Students at Cathedral High School in Indianapolis are at the center of a controversy created when they posted a picture showing them making Nazi salutes to social media.
According to the Indianapolis Star,
Students at a private Indianapolis high school are in trouble for making the Nazi salute at the end of a class segment on the German language. It’s the latest example of intolerance and anti-Semitism at area schools….
The photo — taken in a World Languages classroom at Cathedral High School, a private college preparatory school on Indianapolis’ northeast side — shows 15 students holding the German flag and some raising their arms in the Nazi salute, a gesture used during German dictator Adolf Hitler’s reign, usually followed by some variant of the phrase “Heil Hitler!”
When the photo triggered a public outcry, officials of Cathedral released a statement saying, in part “We are having a meeting about cultural awareness with these students and their families regarding the poor choice they made in the picture and how offensive and hurtful this can be.”
Well, sorry, but “Heil Hitler” goes considerably beyond “offensive and hurtful.” Try ignorant and hateful.
I use the word ignorant advisedly, because if I had to guess, I’d attribute this incredible incident to Cathedral’s failure (shared by far too many schools, public and private alike) to actually teach their students history, among other subjects necessary to informed participation in civic life.
A few days ago, several people posted a video to Facebook showing a series of “person on the street” interviews conducted in New York’s Times Square. The young people who were stopped were asked questions that should have been no-brainers: “what countries fought in World War II?” “What was World War II about?” “Have you ever heard of Hitler?” To say that the answers were dispiriting would be a massive understatement. (If anyone has the link, I’d appreciate it; I couldn’t find it, and it really needs to be seen to be appreciated.)
Here in Indianapolis, as elsewhere, the Jewish community–through organizations like the Jewish Community Relations Council–holds annual events intended to educate the broader community about the Holocaust. Survivors–all of whom are now quite elderly, so their ranks are thinning–are made available to speak to student groups and civic organizations. There are books and films and memorials, all with a single focus: to bear witness to Nazi atrocities, in the fervent hope that “never again” will human beings visit horrors of this magnitude on other human beings.
These efforts, however, require fertile ground in which to take root and promote understanding. An uneducated, uninterested and unaware population is impervious to such undertakings.
The best we can hope for in situations like the one at Cathedral is to discover that these young people had no idea what the Nazis did–that they acted out of ignorance rather than bigotry and hatred, and that some mandatory education might open their eyes to the evil they were celebrating.
If not–if they were aware of what the Nazis did and what the salute conveyed–they are frightening harbingers of a new dark age to come, and we are all in trouble.
There’s a reason that many of us who do know our history see incidents like this, and watch voters respond to Donald Trump’s blatant appeals to racism, xenophobia and anti-Semitism (he “tells it like it is,” he isn’t “politically correct”) with cold chills and foreboding.
Santayana said it best: those who don’t know their history are doomed to repeat it.
Appalling.
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum should be a required visit for every high school trip to Washington DC. I made my first visit this past March, and it exceeded its mission; it leaves an impression one can never forget.
I wonder if they even know anything about the Holocaust and are mimicking the crap they see on TV without a clue. Doesn’t excuse the behavior, they need to learn about it uncensored. I say uncensored as it seems history classes have become a bit sterile.
Sheila, I thought of you while watching Bill Maker’s overtime show. Bob Graham of Florida mentioned ed that the majority of civic classes were going away back in the late 80’s and mentioned a bit about our history classes and alluded that these deficits is one of the reason we are in this current state of affairs.
Sheila, I could not agree with you more…but what’s new?
We all need to read history from different points of view and learn how tHese things develop. Read about Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Confessing Church and how he gave his life. Look at the TIME LIFE books of photos about WW II all over the world and how Hitler and others gained control. Hitler had lots of approval at first. Henry Ford made trucks for him, for expletive. Towns were so glad for his leadership. When his various projects turned dark, people in power ignored the awful things. Our country now does things we were taught as children were evil. We need to be aware.
As much as we would all appreciate real education on this topic, knowing we are not going to get it. The least they could do is show a film on the subject, possibly a censored version of “Shindler’s List”, I say censored because we know someone would be offended by the nudity.
