Word: rudd
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...stolen" from his family at the age of 16 for catching a fish in a farmer's stream. My Irish ancestor was "stolen" from his family for protesting against British landlords. People like them and their descendants worked to build Australia as a modern nation. When Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said sorry, he did not speak for me. I have nothing to be sorry for. Aboriginal people certainly need government help in health and education, but above all they need to contribute toward their own welfare. This means getting a job, sending their children to school and joining mainstream Australia...
...Apologies have symbolic value but often lack substance. The solutions to indigenous people's problems are vastly more difficult than saying a few words. Prime Minister Rudd also failed to acknowledge the role of his Labor Party in originating almost all of the indigenous legislation that is now being condemned. Doubtless there will now be many claims for compensation by indigenous people. Will apologies also be made to the British children taken to orphanages in Australia last century, to internees during the world wars, to Pacific islanders kidnaped to work in the Queensland cane fields, to the unwed mothers...
...Sorry" on the cover of TIME. Not that it is wrong to say sorry for injustices when they have occurred. However, there is no proof that the "stolen generations" were actually stolen from their families. Authorities in Australia have been unable to name even 10 stolen children. New PM Rudd has grabbed at an opportunity to get global attention by blaming Australians for injustices that are a myth. Former PM John Howard expressed regret but did not say "sorry" because there was, and still is, no proof that Aboriginal children were stolen. Welfare organizations only removed children from situations...
...city across the Hudson from the gleaming skyline of New York, yet worlds removed from Manhattan magic. A place whose residents shiver in dour poverty, and whose most famous native sons and daughters had to leave town to make it big. The honor roll would include Joe Piscopo, Paul Rudd, Steely Dan's Donald Fagen, Gilligan's Island creator Sherwood Schwartz, three-time Oscar-winning producer Saul Zaentz, sitcom regulars Loretta Swit and Larry Storch, sports hysteric Dick Vitale...and, Be Kind Rewind tells us, the legendary pianist and composer Fats Waller...
...BREAKS DOWN In his 360-word apology, Rudd said "sorry" three times. An official commission deemed the assimilation policy genocide in 1997. Today the life expectancy of Aborigines is still 17 years shorter than other Australians. The test will be whether Rudd's powerful symbolism leads to real change...