[Watch the video above or watch it here on Youtube.]

Australia’s policy was to assimilate the indigenous population by “breeding out their color.” An estimated 100,000 Aborigines were kidnapped and are now known as the Stolen Generations. The practice continued until 1970, although the government didn’t apologize until 2008.

Is it time for the U.S. government to say sorry? Long past time.

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On a related note, I find it interesting that so many complain about a supposed lack of manners and decency among individuals, but if we invite those same expectations onto our government, or even our racial group, we balk.

Many of us think that since we changed our behavior, then that change should stand in for an actual apology. Would we let our children get away with that?

I suppose that if we were to actually say sorry, we’d have to admit that destroying culture and sacred land, mass migration, behavior modification, Christian imperialism, stealing of property, and, lest we forget, mass genocide, were acts of evil perpetrated by our beloved ancestors. That virtually all of us have benefited greatly from stolen wealth. And to admit that is to admit our own complicity in such evil.

Then again, there are many later things that also demand an apology, and we still seem allergic to the idea.

Maybe we just need some people to go first: I am certainly sorry. I’m sorry for what my people have done and for the privilege I have because of it. I am sorry that I am ignorant to the continued abuse and the continued practices which promote and protect inequality. I am sorry for trying to speak for my brothers and sisters without letting them speak for themselves. I am sorry for my own unwillingness to sacrifice what I have so that you may have an equal share.I am sorry for all those things I have done, known and unknown and those things done on my behalf. I am sorry.

This is my apology.

And still, even if we give 300 million separate apologies, it isn’t the same as the one apology that really needs to be made. The apology still owed.