Open Letter from Lori Oschefski
regarding the apology petition compiled in 2012
Over the past several weeks I have been the recipient of several e-mails and comments made on different mailing lists. I feel it necessary to address this issue, simply because it does not seem to be enough that people can voice their non support of an apology with out disrespectful name calling and general nastiness. Everyone is entitled to an opinion and I do not pollute your e-mails and mailing lists in this manner simply because you don't agree. I have never had such vicious and nasty things said to me - and why?
Most of us start off our searches with a goal in mind. To find out our own personal family history, to learn a little of the circumstances surrounding that history and to learn generally of other peoples experiences too. In all of this it is easy for our views to become polarized and tip the scales in either, " it was a great opportunity" or " it was awful and we deserve an apology" directions! Neither side is right! It is incumbent upon historians to reflect history, no more and no less. If your goal when researching is to simply learn about your family roots and general history then look at the history you're concerned with and keep quiet! If you or your descendant is/was a BHC that was well treated and given a great opportunity in life then good for you and yes, we need to hear those stories too and we are grateful that some were treated very well. What I fail to understand is why the lucky ones are so vocal and vociferous in their insistence that everyone else is wrong and that their stories don’t matter!
There are many, many examples around the world where educated, community minded leaders and society in general; have decided that it is right to reflect upon history and to remember the past. Not only do those people remember the historic wrongdoings, but more importantly, they have set into place parades, memorials and such like, to ENSURE that these events are remembered moving forward. WHY? - Because it is the right thing to do, by most socially accepted standards anyhow. And the reason it is the right thing to do, is immortalized in just three words; “Lest we forget”. Usually used in a military context these words are used to remind us why we take the time to parade every year on the eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month. If you don’t know the context and meaning of those words then they have already been lost on you and you should be truly ashamed.
Then there are those who are obviously lucky enough to have had a charmed life and walk around wearing the obligatory rose tinted glasses. In their World everything is just peachy and others have no right to fight against injustice just in case it taints their rose coloured World. Here is a quote from a lady who calls herself Sanity’s Child – a Rose tinted name if ever there was one!
With all due respect, this call for an apology is silliness. I know we have been excusing demands for apologies from the wounded souls of other groups, but they would be embarrassed out of their skins if they knew how pitiful such whining makes even them look. History is full of huge injustices of which the plight of the Home Children is at the bottom of the scale. It was to the great advantage of most of these children to be swept off the sordid streets of British cities and given a fighting chance to make something of themselves in Canada. Individuals among them were abused in the process, as individuals among all groups of humans are abused. But let’s concentrate our corrective efforts instead on the victims of genocides, mass slaughter, or the extreme physical abuse of women that is still occurring in half the world, and stop wasting people’s time on self-centered, protests about non-issues such as this.
Sanity’s Child
I wouldn’t even lower myself to answer such vehement dribble was it not for the fact that she is not alone in her feelings and this needs to be addressed. She starts her words “with all due respect” when she has no respect. Apart from having the gall to speak for people who she calls “wounded souls” and of whom she doesn’t know anything about, she has no idea of how “embarrassed” they may or may not feel either. The only reason to mention these people at all, is to attempt to bolster and validate her words! To dissect her words, she is right in saying that the World is full of injustices. She is absolutely wrong in saying that the death of a home child is less important than the death of a genocide victim. Dead is dead! Or that an elderly female home child who was beaten and repeatedly raped as a child and still suffering from the memory today is less important than a young woman being physically abused today. She has totally bought into the propaganda used by agencies in Britain to convince the public that immigrating children to Canada and Australia was a great idea. The vast majority of these Children were taken from caring families that were victims of hard times. The vast majority were NOT homeless and picked up from the gutters at the point of death. Britain was suffering from the effects of the industrial revolution as was the rest of Europe but it was not the hell hole she portrays. She also seems to feel that the actual numbers of people affected makes a difference. This is typical in this modern World where people have forgotten about principles. Principles govern the civilized World. Principles formed the Ten Commandments in the Bible and those Commandments are the basis upon which all modern law is derived. One of those principles says “thou shalt not kill” it does NOT say that it’s okay as long as you don’t kill more than XX number of people. To take this further, Canada “only” lost 39,000 people in World War two compared to Russia who lost 27 Million people! Perhaps Sanity’s Child should rent some air time next November, to tell all those people standing in silence for two minutes that they’re an “embarrassment’” and they should stop “whining” as she would obviously feel that our losses were insignificant compared to others.
To make my point clear. I believe that EVERY life is valuable and important. I think that if a War lasts for a single day and ‘only’ one soldier dies, that soldier deserves to be remembered and the people he or she died for need to be reminded of the reasons why. I also believe that every abused child needs to be acknowledged where possible and every injustice needs to be learned from. Apologies cost absolutely nothing and usually make both sides feel better. The Prime Ministers of Britain and Australia were applauded for their apologies to the Home Children and a great deal of good was done simply from the recognition of suffering and of the wrongs done, how can anyone argue against that?
Lest we forget.