Note: my cell phone said “for expletive ” instead of ” for example”. Sorry. And you should hear what Texas and other states are doing with history. It really depends on teachers, most of whom don’t have time or resources to teach history.
“Well, sorry, but “Heil Hitler” goes considerably beyond “offensive and hurtful.” Try ignorant and hateful.”
There are four Trump yard signs within view of my front door; Catholic Republicans. Only one of them surprises me; he has remained one of my few Republican friends, but we don’t talk “politics” as such. We do on occasion discuss “issues” which I don’t believe he views as “political”.
Why should we in Indianapolis be surprised at this blatant “ignorant and hateful” display? The same ignorance and hate is spread across this country by the media hourly with the unending free campaigning for Donald Trump who expresses the same ignorance and hateful rantings sans the raised arm Nazi salute. That has been expressed publicly a few times; probably more regularly in his behind-closed-door meetings. His hatred is all-encompassing; going beyond anti-Semitism which appears to me to be held in check till the results of the Democratic convention are known. They they will know then whether to bring out their full-fledged anti-Semitism, anti-Socialism against Bernie Sanders publicly or their anti-Bill Clinton’s lack of morals and Hillary’s refusal to make public her E-mails regarding planning her mother’s funeral and her daughter Chelsea’s wedding. We have no idea who is hidden in the GOP woodpile waiting to spring their complete list of targets or their list of rights to deny Americans here and abroad.
“Santayana said it best: those who don’t know their history are doomed to repeat it.”
America has been inundated with this “ignorance and hateful” campaigning since before Trump formally announced his official bid for the presidency. He is our own home-grown, hate-driven fool (Hitler); raised to the heights by the ignorant and hate-filled supporters whose full level of violence hasn’t yet been released. Like the “good Germans” who lived with the Holocaust but didn’t see it; Americans are gobbling it up and have the nerve to express upset at the foolish actions of a few ignorant (in the true meaning of that word) teenagers who happen to be educated at an exclusive, private Catholic school here in Indianapolis. Once the home of the national Grand Dragon of the KKK; we should look deeply into our own local history to find the root of this “ignorant and hateful” display.
I daily view the evidence of this “ignorance and hateful” display from my front door each time I look out. Appalling? Yes; but my fear runs much deeper than being appalled at Trump yard signs and the Nazi raised-arm salute by those students. I fear for our survival. Has anyone given any thought to what would happen should we have another so-called “close” presidential election with a pitiful display of recount, calling for Congress to decide the winner? It does not matter if Trump runs against Bernie or Hillary; nor does it matter how many Democrats we may elect on local levels to replace Republicans. THE CURRENT CONGRESS IS OWNED AND OPERATED BY REPUBLICANS TILL JANUARY 1, 2017; ANY GUESS WHO THEIR CHOICE WILL BE?
The Diary of Anne Frank should be required reading for every high school student in the country.
This would never happen in a public school. It is inexcusable and makes one wonder about the culture at Cathedral that would give rise to this degree of hatred, insensitivity and ignorance.
An alarm was sounded within me when I read: “We are having a meeting about cultural awareness with these students and their families regarding the poor choice they made in the picture and how offensive and hurtful this can be.”.
My guess is that this meeting will not actually require attendance and will most likely not be attended by many, if any. There should have been a much stronger backlash against the students and even their teacher. What is going on in that school? Have the Koch brothers given funds that came with strings attached to the curriculum?
Regarding history in our schools, my U.S. history class ( almost 40 years ago) was a complete joke. It was taught by the basketball coach that was more interested in taking the boys on the team to the gym for practice during our class.
I knew nothing about WWII until I traveled to West Germany during college for 6 weeks on a trip organized by the International Lions Club. A side trip for the U.S. kids was to Berlin. We traveled through East Germany, which was obviously extremely poor and a shock to see. In Berlin we learned about the devastation and the murders. We toured a meat slaughtering plant that was used to slaughter Jews. Not only did we see the huge hooks used to hang people on, but there were many photos that showed the gruesome reality. I have never forgotten what I saw and learned. That is when I realized how very little I was taught iin history class. WWII was literally glossed over.
