Happy Birthday, Adolf Hitler Campbell!

Looks like little Adolf Hitler Campbell, 3, will be getting a birthday cake with his name on it after all.

I found an article about this (“Cake request for 3-year-old Hitler namesake denied”) published by the Associated Press recently. The child's father, 35-year-old Heath Campbell of Hunterdon County, N.J, claims that he isn't a racist. I find that difficult to believe considering he named his son after Hitler and named another child JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell.
"They need to accept a name,” Campbell said in the article. “A name's a name. The kid isn't going to grow up and do what (Hitler) did."
Yes, Heath, a true point; but why do I get the feeling he'd be more than happy should this turn out to be the case?
Apparently, Campbell's wife called the local ShopRite with the cake naming request. The supervisor there, in a completely understandable and rational decision, said it was something they wouldn't do. So, the Campbell's went to Wal-Mart, who were of course happy to do it (why am I not surprised?)
Part of the irony of Campbell's complaining about the matter is that he's asking for tolerance towards his son's name - the same tolerance that Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party withheld when they systematically humiliated and murdered millions of human beings between 1933-1945. Tolerance isn't exactly a Nazi virtue. The fact that his daughter has “Aryan Nation” as part of her name makes me less willing to write him off as a random crank. I think Mr. Campbell is narrow minded, and that his children will suffer for it. The article states:
“[Campbell] said he was raised not to avoid people of other races but not to mix with them socially or romantically. But he said he would try to raise his children differently.
'Say he grows up and hangs out with black people. That's fine, I don't really care," he said. "That's his choice.'”
A choice Mr. Campbell is simply go along with? I doubt that. What makes Mr. Campbell's comments interesting in this article is that they try hard to sound like they are not coming from someone who is an obvious racist. He crouches behind lofty phrases, like “I think people need to take their heads out of the cloud they've been in and start focusing on the future and not on the past," that distract from the issue.
I think what really makes me frown after reading this is that an adorable little boy has been named after one of the most evil and forbidden men from the 20th Century, and he has a father who is bending over backwards to justify that choice.

Who wants to be friends with Hitler? How will that work on the playground?

Stirring the Pot

One of the things that bothers me most about the whole idea of the "New Media" isn't that the formula puts more power in the hands of users to generate both content and comment, but that the current format really allows very little control over what those "outside of the box" provide. Here's one example. In a story in today's Pioneer Press about poor people getting medical help at the Minneapolis convention center, one commenter offered his/her/its two-cents on the matter (note: the following comment is unaltered) on the story's comment board.
"This is communissm. If people want things like this then they should get jobs and pay for them. This is the kind of thing what is going to happen more and more and take money from good Christian folks what work for a living now that we have a socialism president like Barak Hussein Obamma."
This isn't the best example I've seen from the half-cocked netherworld, but it ranks up there. Before I get into further detail, let me say this: I'm all for people expressing a rational, well-argued point of view. But whenever stories with any sort of poor people getting help or immigrants convicted of crimes pop up, it's the last thing we get. Instead of nuanced debate, forums like the one on twincities.com (and others) turn from public discussions into bastions of name-calling and pettiness spiced up with views best left hidden behind cutesy (and unrevealing) monikers.
I know my days of working at a publication that publishes an actual tangible product (how 20th century of us) are numbered. I lament this, not because of the format itself, but because of the controls (on our part) that go along with it. There is no sort of vetting when it comes to a comment board. Part of me thinks this is by design. If you can find a way to bring people to your website by any means, you would be a fool not to take it. However, this isn't most professions. This is history. This is what people look back on when they want a mostly-accurate picture of what happened when. It's one thing to write an angry letter to a newspaper, where there is some checking and accountability involved in getting it printed. It's quite another to fire off half-baked theory on a comment board under an assumed name with the desire of stirring the pot.
The New Media is a field worth exploring if you are brave enough, but I wish there was some way of weeding out the cowards who have A.) little to add to any debate or conversation, of B.) the lack of courage to reveal their true identity to stand by their words.
As a reporter, as a professional, I have to cite sources in stories and use my own name. I do not have the luxury of hiding behind a veil of Internet anonymity. I have to be able to justify those words and my conduct with not only my readers, but also my superiors. If one has the power to impact lives with words, this is the way it should be.

