I am going to
say that the earth is kinda round because it isn’t exactly round. It’s an
oblate spheroid. Close enough though. Most people could accept someone saying
that the earth is round rather than kinda round. There are people even today
that think the earth is flat. I’m just going to leave that alone.
Now I don’t
need to provide my sources for my knowledge about the earth. It’s like the sun
coming up in the east and setting in the west. It’s just the way it is. I had
some education, read me some books, paid attention in class and life. It was a
pretty normal public school education. Graduated from college too. Went on the
GI bill. Anyway that’s why I can say that the earth is kinda round without
citing my sources.
Nazis are
evil. Now, I really thought that would be just as straightforward a statement
as saying the earth is round; that people couldn’t argue with. It seemed to me
that my thinking that the “Nazis are evil” statement would kind of fall in the
same category as the earth being round, the sun coming up in the east and
setting in the west kinda thing.
Then along
came Charlottesville. Whoa buddy! Turns out I was wrong. Turns out there’s a
group of folks that have a lot of “but what about this” arguments before
committing to, you know, condemning Nazis as being evil. There’s an even more
surprising number of people defending Nazis. Yes, Nazis are evil but they’re
with them anyway. One of the many arguments being that they had filled out the
proper paperwork. Thank heavens for that or things could have gotten really
ugly.
But they did
get ugly. A young woman was run down and died. Killed by a Nazi. Not an alleged
Nazi. Not Nazi sympathizer. A Nazi. Others were injured. Two police officers
lost their lives. They aren’t getting as much air time but their loss is just
as real. The young woman was with the side that didn’t have the proper
paperwork done ahead of time. Nazis blame her.
This whole “But
you’re erasing our heritage” argument should have disappeared along with the
racist slave-owning Confederate traitor monuments when the Nazi plowed his car
into people. These Confederate “heroes” were responsible for killing soldiers
of the United States of America. Traitors. If you’re struggling to remember
your heritage go to your local library, not some Nazi conspiracy theory website
or handout, and read some books. It isn’t like pamphlets are being distributed
at Confederate monuments talking about how evil slavery was and how many union
soldiers were killed by the traitor that the monument is dedicated to.
Seriously,
grandma, grandpa, mom, dad, Uncle Nazi aren’t taking their kids to see these
monuments of traitors on their pedestals astride magnificent steeds so that
they can explain the evils of slavery. The children of our nation are watching
and listening. Why are there monuments to traitors and not to their victims?
The answer should be obvious to civilized humans. The war against slavery was
fought and the south immediately started segregation to keep former slaves
impoverished and under the rule of white supremacists. Then came the fight for
civil rights and more deaths at the hands of the KKK and their supporters.
Now the
Confederates have again climbed back out of their holes and into the light.
They have joined forces with their compadres the Nazis and once again are
pushing their vile agenda. This is the culture that people don’t want erased. A
culture of subjugation.
How about
this? Try having a beautiful bronze statue made now of Jane Fonda with an
antiaircraft gun installed next to a Lee statue on government property. Then both
can be celebrated as a part of our heritage. I feel reasonably safe in making
the prediction that there are enough Viet Nam veterans still around to show up
in some pretty good numbers to protest that. (Picture C4 and automatic
weapons.)
There aren’t
any more Union veterans around and World War II veterans are dwindling in
numbers. We have to speak for them. They are the ones who fought and died
fighting against the evils that were the Confederacy and the 3rd
Reich. We have to speak for all the victims of the Confederacy. Union veterans
fought against slavery and for humanity. We have to speak for them. We have to
speak for the veterans that fought the tyranny of Nazis.
There’s a full
frontal attempt at misdirection and deflection underway. An attempt to bury the
message that Nazis’ (The Alt Right, White Nationalists, White supremacists,
Confederates, sympathizers, supporters, apologists, et al.) ideology is evil. There
are all sort of ridiculous arguments, memes and comparisons being circulated.
The Nazi news sites are even putting out drivel that they’re the victims and
that even during WW2 they weren’t the bad people they’re made out to be.
The
conspiracy websites are in full production. They have been for over a couple of
decades. They have had a disastrous effect on knowledge. This alternate view of
the history of the Confederacy and Nazis took hold. The original “fake”
history. They have been way too successful in normalizing hate and altering the
perception of reality.
The meme of
the Statue of Liberty hiding asking if it’s safe to come out is a funny meme.
Because obviously there’s a direct comparison to the Statue of Liberty and
taking down monuments of traitors. A Nazi supporting right-wing evangelist even
posited that the hymn “Amazing Grace” could be removed. (The author of the hymn
was a former slave ship captain that found redemption and renounced slavery. He
referred to himself as a wretch.)
During WW2
there were Nazi sympathizers in this country. There was a mass round up and
internment in camps of Japanese Americans. Ever wonder why there wasn’t a
similar round up of German Americans?
A common
argument supported by the President along with a lot of other white people is
that somehow other groups are just as much to blame. The most commonly referred
to are BLM and Antifa. Black Lives Matter was formed as a response to the
disparities in our justice system to people of color. Antifa are anti-fascists who
believe, correctly, that people need protection from Nazis. (My dad was a part
of the 6th Armored Antifa Division back in the day.) The Anarchists
are often confused with Antifa but they really aren’t the same, though they do
both use violence. None of these nor any other group involved has remotely the
same history, agenda and ideology as Nazis/Confederates et al.
What can be
done about the current situation? A lot of us are struggling with what is the
appropriate response. Again, we fought 2 wars over these issues and now our
“law” allows them to march in the streets, organize and gain converts. It is
frustrating to those that care. It is even more frustrating that so many
millions of Americans stand up for the “rights” of Nazis and Confederates.
There are
those that say “do nothing” and it’ll go away. It seems to me that looking the other
way is how we got here. (The Nazis have been back to Charlottesville already.) The
threat remains with us and whether we like it or not the White Supremacists rode
in on the coattails of our current administration. Those stiff armed salutes
that we were seeing at rallies were in fact stiff armed salutes from the White
Supremacists. They recognized a kindred spirit and came out of their lairs to
promote a Nazi/Confederate agenda. This time they rode in with the Republicans.
Previously in history they rode in with the Democrats.
How exactly do
we fight back? For one thing we as a nation need to understand and come to
grips with how serious a threat this is to our nation and the fundamental
beliefs that we’re supposed to stand for. We need to not only acknowledge the
evil of racism that exists but deal with the fact that it can’t be eliminated so
the struggle against it has to be ongoing and generational.
There’s a lot
of talk about “free speech” and how we have to let the hate-mongers have their
say. Let me leave you with two thoughts and a question about that. 1) Freedom
of speech doesn’t mean freedom from the consequences that may follow such
speech. 2) There’s a line past which free speech becomes sedition. Would we
allow ISIS sympathizers to march in our streets and protect their free speech?