http://starbulletin.com/2008/07/28/news/story05.html Obama notes ‘tragic’ US past American history's "sad" aspects require action, the senator tells cheering journalists By Laurie Au lau@starbulletin.com CHICAGO » Sen. Barack Obama, speaking to a gathering of minority journalists yesterday, stopped short of endorsing an official U.S. apology to American Indians but said the country should acknowledge its history of poor treatment of certain ethnic groups. "There's no doubt that when it comes to our treatment of Native Americans as well as other persons of color in this country, we've got some very sad and difficult things to account for," Obama told hundreds of attendees of UNITY '08, a convention of four minority journalism associations. The Hawaii-born senator, who has told local reporters that he supports the federal recognition bill for native Hawaiians drafted by U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka, noted other ethnic groups but did not mention native Hawaiians when answering a question about his thoughts on a formal U.S. apology to American Indians. "I personally would want to see our tragic history, or the tragic elements of our history, acknowledged," the Democratic presidential hopeful said. "I consistently believe that when it comes to whether it's Native Americans or African-American issues or reparations, the most important thing for the U.S. government to do is not just offer words, but offer deeds." Obama, who appeared tired in his first major appearance since returning Saturday from a 10-day trip abroad, met with a receptive audience at the Chicago convention. Some journalists had waited three hours for the 40-minute appearance. The group had expected Obama and Sen. John McCain to speak on Thursday night, but because of scheduling conflicts, only Obama could attend yesterday morning's talk. When Obama walked on stage at the McCormick Center, many journalists in the audience leapt to their feet and applauded enthusiastically after being told not to do so. During a two-minute break halfway through the event, which was broadcast live on CNN, journalists ran to the stage to snap photos of Obama. The Illinois senator talked about his trip overseas, reiterating his opinion that violence is down in Iraq but worsening in Afghanistan. And he expressed his approval of the Senate's passage of a major housing bill to help homeowners avert foreclosure. Obama, who acknowledged that he needed a nap, stood up to say farewell to the audience of journalists, many of whom gave him another standing ovation.
I consider myself to be a Hawaiian; it is my expectation that I'll be buried there. Obama is supposed to be a Hawaiian, too. Funny about the journalists giving him a standing ovation. Click the link and read the comments by Hawaiians. Maybe it's an eye-opener on a range of issues.
I've never understood the hesitance to give formal apologies. I'm not just referring to the US either. It seems to be a common thing among most Western democracies.
There's legal issues involved in doing so. The apology isn't a simple apology; there's long standing international laws that deal with these things. While the genocide in Rwanda was going on, the Clinton administration was very careful to avoid the word "Genocide" as it would have invoked international laws and responsibilities on our part. Disgraceful, if you ask me, as I fail to see what the downside would have been. Indians and Native Hawaiians have a special status in the USA. They're considered a nation within our nation, yet we treat them in a lot of ways like citizens and the govt. has to get involved in ruining/running their lives. Example? In Hawaii, they forced the kids to go to public school. Separation of church and state kicks in, as well as teaching in english. The result is the Hawaiian language, culture, and religion is just about lost.
What do you mean when you say international laws and responsibilities? Are we talking about potential for lawsuits? I know what you're talking about when it comes to such harsh treatment towards Natives and Aboriginals. Canada has a disgusting history when it comes to relations with Native Canadians. It also took our government 40 years to apologize for the internment of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War. The one case that always comes to mind is when the British were applauding themselves on the 200th anniversary of the abolition of slavery only to have to deal with a lone protestor who emphasized that the country still hadn't apologized for its role in the whole ordeal (link).
Potential for lawsuit, obligation to make amends. I happen to favor reparations to black people (but then, STFU); we made reparations to Japanese whose families were interned in concentration camps in the USA. As for Hawaii, I'm onboard with them seceding from the USA, a movement that has some popularity there.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Chutney @ Jul 29 2008, 08:45 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>I've never understood the hesitance to give formal apologies. I'm not just referring to the US either. It seems to be a common thing among most Western democracies.</div> The House of Reps voted to pass a resolution to issue an apology for slavery and Jim Crow. http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/07/29/hou...very/index.html As for Rwanda, the U.S. simply had no interests in Rwanda. We actually have a poor history when it comes to stopping things like genocide. Read the book A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide by Samantha Power.
I see. So stand by and do nothing while a horrible genocide is going on. The UN commanders on the ground thought they could stop it if we sent in 1500 or 2500 troops.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Denny Crane @ Jul 29 2008, 09:16 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>I see. So stand by and do nothing while a horrible genocide is going on. The UN commanders on the ground thought they could stop it if we sent in 1500 or 2500 troops.</div> It's hard to say if that particular genocide could have been stopped because it wasn't simply a militia being let loose on the people. A lot of it was citizens killing citizens with unconventional weaponry like machetes and whatnot. Stopping arms shipments to Rwanda never worked because of the unconventional ways the genocide was being conducted.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/evil/ http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sh...etc/script.html I'd read through the 2nd link if you want a better understanding. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sh...etc/script.html That's a 2nd show they did 10 years later. I'll quote Albright from the 2nd show: <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Albright)</div><div class='quotemain'>MADELEINE ALBRIGHT, U.N. Ambassador: In retrospect, it all looks very clear. But at the time, what was happening in Rwanda, the situation was unclear.</div> To this day, people involved are lying through their teeth.
