Hard to say ‘I’m sorry’

"I’m sorry” isn’t an easy thing to say, particularly when it’s decades overdue.\nThis month, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd historically and boldly apologized for a “great stain” on Australia’s “soul”: its treatment of Aboriginal people. He apologized for the “indignity and degradation,” the “pain, suffering and hurt” and “profound grief” that unjust government laws and policies inflicted on Aborigines, particularly the “Stolen Generations.” For decades the government removed indigenous children from their families, claiming it was “protecting” them, and placed them in harsh living conditions with poor education and frequent abuse.\nOnly a few nations have apologized for past atrocities and injustices. Canada apologized to its native people in 1998 for deprivation and mistreatment that led in part to unemployment, poverty and poor health conditions. South Africa apologized for apartheid in 1992 followed by years of public accountability through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.\nUnfortunately, the U.S. isn’t scrambling to follow these commendable examples.\nTo its credit, our government has offered a few apologies. It has demonstrated regret for the “grave injustice” of the “evacuation, relocation and internment” of Japanese Americans during World War II. It has recognized the “deprivation of the rights of Native Hawaiians to self-determination.” And it has acknowledged the evils of the Tuskegee medical experiments, where poor black men were prevented from receiving medical treatment for syphilis without their knowledge or consent.\nThese public acknowledgments of injustice and inhumanity were important, but do you notice any glaring omissions? This country enacted laws and policies that forcibly removed native people from their land and exterminated them. The government upheld slavery and segregation for many years and passed laws that explicitly prevented black people from acquiring land, homes, education and other fundamental civil rights. Yet we refuse to utter a sincere “I’m sorry” for these glaring injustices whose effects live on today. And that’s a pity.\nA government apology is a largely symbolic gesture, yet it forces citizens to acknowledge the things we would prefer not to remember but must not forget. It makes us reflect on shameful times when we failed to uphold our ideals so that we can learn from the past, make amends and ensure we don’t repeat our mistakes. We’ll never learn anything if we turn our heads in silence.\nMost of us are several generations removed from slavery, segregation and native genocide. But we are guilty of living in a world shaped by those events, acting as if they are irrelevant today, and attempting to detach ourselves from the contemporary effects of those events. A public apology forces us to look directly at our past and confront its role in our present.\nMost of us are generally well-intentioned, compassionate people. We don’t like to acknowledge wrongdoing. We don’t want to confront our direct or indirect role in injustice. But in order to live up to its greatness, our country – all of us – must own up to those moments in which our brightness turned dark.\nI’m sorry it’s taking so long.