Even later in life I learned more about how our forefathers stole this land from the native americans and it disgusts me. Our history classes taught us that these men were noble heros to be proud of. They slaughtered the rightful owners of this land and lied about it all. Our own historic reality has been sugar-coated about what was done to create this country.
If you ever get the chance to visit Prophetstown and Battleground near Lafayette it is a great place to learn so much about what really happened and this is just one story about one location in Indiana. I guarantee you it will open up your eyes.
From Sheila,
“There are books and films and memorials, all with a single focus: to bear witness to Nazi atrocities, in the fervent hope that “never again” will human beings visit horrors of this magnitude on other human beings.
These efforts, however, require fertile ground in which to take root and promote understanding. An uneducated, uninterested and unaware population is impervious to such undertakings.”
At this point in time in the U.S., those efforts ALONE possibly do more harm than good. The anti-Semitism is too deep and widespread. For example, it would be like a physician prescribing an ointment for AIDS.
The level of willful ignorance in this country is such that I wonder whether large numbers of people have decided either that it is acceptable to forget everything after the test, or that their teachers were lying to them and that they should rely for their knowledge on fringe conspiracy theorists or backward, mean-spirited religious leaders. In my more cynical moments, I wonder whether trying to educate everybody isn’t a huge waste of money. Education must be earned, and it is wasted on people who are determined to push it away with both hands. And that includes some of the entitled darlings of the upper middle class.
It is appalling to me that the students at Cathedral where so ignorant of their own very recent history in the United States. Catholics were threatened and marginalized by such groups as the KKK well into the 1950’s and beyond. In the small town in Ohio, a cross was burned on the front lawn of one of the very few Catholic families who lived there. This was in the 1950’s. When JFK was running for President, pamphlets claiming that our country would be a satellite of the Vatican and that the Pope would be the true ruler of our country if Kennedy was elected were left on our car’s windshield. This was in Ft. Wayne Indiana in 1959.
I want to know who the teacher was in that classroom. As a Catholic, I am disgusted by the ignorance that these kids show with no obvious awareness of what their actions mean not only to their Jewish friends and neighbors but to their own community’s history. Any teacher of that subject area must know the history of the cultures involved. To allow that public display of ignorance by students in a school with a reputation for rigorous academics and a high percentage of politically active alumni is pause for reconsideration of any financial and recruitment support they get from the local community.
The statement by the administrator is pablum. How shameful!
Cathedral is a great Indianapolis education facility. We are blessed with so many private and public schools in the greater Indianapolis area.
Yet, do private schools end up promoting self-interest and limit multi-cultural understanding by their insular student body? Do students see the differences of culture and grow to understand and appreciate these differences? Or does it keep them self-contained in a only like-minded groups? As such, do they inadvertently promote mistrust of those who are different? And even hatred due to lack of experience?
Does GOP supported model of school vouchers end up promoting insularism? Is this now being played out in the national stage?
Trump promotes his hatred and mistrust of Mexicans, Muslims, handicapped, even women.
Wonder if Donald was a product of such an educational institution.
Not every student in private schools are apart of this group, yet, it seems to be a growing trend now being played out on the national political stage.
I read Anne Frank in grade school as it was a required book to read at the time (mid-60s). When I was in Amsterdam in ’08, I wanted to visit her hideout but the line was down the block so didn’t go. When I signed up for a French class in my sophomore year, the teacher had the ‘tattoo’ of his concentration camp number on his forearm and I will never forget that man (although I’ve forgotten his name; it’s in my yearbook). Anyway, whenever anyone made fun of the teacher, I always shut them down and reminded them that he was a victim and to leave him the hell alone.
I didn’t learn about the true history of our country until a few years ago when I read the book from Howard Zinn “The People’s History of the United States” and quit celebrating Columbus day since. I’d really like that holiday removed from the calendar as he should not be celebrated ever again.
Education is so important and obviously we have a long way to go with teaching our children what is history and what is propaganda so they know what the difference is. Apparently, Cathedral (which my niece graduated from and has since graduated from IU law school) hopefully learned their lesson by the outcry. Sheesh.
