I think that things like wanting to celebrate a country and acknowledgement and a day of mourning and acknowledgement of the horrors that happen to indigenous people can both happen in parallel.
Honestly, if it’s intended to be a day about celebration for the history of a country it’d be cool if in the future people could celebrate the reparations and acknowledgement that have been made since now. It’s like the saying goes, the best time to plant a tree was yesterday and the second best time is today. So a movement like this is good because in the future it’ll be another thing to celebrate for your country.
On a related tangent, you guys could get another holiday specifically for remembrance of the lives lost from colonialism and get another holiday! Canada did it a few years back and now they only have 2 months with out a federal holiday.
Edit: For context, this is coming from the perspective of a Canadian, and our founding fucked over the indigenous pretty badly here well up until current day, but super fucked them up until like as late as the 1990s, so that’s where I’m coming from with my feelings and thoughts.
Idk maybe it’s cause I don’t live in as much of a two party system as the US, but essentially still a two party system.
I think there’s value in strategic voting. I don’t know what the equivalent would be in the US but strategic voting for the lesser of two evils at a national level and then voting more true to your convictions at a municipal and provincial level is still valid.
Again my opinions probably don’t work in the US electoral system, but voter apathy is a big part of how rights get eroded where I’m from. A party or political figure stays in power because of apathy and then they just keep getting away with shit. At least if you cast a vote it can be seen as you participating in the democracy.
I will say there is something to the act of not voting as being a part of democracy, but truly I think along with abstaining any functioning democracy needs a “none” option.