Count, count, count again

A quick note here:
I had a thought while watching the news tonight that the 2008 election is 99 percent over, with the exception being the Coleman/Franken race here in my home state of Minnesota. It's strange to think of it this way, but it's the last permeable link we have to the spirit of partisan rhetoric, half-truth and exagerration that are the hallmarks of any down and dirty election season. I get the feeling the many people were exhausted by the intensity of the two-year campaign leading up to the election, with those final weeks in front of the TV set being the worst of all. When the election was (mostly) over, the tentacles of partisan rhetoric, as they usually do, relinquished and receeded, and people regained their senses.
Those connected with the Coleman/Franken recount don't have this sort of luxury. For them, it's Nov. 4 times infinity until the electoral limbo is over. It's the last living vestige of the very worst that politics can out in the human spirit. It's the last living link to "terrorist fist jabs" and "Drill, baby, Drill!" It's the last living link to the sort of maddened frenzy John McCain supporters (sometimes to the dismay of the candidate, as witnessed personally by myself when he visited Lakeville) were able to whip themselves into at the thought of the "socialist" and "Muslim" Barack Obama taking the White House.
At this point, I've been so ground down by years of campaigning that I don't even really care who wins the Franken/Coleman race. I just want it to all be over - to let the past be the past, and to let barking dogs lull themselves to sleep for the time being, until the first faint whisps of an upcoming campaign rouses their animalistic passions again.

Collect Them All

The Facebook notice came in the e-mail, as all of them innocuously do. Upon opening it, I was startled to see a name of a high school classmate I'd not seen (or thought about) in a long, long time. She ran in different circles than I did, had different friends than I did, and generally had nothing in common with me then other than the fact we were both well-cared for (as private school students usually are)carbon based life forms.
"SO-AND-SO wants to be your friend!" the message cheerfully told me.
I opened the e-mail. I went to my Facebook account, and looked at the former classmate's profile. With the exception of the general flabbiness that the past decade has given to nearly all of us, she looked very much as I remembered.
My eyes narrowed.
I moved my mouse over to the "deny" button near a small picture of her vacant, smiling face. I clicked without thinking twice.

I am not to be collected.

Social media is an interesting thing. When MySpace first came out, there were no real rules when it came to deciding which people made the cut and which didn't. With Facebook, the criteria has narrowed. A lot. Thanks to Facebook, I've been able to skip all of my reunions because I've found out who got fat, who failed and who turned out to be the diamond in the rough we'd never imagined. I've been able to reconnect with old friends, amend old injuries, and find that I didn't turn out so badly after all. It's been a mostly positive experience.
However, in moments of weakness, e-mails from those I call "collectors" still bring me down. It's enough to make me ask - you didn't like me then, so why are you bothering now? Now it's OK that we have an association? Now, when we're on an equal digital playing field, you want to be my friend? No thanks. You missed your chance. Most anything connected with that time in my life (which I've written enough about) is something I'd like to forget. I'll put it this way - I like the way I turned out, but I would never want to put anyone else on the road that lead to this point in time.
So, to all the collectors out there, save your mouse moves; I'm not a name on a list, a flag on a map, or piece of the puzzle. If we weren't friends before, don't expect us to be now. It's just easier that way.