What about this story led anyone to assume student hatred or right wing conspiracy. I blame this on curriculum. When I was in high school we saw a movie with actual footage of liberation of Auschwitz. Those images are permanently etched in my memory. Theses students are uninformed.
Remember that most of us posting comments have a more personal connection to the atrocities of WWII. As kids, we knew that our fathers, mothers, uncles, aunts, and our neighbors were in the war. We heard them speak often about what happened and saw their visceral reaction to the horror.
Today, war and the accompanying evils are things that only happen to a few people and they are only images on a television screen, sanitized for our protection. These kids have led what our parents would have thought of as charmed lives. They are totally clueless. Let’s have some of our veterans in to speak to high school history classes. Make it personal for the kids.
Remember that most of us posting comments have a more personal connection to the atrocities of WWII. As kids, we knew that our fathers, mothers, uncles, aunts, and our neighbors were in the war. We heard them speak often about what happened and saw their visceral reaction to the horror.
Today, war and the accompanying evils are things that only happen to a few people and they are only images on a television screen, sanitized for our protection. These kids have led what our parents would have thought of as charmed lives. They are totally clueless. Let’s have some of our veterans in to speak to high school history classes. Make it personal for the kids.
Although I’d like to say this would never happen in a public school, I can’t believe it. I’m just grateful my children were raised before camera phones. The ability to make a post and have it go virile met impulsive, immature actions. Who among us has avoided ever making any rude or uncaring, or offensive actions/remarks? Learning from the mistake is critical. These teens can. Trump does not.
My uncle, Frank Schwark, was second wave at Omaha Beach and saw the atrocities in WWII. He was so furious that he returned to the Jewish faith rumored to be part of our lineage. He was buried with Jewish rites at the National Cemetery in Dayton. I am shocked by the students’ behavior and the contempt it shows for the millions of folks who fought the Nazis.
Jane Cook mentioned the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. I want to add that there is a much closer alternative (not as large, I’m sure, but still profoundly moving). The CANDLES Holocaust Museum in Terre Haute, IN (www.candlesholocaustmuseum.org) was founded by Auschwitz survivor Eva Kor. Eva and her sister were singled out and sent to Auschwitz because as twins, they were needed as human subjects for Nazi Dr. Joseph Mengele’s experiments. The rest of Eva’s family was taken to the gas chamber . Eva maintains a schedule that would be tiring for anyone even half her age, and is usually at the Museum a day or two each week giving presentations for visitors. Check the calendar on their website to see when she or another Holocaust survivor will be presenting. I’ve been to CANDLES several times and it is will worth the trip to Terre Haute.
I took lots of history classes, and a Holocaust literature class. But the story that sticks with me the most is one Jerry springer told about his dad’s old Desoto up on blocks in the garage. He was trying to get his dad to get rid of it since it obviously wasn’t going to ever be driven again. His dad’s response was, we need it in case the Nazis ever come back.
Thanks for the tip Sam. Next time I’m in Indiana, I’ll make a point of visiting.
“These efforts, however, require fertile ground in which to take root and promote understanding. An uneducated, uninterested and unaware population is impervious to such undertakings.”
Marv; I copied and pasted the above paragraph you quoted from Sheila’s blog because it struck a nerve deep within me. I will probably get jumped on for my comments but…it is what I have seen, heard and read regarding the Catholic religion for many years and from many sources. There is little, if any “fertile ground in which to take root and promote understanding.” regarding Catholic congregants or students in their schools as their understanding is GIVEN to them by their personal anointed leaders, their priests who do their thinking and decision making for them. Whether it has changed or not over the years, I remember being appalled at the answer I got from a Catholic friend when I asked her view of a passage in the Bible. She told me they are not allowed to read the Bible because only priests can understand the writings. So; where did those Cathedral students learn of the use of the Nazi raised-arm salute and it’s meaning. Which; incidentally was originally the salute given by American school children when the recited the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag. As an aside; neither that salute or hand-over-heart is a requirement to repeat the Pledge – neither is participation in the Pledge a requirement.
