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The Associated Press

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd apologized in Parliament.

Featured Topic | Posted 39 weeks 6 days ago

Apologies to aborigines; are American Indians next?

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd this week apologized to his country's aborigines for the "stolen generation" of native children taken from their parents to be raised by white parents. Coincidentally, it comes as the U.S. Senate nears passage of a resolution that would apologize to American Indians for centuries of mistreatment at the hands of whites here.

Are apologies for historic misdeeds useful? And if so, when are they required?

Ben likes: The art of saying sorry

Sunanda K Datta-Ray/Business Standard

Apologies have become the rage, but not done well, they don't serve the purpose. It takes a strong man to say “sorry”. Tinpot creatures with puffed up vanity cannot summon up the pride or courage to apologize.

Sadly, though, apologies have become the rage. Japan doesn’t demand an American apology for Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but China feels Japanese expressions of regret for the Nanjing massacre are not sufficiently abject. South Korean comfort women want apology and compensation, and the Irish grumble that Tony Blair’s comments on the potato famine were far too glib. It’s an unending process with no sure means of identifying either the magnitude of crimes or the sincerity of apologies. Given the scope for political opportunism, it would be far better to draw a curtain across the past and work to secure the future.

Joel likes: A hollow apology to Indian people

Kevin Abourezk/Reznet

But like aboriginal leaders who questioned what real effect the Australian apology would have on their people, Native Americans must now ask the same question.

Brownback's amendment offers the following disclaimer: "Nothing in this section: (1) authorizes or supports any claim against the United States; or (2) serves as a settlement of any claim against the United States."

So what real effect will such a hollow apology have in ending the very real problems—sky-high rates of diabetes, infant mortality, and alcohol and drug abuse—facing Native people today?