[MV] No Firestorm here, but
Amikesomm@aol.com
Wed, 29 Sep 1999 00:32:58 EDT
If what Stu said is correct, they were a white supremacist group with "join
up" leaflets to hand out, which is a horse of a different color. I mentioned
to Stu my surprise that the Americans in the crowd didn't tear them new
assholes if that was really going on.
We have a regular reenactment group locally (I'm not a part of it, I just
know everybody through my MVs ) and several of them do the german dressup
thing to round out their displays or skirmishes, but it's certainly not the
same as the person who takes pride in what Hitler's Germany stood for, or the
person who wishes they had won. You are right about freedoms being universal
in application, but with rights come responsibilities. I feel a great
personal responsibility to those who died on Omaha or in Dachau to see that
the NationalSocialistWorkersParty is in no way lifted up, nor it's adult
members exhonerated for the things that happened on their watch, nor that a
current-day white supremacist group receives any treatment that legitimizes
or recognises them as anything but objects of scorn and derision, to be
shunned as lepers were once.
I have seen people who are character actors, and I have seen people who
espouse the beliefs of Hitlers day, and I know the difference. The "common
sense" rule is often a vague sounding one, but the rational man shall be duty
bound to see and know the difference. Even at gunshows when I talk to the
people selling German artifacts or memoribilia I question them (politely)
about the reason behind their personal fascination. So far, it seems to have
been uniformly "money". Fortunately.
It is true that history is written by the victors, and that there are always
atrocities or at least acts of extremely bad judgement committed on both
sides, but here again I think the rational man should be able to recognise
the correctness or wrongness of each situation as it arises.
Allowing German or Japanese reenactors to do their thing is perfectly normal
and is a vital part of the whole picture, but to do or by inactivity to
permit idealogical promotion of the beliefs behind the nations that gave us
the Bataan Death March, the rape of Nanking, Auschwitz, or Dachau, would be
wrong. It would also be in direct opposition to part of the reason we
restore MVs.....so that no one forgets.
I personally could not walk past, or wait for someone else to take a stand.
At least, when the time comes, I hope I could not. Semper Fidelis, Mike
in Virginia
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