Exactly what were they taught? Or were they taught; are they aping what they have seen on TV? Have they been given their views at home, in those homes with the Trump yard signs? How widespread is the same teaching in all schools? While we have been distracted by what the state of Texas is rewriting in their history books; what has been going on in our own back yard? It is doubtful that the same history books are used in Catholic schools as are used in other religious and/or public schools.
A simple but profound statement by an elderly woman, a Jewish Holocaust survivor interviewed by Oprah Winfrey changed my understanding and my belief in religion about 15 years ago. Oprah asked how she could maintain her faith in God while living in the hell of the Holocaust? Her answer was, “When God gave man free will, the control was taken from His hands. I believe God cries, too.” We are allowed to think for ourselves and reach our own conclusions regarding our religious beliefs…or not to have them.
Catholics have a tenuous connection to their version of God only through their priests; they must rely on their questions and/or confessions being delivered as they meant them. Then, in turn, must rely on the priest to relay God’s actual response. Do parents who have vouchered their children into these schools for “better education” realize what is being taught to their children in the required religious classes in those schools? They are not required to participate in the prayers, that is in keeping with the 1st Amendment, but the curriculum is open to decision by the individual education systems. This picture, which has stirred up much anger and resulted in many questions has also opened up the opportunity to look into what is – or is not – being taught to our children.
In my part of the state, the rivalry between two Catholic high schools, one more affluent with a higher percentage of whites the other primarily Hispanic, made news when the white student cheering section held up giant Trump faces and taunted them with threats to “build a wall” and to “send them back”. This case shows another pattern of hatred or ignorance. What is happening to American Catholics?
I have a high-schooler in Indianapolis (thankfully, not at Cathedral). She brought this story to my attention before it made the papers, because kids all over town were talking about it. I understand the impulse to blame the educational system for this–“these kids don’t even really understand what their actions meant”–but that is very clearly not what happened here. These kids are not “ignorant and hateful.” They’re just hateful.
About 25 years ago, a few months after I returned home from living in Dallas for many years, the Anne Frank Exhibit came to Jacksonville. It was held at our old railway station which had been turned into an exhibit hall. At one time, Jacksonville had been a major destination for those coming South both for vacationing and also during W.W.II to Camp Blanding.
While touring the exhibit when it first opened, a young woman came up to me and asked, “How did this all happen?”There was nothing in the exhibit to answer that question. The message was centered on the Holocaust and nothing more.
The following Sunday, Reverend Homer Lindsey of the First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, used the Anne Frank Exhibit as a topic for his Sunday TV broadcast. It went something to the effect that the “JEWS WERE THE DEVIL.” However, he did make an exception for one of his friends who was a messianic Jew. He made the exception for him with the label—“THE DEVIL’S BEST.”
The next day, I had the tape that I had made of the TV sermon delivered to the representative for the National Association of Christians and Jews, Reverend Fred Woolsey, who was a high school classmate of mine.
A few years later at Lindsey’s funeral, Reverend Paige Patterson who headed up the Southern Baptist Convention paid tribute to him in his eulogy with the specific words that “Homer had made Jacksonville the HEART of the Evangelical Movement in America.”
The First Baptist Church became the GROUND ZERO for the web like spread of anti-Semitism throughout the U.S. especially in the South and Midwest, like in INDIANA, as thousands of Baptist ministers came to Jacksonville to learn how to spread their anti-Semitic gospel by use, for the most part, of CODED sermons loaded with anti-Semitism.
But first, Jacksonville needed an NFL franchise to give it credibility to be GROUND ZERO or the HEART, so it attracted the Jacksonville Jaguars. In order to come to Jacksonville, the Jaguar’s ownership wanted PERKS like all the other NFL owner’s were granted.
The City is now 2.7 billion dollars in the red, after one administration and then another, secretly used the Police and Fireman’s Pension Fund to provide the funding for a new stadium etc. for the Jaguars.
I had warned the U.S. Civil Rights Commission in a closed session in Jacksonville in 1992, that the above scenario was going to happen. However, it was hard for them to fully understand what was going to happen since much of the direction was only encased in the MINDS OF MEN.
In all fairness, should or shouldn’t we blame the Jews for all of this?
