Roger wonders what the Aussies are apologizing for. I think it’s just a passing fad.

European disease accounted for 90% (with estimates up to 95%) of Native American deaths

Far from all of that was accidental (Small pox infected blankets etc).
Beyond that there was plenty of rounding up and killing of the native population that remained after disease had decimated their numbers.
That Native American tribes warred with one another does not absolve their massacre and subjugation by an outside party.
We needn’t clothe ourselves in sackcloth and flagellate ourselves in shame over the actions of our ancestors, but we should not deny their sins either.

I await other articles in this same vein. Perhaps Mr. Kimball with your support could regale us with the equally valid arguments about why slavery in America wasn’t actually a bad thing for the Africans who were brought here and kept in bondage and how good it was for their decendants.

Here in Oregon the Federal goverment bought out the Klamath Indian reservation in 1954. Before it happened it was put to a vote by the tribe. They voted for it and members that didn’t want to take the buyout were allowed land and a continuation of their payments from timber sales.

Now, in 2008, the Federal government is providing the funds for the tribe to purchase back their former reservation.

So we paid them for their land in 1954 and in 2008 we are, in effect, buying that same land back for them.

1954, we paid; 2008 we pay again.

Don’t make deals like this. When I was a kid it was called “Indian giving”.

When the someone starts planning to atone for past “mistakes” just point out that they’ve had their apology. What do they want?

Good one. Orgies of self- congratulation pretty well nails it.

The main function of the victim (aka “he who receives the apology”) is to serve as the excuse for the orgy.

Love Theodore Dalrymple. Planet is in great need of such commons sense.

At some later point, I’m unsure when, aborigines began to be counted in the actual census but it was not until 1967, when the constitution was amended that aborigines were counted when it came to determining how many seats each state received in parliament.

The point here is not to debate whether Ruud’s apology was wise, but there certainly were factual reasons to do something. One such step was made in 1985 when the ownership of Ayers Rock was returned to a local aborigine tribe. Have there been or will there be more such returns, or is White Australia now able to hide behind Ruud’s words and keep valued assets for themselves? Perhaps in a later column Mr. Kimball can bless us with his comment.

And they devised that all before they ever saw a European.

The reference to Lewis is apt – confessing the sins of others is a particularly hypocritical method of accusation.

Likewise, Leftist who apologize for past sins don’t see themselves for apologizing for the sins of their ideological forbearers but rather as apologizing for the sins of the forbearers of their ideological competitors. Apologies for historical wrongs are nothing but a means of turning historical wrongs (real or imagined) into weapons against their present day opponents.

Like more things Leftist do, its an intensely selfish and self-serving act that benefits no one but a few power crazed articulate intellectuals and their wanna be followers.