The Freedom of Real Apologies

When Layli Long Soldier said, "And I was personally really surprised that I hadn’t heard about it before. Part of the reason I hadn’t was because it was so quiet. And there really was not a lot of risk taken in how it was delivered," in her pod cast she was referring to the apology the American government gave the Native American people. It is important to note that its surprising she hadn't heard it before because she is a Native American. It seems ridiculous that the American Government can issue an apology for what they put the Native American people through and yet members of the Native American ethnicity would not hear about it. This tells me two things. First of all the American Government did not make their apology public enough and therefore was trying to distance themselves from the situation that they had created. The second is that they were just doing it to say that they did. If they really would have meant it they would have made a public spectacle of the apology and made sure the Native American people knew about their apology. Later on in the podcast Layli Long Soldier says, "So even the phrasing of “the arrival of Europeans opened a new chapter for Native People” — that’s crazy. It wasn’t opening a new chapter. That’s almost poetry. I mean, that’s a very interesting way to look at what happened. And going further into the document, just the idea — for example, they never mention genocide. Things are phrased as “conflicts,” “lives were taken on both sides,” and things like that." She is referring to how the American Government is again trying to distance themselves from the evil acts that were committed. Between the European people coming over and the American Government taking the Native American lands and relocating them. The Trail of Tears was essentially a mass genocide that happened on direct authority from the American Government and yet they are still trying to distance themselves from these acts by issuing a half hearted apology. The details of this phrasing are so important because its the American Government trying to get own up to something terrible that they did, but they down play almost every factor that happened between the American Government and the Native Americans. They almost wiped out a whole race of people and yet they say, "Lives were taken on both sides." Specificty is so important because it makes people think you mean what you say and that if you're willing to believe in exactly what you say then others might be able to as well. That is part of how you can persuade people with your writing. In this interview the tone was a calmer one but it was still deeply emotional. They would read a quote from the American Government then discuss it fora little. This is a good idea for an interview stradegy is to quote an article or person and get people's opinions on it.