Nick, et al., I have mixed feelings about the notion of national apologies for long-past events. Who is it that needs to apologize? And who will they apologize to? To stick with your example, what has Obama ever done to Bill Baker (current head of the Cherokee Nation)?
I have similar feelings when discussion comes up about "reparations" for slavary. The redutio ad absurdum is to wonder when 'my people' will finally get a share of all those tourism dollars that Egypt collects from the Pyramids. Frankly, I think the US owes apologies to many people around the world for recent actions. "We" probably also owe apologies to some Native Americans and African Americans for current discrepancies in treatment (such as the atrocious sentencing rates and durations for African American males). But I have trouble feeling the same way about things that occurred several generations ago... Maybe if I came from a culture with a greater emphasis on ancestry I would feel differently. I could see apologizing on behalf of my ancestors for things done to other people's ancestors. I would be fascinated to know what other people think about this, especially those who have witnessed the effects of such efforts. Eric On Mon, Dec 17, 2012 01:51 AM, "Nicholas Thompson" <nickthomp...@earthlink.net> wrote: > Thanks, Russ. At least somebody had the grace to apologize. I don't think >the word apologize is in our national lexicon. Can you IMAGINE what would >happen if Obama were to apologize on behalf of the nation for our infection, >slaughter, displacement, and confinement of indigenous Americans. >[shudder] N > >-----Original Message----- >From: Friam [mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com] On Behalf Of Russell Standish >Sent: Sunday, December 16, 2012 11:08 PM >To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group >Subject: Re: [FRIAM] How to avoid shootings > >On Sun, Dec 16, 2012 at 10:56:44PM -0700, Nicholas Thompson wrote: >> And you forgot our genocide? For some reason I imagine that the >> Australian genocide was less vicious. I hope the Australians on the >> list will weigh in on that. N >> >> >> > >Sadly, our treatment of the Aborigines was pretty appalling, right up to >1968, when they were finally given the vote and recognised as citizens of >our country. And that included mass genocide, in places like Tasmania, and >kidnapping of children by the state. > >It looks like our generation has finally made some effort to apologise, and >fix up the mess created by previous generations, but there is still a long >way to go before there is true equality between aboriginal and >non-aboriginal people. > >Cheers > >-- > >---------------------------------------------------------------------------- >Prof Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile) >Principal, High Performance Coders >Visiting Professor of Mathematics hpco...@hpcoders.com.au >University of New South Wales http://www.hpcoders.com.au >---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > >============================================================ >FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, >unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org > > >============================================================ >FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org > > > ------------ Eric Charles Assistant Professor of Psychology Penn State University Altoona, PA 16601
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