Be sure to “balance” the teaching with graphics of the horrors of war including the Holocaust and the American atrocities in Viet Nam.
And if Americans are loathed around the world now, just elect Donald Trump and see the stark contrast between the last 8 years, the 8 previous, and the 4 years darkening our doorstep now.
I know this teacher, and this blog failed to mention the following (quoted from the Indianapolis Star article): “The instructor in the class “reported the incident immediately,” Worland said. “He was not aware that the students who acted inappropriately were going to make poor choices.” I am confident that he is appalled by the behavior of these students, and I am also confident that his curriculum includes material about World War II, the Nazis, and the Holocaust. As a former German teacher, I always felt it my responsibility to do my best to teach about the Holocaust. In my current capacity as an English teacher, my sophomore English curriculum includes a unit on Elie Wiesel’s Night.
There are some things about which there are NOT “two sides to discuss.” The Holocaust is one of
As an ancient rather than a mere senior citizen, I lived a part of the history discussed by others in this piece. Since there was nothing else to do during the Depression, my older brother taught me how to read. I was reading newspapers at age 5 and my parents put me into school early on. My older brother joined the then-named Army Air Corps in 1940. I graduated early from high school and could not be drafted because I was not 18; the only way to get into the war was to volunteer, and my parents would not “sign the papers” that would allow me to go to war on grounds that they “already had one boy at risk.” I whined, cajoled and begged my parents to “sign the papers” so I could (in my juvenile rage) go kill Adolph Hitler. Finally, one Sunday afternoon they relented, signed the papers, and I was on my way to kill Hitler.
It didn’t work out. I trained as a sailor in California and was sent to the South Pacific. Hitler was no where around; he was rather half a world away. I never got a shot at him. I spent some time in New Guinea and on a Marine invasion beach in the Palaus. I didn’t see Western Germany until 1975, when I was a tourist. During the period between the end of the war and my visit to Germany, I went through college and law school and took many courses in history and world politics en route to degrees in economics/political science and law, and I can tell you this: Hitler was a monster with his warped and senseless views of Jews and others and I can think of no punishment to fit his (literally) millions of crimes. His cowardly suicide in his bunker in 1945 deprived us of a trial and an opportunity for psychiatrists who might have picked his brain before he blew it away. In my view, he was and is the worst SOB in human history.
I have had conversations with many over the years since then trying to piece together what made Hitler Hitler, i.e., how did he get that way? After the recent dust-up on some Catholic priests who preyed on altar boys and others, it occurred to me that Hitler was an altar boy in a Catholic church in Austria before becoming an atheist, and I wondered and still wonder if some Austrian priest got to him and precipitated a mindset of hatred and revenge in the then young Catholic altar boy which translated into violence against scapegoat Jews and others after his experiences as a corporal in WW I and his rise in the political world during the 1920s and early 1930s. We know he was crazy, but what got him that way? Has what I have just suggested as a possible cause ever occurred to fellow contributors here?
Marv; to add to your past referrals to what you referred to as the Devil’s Triangle (I think you used the term Devil) of Jacksonville, Indianapolis and Dallas; when Mayor Peterson took over the Mayorship from the Goldsmith administration, he found city government in a shambles. He also found that the Indianapolis Police and Firemen’s Pension fund nearly defunded. The money to the Colts’ football team and Lucas Oil Arena has escalated since the Colts’ were initially brought here from Baltimore to our beautiful new Hoosier Dome during Mayor Hudnut’s administration. So; we have the shared depletion of our public safety pension fund and escalation of football and stadium a continuing drain on local tax dollars.
I only heard one reference to Goldsmith being Jewish; that was by a questionable local radio personality (who wasn’t here long) Stan Solomon who posed the question, ‘Do Indianapolis residents realize two Jews will light their Christmas tree on Monument Circle?” Google Stan Solomon if you don’t know who he is.
Ken Glass: I agree w you. These are adolescents who have apparently not been informed about Nazi Germany and the many atrocities visited upon others by the followers of Hitler. If there is a lesson from that part of history it should be: blind allegiance to a person or a cause is always wrong.