Two minutes before the armistice went into effect, at 10:58 a.m. on Nov. 11, 1918, Pte. George Lawrence Price was felled by a bullet. Price would become the final Commonwealth soldier — and the last of more than 66,000 Canadians — to be killed in the First World War.
Most of us start off our searches with a goal in mind. To find out our own personal family history, to learn a little of the circumstances surrounding that history and to learn generally of other peoples experiences too. In all of this it is easy for our views to become polarized and tip the scales in either, " it was a great opportunity" or " it was awful and we deserve an apology" directions! Neither side is right! It is incumbent upon historians to reflect history, no more and no less. If your goal when researching is to simply learn about your family roots and general history then look at the history you're concerned with and keep quiet! If you or your descendant is/was a BHC that was well treated and given a great opportunity in life then good for you and yes, we need to hear those stories too and we are grateful that some were treated very well. What I fail to understand is why the lucky ones are so vocal and vociferous in their insistence that everyone else is wrong and that their stories don’t matter!
There are many, many examples around the world where educated, community minded leaders and society in general; have decided that it is right to reflect upon history and to remember the past. Not only do those people remember the historic wrongdoings, but more importantly, they have set into place parades, memorials and such like, to ENSURE that these events are remembered moving forward. WHY? - Because it is the right thing to do, by most socially accepted standards anyhow. And the reason it is the right thing to do, is immortalized in just three words; “Lest we forget”. Usually used in a military context these words are used to remind us why we take the time to parade every year on the eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month. If you don’t know the context and meaning of those words then they have already been lost on you and you should be truly ashamed.
Then there are those who are obviously lucky enough to have had a charmed life and walk around wearing the obligatory rose tinted glasses. In their World everything is just peachy and others have no right to fight against injustice just in case it taints their rose coloured World. Here is a quote from a lady who calls herself Sanity’s Child – a Rose tinted name if ever there was one!
With all due respect, this call for an apology is silliness. I know we have been excusing demands for apologies from the wounded souls of other groups, but they would be embarrassed out of their skins if they knew how pitiful such whining makes even them look. History is full of huge injustices of which the plight of the Home Children is at the bottom of the scale. It was to the great advantage of most of these children to be swept off the sordid streets of British cities and given a fighting chance to make something of themselves in Canada. Individuals among them were abused in the process, as individuals among all groups of humans are abused. But let’s concentrate our corrective efforts instead on the victims of genocides, mass slaughter, or the extreme physical abuse of women that is still occurring in half the world, and stop wasting people’s time on self-centered, protests about non-issues such as this.
Sanity’s Child
I wouldn’t even lower myself to answer such vehement dribble was it not for the fact that she is not alone in her feelings and this needs to be addressed. She starts her words “with all due respect” when she has no respect. Apart from having the gall to speak for people who she calls “wounded souls” and of whom she doesn’t know anything about, she has no idea of how “embarrassed” they may or may not feel either. The only reason to mention these people at all, is to attempt to bolster and validate her words! To dissect her words, she is right in saying that the World is full of injustices. She is absolutely wrong in saying that the death of a home child is less important than the death of a genocide victim. Dead is dead! Or that an elderly female home child who was beaten and repeatedly raped as a child and still suffering from the memory today is less important than a young woman being physically abused today. She has totally bought into the propaganda used by agencies in Britain to convince the public that immigrating children to Canada and Australia was a great idea. The vast majority of these Children were taken from caring families that were victims of hard times. The vast majority were NOT homeless and picked up from the gutters at the point of death. Britain was suffering from the effects of the industrial revolution as was the rest of Europe but it was not the hell hole she portrays. She also seems to feel that the actual numbers of people affected makes a difference. This is typical in this modern World where people have forgotten about principles. Principles govern the civilized World. Principles formed the Ten Commandments in the Bible and those Commandments are the basis upon which all modern law is derived. One of those principles says “thou shalt not kill” it does NOT say that it’s okay as long as you don’t kill more than XX number of people. To take this further, Canada “only” lost 39,000 people in World War two compared to Russia who lost 27 Million people! Perhaps Sanity’s Child should rent some air time next November, to tell all those people standing in silence for two minutes that they’re an “embarrassment’” and they should stop “whining” as she would obviously feel that our losses were insignificant compared to others.
To make my point clear. I believe that EVERY life is valuable and important. I think that if a War lasts for a single day and ‘only’ one soldier dies, that soldier deserves to be remembered and the people he or she died for need to be reminded of the reasons why. I also believe that every abused child needs to be acknowledged where possible and every injustice needs to be learned from. Apologies cost absolutely nothing and usually make both sides feel better. The Prime Ministers of Britain and Australia were applauded for their apologies to the Home Children and a great deal of good was done simply from the recognition of suffering and of the wrongs done, how can anyone argue against that?
Lest we forget.
Two minutes before the armistice went into effect, at 10:58 a.m. on Nov. 11, 1918, Pte. George Lawrence Price was felled by a bullet. Price would become the final Commonwealth soldier — and the last of more than 66,000 Canadians — to be killed in the First World War.