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!!
Hi Karen - I'm not quite sure how you got this from what I
wrote - my point was that in one statement he says he beleives in
reconciliation and in another he says he doesn't. That's a
contradiction. It means one answer is a lie. If someone lies (as
the quotes - and they are quotes - show that he does) then we have some
reason to doubt their integrity. That was my point.
But to address your point. I wonder what a united
nation means? Who gets to decide what the rules are under which we
live? I'm sure you'll agree that the rules - what system of
government, how the law will work, who'll write the laws, who'll be allowed
to be elected, all those sorts of things - they don't just appear out of the
blue. They are there because people decide to do things in this way
and not that. In a united nation, the more people having a say in how
those rules are formed, the better, I think. But a 'united nation' is
not just about formal things like that. It's also about less easily
defined things - about moral things I guess. So when we decide to do
something - like send aid to East Timor - we do it for moral reasons,
because we beleive it's the right thing to do. People are suffering
and we try to help. An apology falls into that sort of category.
It's another decision we make.
As Prime Minister, John Howard has decided that he won't
apologise, for pretty much the reasons you give - we shouldn't have to
apologise for something we didn't actually do. His moral reasons
are that no-one who didn't actually, personally, confiscate land, abduct a
child, poison a waterhole, march people off a cliff, introduce a disease,
suppress a language, denigrate a tradition, or any of the other things
that actually happened - if you personally didn't do this, then you
shouldn't have to apologise.
There are other people, though, who think, well I didn't
actually do any of those things, but then again I didn't have to - somebody
else had already done them for me. The land had already been
confiscated by the time I was born, and I sure didn't abduct any children or
poison any water etc etc. By the time I got here, I didn't have to do
any of those things. Because it was already done. And here I am,
living here, through no fault of my own. There are people in this
position - that is, in exactly the same position as John Howard, people who
just happened to be born here once most of the dirty work was done - who
nonetheless think that it would be a good idea to apologise. Not
because they personally did any of those things, but because they benefit
from those things having been done in the past. We would not be here
now if those things hadn't been done in the past. And they are sorry
that their situation today was brought about by those things that happened
in the past. So some people want to say sorry.
So it will help reconciliation because it will acknowledge
that how we live today came about because of what happened in the
past. (I wonder if you think that is true or not?) We might not
have done those things, but like I say - WE didn't have to. We just
happened to get born here now and can take advantage of the way things
are. We can't undo the past, but we can acknowledge it. An
apology is a way of making that acknowledgement and saying that we'd like
things to be based on a fairer system in the future so that we can have the
'united nation' you speak of. So the future is what we do
today. An apology will help because what we do today will affect
how we (and our decendants) live in the furture. An apology will get
us off to a better start in the future - better than the start we were
given.
It's like the bumper sticker says: If you can read this,
you're on Aboriginal land.
Anyway, sorry to go on, but I hope you can see what I'm
saying, even if you disagree. But for me the "I didn't do it" argument
isn't very convincing. I didn't land at Galipolli or win the last
Ashes series, but I'm proud of those achievements - as I know John Howard
is. But if you can be proud about the good things in the past
even though "you didn't do them", then you can be ashamed of the bad things
and acknowledge they were bad and wrong by apologising
them; and it is such a tiny thing compared to the victim's
loss. A tiny thing.
Tim