Let’s talk American football. It’s become international. As a matter of fact, the Jacksonville Jaguars play one game a year in London.
A defensive back has to wait for the right moment to step in and make an INTERCEPTION. And then he can take off and hopefully run it back for a TD. As a matter of fact, the best defensive back of all time in the NFL according to Sports Illustrated was one my partners in Victory Sports Mangement back in the early 80’s.
The game the RELIGIOUS RIGHT/FAR RIGHT has been playing from the beginning is much like American football. However, they have had the benefit of a NAZI PLAYBOOK. Consequently, you can’t play against them, successfully, without an ANTI-NAZI PLAYBOOK.
I have a very worn out copy.
is this what you were looking for? ?
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/10/16/the-incredibly-depressing-answers-college-students-gave-when-asked-what-the-holocaust-was-and-where-it-began/
Leigh,
No, this is yet another example. Rather horrifying.
To Sheila and all:
Here is a link to an informative article in today’s Fort Wayne Journal Gazette about a ‘closed door event’ this Thursday that is sponsored by the Friedman Foundation wanting to further expand school vouchers in our state.
http://www.journalgazette.net/opinion/editorials/Voucher-pitch-unfair-13092295
Gerald,
“Has what I have just suggested as a possible cause ever occurred to fellow contributors here?”
I wasn’t aware of that specific fact. Sounds like a very good point. Have you read “The Deputy.” It was banned by massive demonstrations by Catholics.
“The Deputy” by Rolf Hochhuth [translated by Richard and Clara Winston, preface by Dr. Albert Schweitzer, Grove Press, Inc. New York, 1963.
This is a quote from the preface:
“Who are we, anyway, that we dare criticize the highest spiritual authority of the century?
Nothing, in fact, but the simple defenders of the spirit, who yet have the right to expect the most from those whose mission it is to represent the spirit.
~Albert Camus
Gerald E. Stinson – very interesting thoughts about what may have caused Hitler to become such a destructive and awful person. I guess we will never really know.
As I’ve said before the anti-Semitism led hatred in America which has mutated onto other minorities is approaching much like a political Tsunami. If a strong enough BULKHEAD is constructed soon enough the monstrous waves will BLOWBACK on those who created it. And I believe many of the errant followers will think twice and especially back to the fact that about 500.000 German Jews died from Naziism. But, millions of German Christians who were only civilians also died.
The Jews went like sheep to slaughter, but so did many Christians.
Marv: regarding your mention of the Southern Baptists – A few years ago I traveled through the countryside from Atlanta to Athens, Georgia. I was amazed at the huge and beautiful churches that located every few miles out in very rural areas. I wondered how in the world these people could come up with the money to build those churches in rural areas.
Well, I met several Baptist women while there. They were all very poorly dressed and, of course, wore long hair and long skirts. It was clear that they did not spend much on clothing. I am not saying that any of this is a bad thing at all, but what I learned is that they are required to give such a large amount of their income to the churches that there is very little left to live on. They told me that many of them depend on charity or government assistance to survive, but they always find a way to give the churches what they demand.
And that is how those huge beautiful churches were built! The leaders clearly brainwash their congregants. I imagine the Sunday sermons are all about hellfire and damnation and nothing about Jesus’s love for them. They are probably threatened with going to Hell if they don’t give the required amount of money to their church. Sad. Very very sad.
Off to the afternoon baseball game. Jacksonville “Suns” vs. Montgomery “Biscuits.” I’m not kidding—- the “Biscuits.”
Whenever the word Nazi is mentioned today there almost always is the obligatory, required link to Donald Trump and vice a versa. Trump is no Hitler, the Trumpets are not Brown Shirts and America today is simply not comparable to the Germany of the 1920’s and 1930’s. Germany had a lost WW 1, incurred millions of casualties, the Kaiser was forced to flee, and new untried system of government was in it’s place, and add to all that the reparations Germany was forced to repay the to the victors and the Great Depression. The Trumpet maybe best compared to Silvio Berlusconi another very rich man who dominated Italian Politics and and a notorious playboy.
