Apologies

I noticed that North Carolina is the most recent state to apologize for slavery. It seems there's a trend of apologizing for past wrongs -- even though the actual people making the apologies weren't even around at the time of the horror and had no hand in it.

There's nothing wrong with reminding people of past tragedies and giving notice that such things are not acceptable. But doesn't it seem that the true recognition of regret would be to avoid repeating those horrors in the present? Instead of apologizing for genocide, intervene to prevent it in Africa. Instead of apologizing for turning away Jews fleeing the Nazis, take in refugees fleeing persecution today. (What happened to that boatload of Haitians that landed in Florida a while back?) Instead of apologizing for slavery, hunt down and prosecute people who are holding foreign nationals in sweatshops, households and prostitution rings as virtual slaves today.

It's easy to wring your hands over past misdeeds. It's harder to act to prevent or eliminate them today. So much easier to turn our heads and let future generations make new apologies.