and parents and their deaths
and agree to forget so that they could feel better?
Trudy
Karen wrote:
> Tim, >Just because he doesn't believe in saying sorry doesn't mean he doesn't believe in people living as >a nation united!! >There is no need for a sorry - how will it make reconciliation work? >Can anyone even answer that question? Karen-----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of tdunlop Sent: Saturday, 11 March 2000 9:09 AM To: RecOzNet2 Subject: [recoznet2] has the man no shame!!!!! Trudy wrote: Howard is saying nothing new but I think the time has come for people to ask him to prove his 'commitment'. So far, all his actions have proved the opposite. --- Trudy Trudy, Not just his actions, but his words. I can't believe anyone at all can take him seriously on this. I can't believe he has the nerve to come out of a meeting and say, once again, that he's committed to reconciliation. It's only a week ago on 3AW that he said: "What baffles me about this (reconciliation) issue is that I'm expected to repudiate my own personal beliefs; I'm told that the only way I can show leadership on this issue is to do something I don't believe in." The game was up the moment he uttered this, for once, truthful comment - he doesn't believe in it. But still, his comment about being committed to reconciliation keeps popping like an unflushable turd. Bit like the man himself. I'm flabbergasted. Tim
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