A Past Alive In This Week's Headlines

This week, I've seen two news stories that illustrate how, even with all of what is going on in the world, people are fascinated with parts of the past that somehow remain a source of fascination:
1.) Pirates off Somalia
Granted, these aren't the sort of dashing Johnny Depp pirates we might envision when we hear the word, but these guys are the real deal. After all, the open sea is a very, very lonely place, and it wouldn't take much for even a small gang of armed men to take over a ship many, many times bigger than the one they left from. This week, however, the pirates upped the ante by taking over an oil tanker full of crude oil – a first in any part of the world. From what I've read, the oil tanker's crew are being treated well, as most hostages taken by these pirates seem to be well cared for. However, I can see this changing, and I'll give you a historical example as to why.
In the First World War, and in parts of the Second, German U-Boat crews would often surface and give warnings to the crew of the ships they were going to sink. They would give them time to take to the lifeboats, and would sometimes even radio in a distress signal to make sure help arrived.
However, as the war went on, the merchant ships became more and more heavily armed, and would often attack a submarine that surfaced top attack it. So, with this in mind, the submarines would attack without warning, and the whole idea of helping the crew of the sunken ship went by the wayside. So will it be with these pirates. The more heavily armed the opposition becomes, the worse the victims will be treated by their captors. I'm not saying that these pirates don't deserve what they get, but people should read the writing that's already dripping from the wall: this is just the beginning, and pity the poor crews who may find themselves as "guests" of the pirates in the future.
2.) Hitler HAD only got one ball.
The British newspaper Sun reported this week that a former Imperial German Army medic confessed to a priest, shortly before he died, that he treated then-Corporal Hitler for World War One injuries that resulted in the loss of one of his testicles. It serves as confirmation for what the English thought for years (as evidenced by the nursery rhyme "Hitler has only got one ball/ The other is hanging on the wall") What makes this interesting is that Hitler has been dead for (checks calendar) 63 years now. It is interesting to me how much a character of fascination he remains to people. I admit; I'm one of them.
Now, let me put this out in front: there is a vast difference between being "interested" in something and "actively condoning it." But that said, Hitler remains very much an enigma even after all of the books I've read about him and Nazi Germany. Usually, evil is somewhat simple to explain away: Saddam Hussein and Josef Stalin were simply bad men who took it out on others. But for some reason, Hitler remains an aloof and detached historical figure. I suppose it makes sense; the people who were closest to him said they never really got to know Hitler as a man, so why should we find any sort of insight through second- and third-hand accounts?

The past, contrary to what some think, is more than musty pages on a library shelf or a dusty exhibit in a museum. It's alive - as these stories illustrate. Pirates remind us that, despite our technical mastery of the world around us, problems from the era of Julius Caesar still remain. Hitler's one ball medic confession reminds us that memory serves us better than we think; we remember that the actions of one man can ripple across both the world and the ages.
Even if he's only got one nut.

A corresponding target value

I think it’s a telling sign that Barack Obama gave his Nov. 4 acceptance speech from behind three inches of bulletproof glass.
Being a leader holds with it a corresponding “target value.” Four presidents have been assassinated during America’s existence, and while the reasons vary, the presidents all had one thing in common: they were simply ordinary men who reacted in the way that many men do when they are shot: they bled, they suffered, and ultimately died from their wounds. It’s a natural thing for any leader to be a target – but I don’t think I’ve ever been so worried about a presidential assassination before. Obama, to many in the white nationalist and supremacist community, represents the sort of pan-international-multiculturalism they abhor, and the fact that he is black only adds to the anger.
News articles like “White Supremacist Rage Boils Over After Obama Victory” (Marketwatch.com) are indicators of a large (and potentially well-armed) portion of the country who are not exactly happy with our new C-in-C. The Anti-Defamation League posted samples of some comments from white supremacist websites in “White Supremacist Rage.”

-David Duke: “I really believe tonight [Nov. 4] is a night of tragedy and sadness for our people in many ways…[we’ve lost] the fundamental values of the United States of America…the country is not recognizable any more.”
-“A person using the screen-name "KOS" declared, "America will become another third-world shithole like Africa if it is run by people like Barack Hussein Obama and other minorities." Another extremist, posting as ‘Himmler SS,’ wrote, ‘America [sic] flags should be flown upside down as the international symbol of distress.’”
-On White Revolution, ‘Fallschirmjager173’ claimed that ‘the recent election of a negroid as president of America, was brought about by dumbed down white traitors, to this nation." An anonymous poster made a similar comment on Hal Turner's blog: ‘Congratulations to all you f-cking sleeping mesmerized race traitors who just made the United States a 3rd world country filled with Illegal Mexicans and f-cking N-ggers who will run free and have a N-gger commander and chief looking over their shoulders. You all make me f-cking sick. I have burnt the American flag in my front yard.’”
- This wasn’t posted on a white supremacist site, but I thought it was telling. Ted Nugent: “I was in Chicago last week, I said, ‘Hey Obama, you might want to suck on one of these, you punk!’ Obama, he’s a piece of shit and I told him to suck on my machine gun!”

