Sorry

No doubt Feb 13, 2008 will be an important day in Australian history, and it is attached to the word "sorry".

The new Australian Federal government apologized to the "stolen generation" of aboriginals today. Videos of Kevin Rudd's speech can be seen here and the full transcript is here.

It is a gloomy and cloudy day here in Canberra, and thunderstorm was forecasted. Still hundreds of people gathered outside the Parliament House to witness the historical moment. as shown in the videos. According to this journalist, there was a queue one hour before the Parliament building opened.

At work our department chief send a link for us to watch the video yesterday. Obviously school kids were also scheduled to watch it--a father interviewed this morning in ABC commented he didn't remember to watch anything as important at school himself, Armstrong landed his foot on the moon, maybe.

Yes, that is how important the day is to many Australians. Still there are others, like the opposite leader Nelson, who thinks that the apology does nothing other than opening doors for compensation claims. Another typical view is this move will cause harm if it further fosters the ‘victims’ view of aboriginal people.

Perhaps they both have a point. But for me today it is not so much about reasoning and legal arguments. Instead, it is about emotions, about being humane and emphatic to others' suffering. My only experience about the Stolen Generations came from watching "The rabbit proof fence", and even that made my eyes wet when watching Rudd talking today.