The Freedom of Real Apologies

In the first quote, Layli Long Soldier was referring to the Congressional Apology to Native Americans that happened in December 2009 and she had not heard about it until sometime in the spring of 2010. It is important to note that she had not heard of it before because since it was an apology to the Native Americans by the government you would expect it to be delivered in a manor that brings attention to the subject, especially to the Native Americans, but instead it was published along with another document which overshadowed it so basically no one heard of it.

The phrasing that Long Soldier was referring to was that the Apology saying “the arrival of Europeans opened a new chapter for Native People” was not really "opening a new chapter", but really was kind of the beginning of very hard times for Native Americans and that it just shows how much the writers of the apology were tip toeing around what really needed to be said. Plus, how genocide is never mentioned in the apology which is another example of how the writers seemed to be very vague and not straight forward for what the government is apologizing for so it really is not apologizing for anything.

Specificity is important in the podcast as the apology was the opposite of it as it did not specify for the what specific acts the government was apologizing for and it just made the apology lack meaning. In our writing, specifying is very important as it gives the audience a direct message that they can grab onto, really understand what the author is talking about, and get a point across in their writing.

The structure of the interview was pretty straight forward as the host just asked questions to Long Soldier and they just went back and forth like that. Overall, the tone of the podcast was of informative as listeners were being informed of Long Soldiers view on topics and disappointment as Long Soldier began to talk about how the apology lacks specificity. Something that I could take from this interview into my own interview is that of how I try to get the interviewee to give deeper, thoughtful answers by how I ask the question.