I don’t write about these statements lightly, or because I in any way agree with them (I most vehemently do not). But my point in bringing them to your attention is simply to make the observation that there is a lot of hate out there, and the consequences of an Obama assassination would be simply mind-boggling. I believe it would make the late 1960s race riots in Watts look tame in comparison. I remember making the comparison to Bobby Kennedy when Obama received the candidate nod, bitterly noting that he might have a chance “if they let him live long enough.”
The hate stirred up by a bitter election does not simply vaporize once the ballots are counted. No, for every attack ad we watch, for every act of slimy innuendo and distortion we witness, our decency is slowly eroded. I know there are many people out there stewing over what they see as a defeat for the warped racial ideals they may have, and I fear for my president-elect’s safety in a way I’ve never feared for any public figure’s safety before. Obama has great promise ahead of him, but surely he must realize that he’ll be spending his every moment looking over his shoulder, wondering not only if, but when, the hatred might somehow work itself free.
I do not envy him.

What happened to the Post-War Dream?

The house was like many others on the block 61st block of Third Avenue in Minneapolis. It was older, built post-war, and had withstood the test of time, as the aged trees in the front yard and cracking paint in the windows could attest to.
Looking beneath the faded yellow siding, I could see cracks developing in the concrete foundation of the house, and it made me reflect that it was an anonymous representative of what I am considering to be the decline and fall of the American post-war dream. We’re not the first to go through it; England went through it during the 1980s, as evidenced by the 1983 Pink Floyd album “The Final Cut,” which even has a song on it called “The Post-War Dream.” Now, it seems to be our turn. It was a hell of a ride.
When the bombs stopped falling in 1945, America was the only participant who stood to come out ahead. The industrial centers of Europe, Russia and Asia were damaged or destroyed by the fighting, and the people in those countries were traumatized to varying degrees depending on the severity of the fighting. America, thanks to two ocean borders, was relatively lucky to have not been attacked directly (save for Pearl Harbor, U-boat attacks and the odd Japanese sub shell or paper balloon bomb on the West Coast. Nearly 400,000 Americans were killed in the fighting, which seems a relatively light total compared to those of Germany (7.2 million), Japan (2.7 million) and Russia (23 million). When the war ended, the Americans who served in uniform came home to work, to build, and to raise families. Our neighborhood, built in the 1950s, came so close after this that I imagine that the sweat from war veteran construction workers’ nightmares was barely dry on their sheets. The world, I imagine, seemed a far more optimistic place in the early 50s than it had been just 10 years before. Worldwide conflagrations can sometimes do that.
My wife and I were talking last night about an older woman she met who had traveled around the world, and filled a home with knick-knacks from every continent she had been to. I could not help but envy the time in which she came of age. The Great Depression lived up to its name, but I would like to think that the resulting post-war economic boom and higher standards of living would have been a fitting payoff. As my wife spoke about traveling when we were older and able, I doubted that anyone would afford to be able to travel across the country the way things are going, let alone across the world. I know people who can barely afford to fuel their cars, nevermind their desire the trot the globe.
The pessimist in me thinks we’ve reached the peak of the post-war dream. The harsh reality, put off for so long, is that the standards of living we’ve become accustomed to simply are unsustainable in the long term. I may have been born in a superpower, but I am pretty sure I’m not going to die in one. What I end up seeing in old age remains a unwritten, but I certainly hope it doesn’t turn out as bleakly as the "Mad Max"-meets-Great-Depression imagery that my imagination is capable of conjuring.
Goodbye, post-war dream; you were nice while you lasted.