I hear and read a similar but less strident critique about Bernie Sanders. Faux News leads the way here. The Faux presenters must have speech classes to determine who is best at spitting Bernie’s name out. The they are quick to add his age, and describe him as Socialist, Marxist and Communist. CNN and MSNBC are more subtle in describing Bernie but the same condescending attitude is there.
Americans have never been comfortable with our real history, the political-military assault on Native Americans, Slavery and Jim Crow. The Coups and Assassinations our government has sponsored, plus the USA has engaged in more wars, invasions then any country on earth since 1945. None of this fits into the mythology of American Exceptionalism.
There will probably be no remembrance of the Memorial Day Massacre that occurred on May 30th 1937, when the Chicago Police Department shot 50 people and killed 10 demonstrators at the Republic Steel Works. A Coroner’s Jury declared the killings to be “justifiable homicide”.
Note how many commented on this subject? How would it be possible to elect a Jew to the WH?
Dance wit who brung ya.
@Marv, have fun at the baseball game. The ‘Montgomery Biscuits’? Sports teams have the strangest mascots as I discovered while in Alaska a couple of years ago and watched the local TV news where the high school sports news reporter mentioned a basketball team named the ‘Half Breeds’. Seriously, I could not make that up.
From MaxPreps, a website devoted to high school sports. http://www.maxpreps.com/news/twUEhTOqTEevyzzYkJcejg/maxpreps-mascot-mondays–the-aniak-halfbreeds.htm
A couple of thoughts:
The brains of adolescents are not yet educated or even fully developed. They typically know not what they do. That’s why they’re still at home and in school. The incident Sheila speaks of is a teachable moment.
WWII was an utter disaster for the entire world. Many Faiths, cultures, countries, peoples suffered horribly. Three percent of the world population were murdered, the property destruction was almost inconceivable, the aftermath decades of recovery.
Education is the most important job of every generation and we have certainly not even met modest expectations there. There are many reasons, inluding the good news that there’s so much more to teach now, but we just have to do better. Dunning Kruger would say that one of the consequences is that we are overly certain as a result of being poorly educated that the relatively little that we know is complete rather than woefully inadequate.
WWII was no bigger threat to life and liberty than climate change is. And, like the average pre war American we want nothing to do with it. We’d like to observe the catastrophe before we act thank you very much.
The current threat is the result of the lives of all of us. WWII was the consequence of the oversize egos of a handful of us. We have to be careful that we don’t as panic sets in and the consequences of our inaction rape the world that we don’t turn to a handful of oversized egos to save us.
This story makes my remarks at this year’s Carmel Holocaust Remembrance ceremony earlier this month even more pertinent: http://blog.wallack.us/2016/05/my-remarks-at-city-of-carmels-2016.html.
Leigh, thanks for that link. I don’t usually go to “the Blaze” for ANYTHING but that link intrigued me. It was eye opening. Thanks again.
@Michael S Wallack, thanks for sharing the link leading to your recent remarks. Like you, I live in Hamilton County; however, I’m not a native Hoosier, maybe you are and maybe not, so I bring a different set of eyes to my current location. Among the several things I’ve observed about Indiana since arriving for a career position in 2004 is that discrimination is alive and well here.
The discrimination I’ve observed is not the overt, the blatant in your face discrimination, but rather is the covert discrimination that is concealed behind big plastic smiles and those disingenuous ‘atta boy’ slaps on the back followed by the equally dismissive get-away line, “Let’s do lunch soon.”
I wasn’t exactly a spring chicken when I arrived in Indianapolis, but I’d never experienced being around supposedly educated people who made derogatory jokes about racial groups, Catholics, Jews, and those folks from different geographical regions of the US. From my observations here in Central Indiana, apparently it was at one time, the kiss of death for a Protestant Christian to marry a Catholic and a one-way ticket to Hell for a Christian to marry a Jewish person.
What gets taught in a school history class is only as good as the education, attitudes, and politics of the teacher in the room. They don’t coat check who they are at the door. I remember coming into my high school U. S History class understanding that the Civil War was about slavery, only to be told that the bigger issue was states’ rights.
I would also add that this is what you get when schools focus on testing and creating worker bees rather than questioning, thinking adults.