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When Hate Groups Do Good
Members of the National Socialist Movement, a neo-Nazi group, not only participate in the Missouri Department of Transportation's Adopt-a-Highway program, but have named a stretch of the road, which they spend a few hours each month cleaning, in honor of their group. It's not the first time this has been done, either.
In Kentucky, the National Alliance, another hate group adopted a highway and named it after William Pierce, author of the "The Turner Diaries", a perennial favorite among dangerous lunatics including Oklahoma City bomber, Timothy McVeigh. And in St. Louis, the Ku Klux Klan also adopted a stretch of road. In that case, after losing a court battle to end their sponsorship, the DOT renamed the Klan-adopted road, Rosa Parks Highway.
Now the state is planning to rename the road adopted by the National Socialists in honor of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, the world renowned theologian and civil rights activist. Considering the money saved by the government because of the volunteer efforts of these hate groups, is it really fair to rename the highways they adopt after people whose life work they diametrically oppose? Absolutely, it is. And for the same reason that these organizations have every right to adopt these highways and have their groups acknowledged for so doing.
The acknowledgment which the group gets is in direct proportion to the contribution which they make in time and energy to the entire public. That good work deserves to be acknowledged. They do not insist that the roads upon which they work serve only white people, for example, and to devalue their commitment and effort would be wrong.
Likewise, the state has a right to acknowledge the civic pride felt because of the efforts of brave women like Rosa Parks, and brilliant thinkers like Rabbi Heschel. If the hate groups object to having their names appear in conjunction with blacks and Jews, they are free to stop volunteering and just as free to give up the publicity which their volunteer work merits.
This balance works for at least three other important reasons. First, it undermines the notion that people we don't like are incapable of doing things that we do. The world is not simply divided between those whose thoughts and actions are good and those whose thoughts and actions are bad. It might make us comfortable to think this way but it isn't true and such thinking rarely makes us any safer no matter how much some people claim it does.
Second, the response to bad speech must be more speech, at least as much as possible. As long as the message they put on their signs is not overtly hateful, what we would lose by constraining the freedom of expression for groups like the ones already mentioned, is far greater than that which we would gain from so doing. If the thought and deeds of people like Parks and Heschel are truly good, and they are, their names will stand up well when placed alongside the names of groups like the Klan and the National Socialist Movement.
Third, there may be some real long-term benefit in having the members of groups which are deeply committed to the destruction of what most of us hold dear, engaged with public welfare work. By continuing to serve the state, the members of these groups create relationships with the very governments which they usually portray as "out to get them".
Whether they like it or not, whether they tell their kids that it's just the price they pay for the free publicity, the bottom line remains that they are serving the state which they claim to oppose. That kind of engagement makes it increasingly difficult to see one's self as disconnected from the larger culture. And given the role of alienation in nurturing the identity of hate-group members, that's a very good thing.
So we see them a bit more realistically, even if their views remain ugly and potentially dangerous, and they see the rest of us as more connected to them than they would ever care to admit. If that's the result of hate groups adopting highways, which are then named after heroes of racial and ethnic healing, it's actually not such a bad idea.
By
Brad Hirschfield
|
June 22, 2009; 4:30 PM ET
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Posted by: Paganplace | June 25, 2009 1:46 PM
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CCNL: ""HORNED GOD WAY" or "TRIPLE GODDESS WAY" or "MORONI WAY" or "THE GREAT BABS WAY" would also work well."
Just buckin' for attention, aren't you, CCNL? (haha, little Pagan joke.)
Actually, you'd be quite surprised how many common names of places are derived from the 'many names.'
That's actually part of why Westerners have historically tended to have these really boring, repetitive personal names that don't mean much to them, beyond who last wore that name... there was a deliberate effort to try and 'de-Paganize' people's heritages by only accepting names out of the Bible or monarchies, for instance. :)
Posted by: Paganplace | June 25, 2009 1:42 PM
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Ooooops.
If Ye think Watching Two non-Straight Men tongue Kissing each other in Public, then please see:
Ultra ORTHODOX American hugging & Kissing IRAN's President & CO. in the Open, for all the world to see!
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3340592,00.html AND See:
http://www.ww4report.com/node/1888
Note: They Smuggle lots of Diamonds & gold & Silver Here. They Also Launder Their Money in IRANian Banks! And
Please see Off Shore Secret HASSIDIM/ORTHODOX LUBAVITCH international bank:
Please see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominion_of_Melchizedek
So the question is: Where are they now since they condoned to the MADOFFs & CO., perpetrated the Global the Financial Tsunami!?? And VATICAN Bankers: Where art Thou?
Come-out Come-out wherever Ye art!
Posted by: liveandlove | June 23, 2009 3:11 PM
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The ultimate road sign would be:
"PRETTY WINGIE THINGIES' HIGHWAY", afterall said fictional characters are the foundations of most of today's religions!!!
"THERE WAS NO ABRAHAM HIGHWAY" would be a close second.
"NO PLACE FOR WHITE TRASH HIGHWAY" would follow in third.
"HORNED GOD WAY" or "TRIPLE GODDESS WAY" or "MORONI WAY" or "THE GREAT BABS WAY" would also work well.
Posted by: ccnl1 | June 23, 2009 2:54 PM
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All HASSIDIM, SATMAR etc.. in sweet sweet America should Be Deported to sour sour IRAN instead of being Interned (un-like Japani's duringww2) in Gauntanomo Bay (a Waste of Tax Payers Money)!
A N.Y. Fact: Many of Them Go on WELFARE & collect FOOD STAMPS so that they Can Pray ALL DAY instead of Work!
here is The Case for a Non-Religious person [an ex Judeo like meself who's ashamed to be "Jewish"?} that makes some of Us [not SUPREMICIST(s)] "hate"? them ANTi-AMERICAN (Anti SECULAR) based Ultra Parasite Religious!http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3340592,00.html And see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yisroel_Dovid_Weiss
If i [EWE] had it OUR-WAY [by Us Secular non Finatic Jews & Friends] that
we would order The ULTRA ORTHODOX HEREDi (Satmar, Hassiddim & similar JUDEO flavours) "Jewish communities" in Borough Park, and in Williamsburg Brooklyn & in Monsey, Montacello, N.Y. & elswhere here , to have
RAZAR WIREd WALLS/FENCES & Special "ingress & Egress" entrances surrounding them!
Besides 1 r 2 reasons above; That They (Ultra Finatic closeted Orthodox) knowingly-Flout New York City/State LAWS! So, They (not Us) need to be taught a Lesson; The Hard Way Again. Hence; They Never Learn!
COMMENTARY: America needs to Seriously 'Abolish' All Federally & State "Tax-Exempt" Status's for All, Every & Any [IMPORTED RELIGIONS & their Institutions; not Made/Bred/Born & Prophecied in U.S. of A.] like all of Todays Synogogue, Church, Mosque, Temples, Sharms etc.. includes All Parochial Schools, All Yashiva's, All Madrassa, Monks etc..!
Interestingly: GERMANY outlawed Tithe Giving & abolished All CHURCH's 'Tax-Free" Statisis! Instead; it Gives Tax-Payers Money to Each 'registered' Religion Institution "X-DUTCH-MARKS" (EURO)!
Note: The White House $2,000,000,000 Annual Church-Based" Tax-Payer Money via Hand Outs is ILLEGAL & Unconstitutional; Adding insult to injury their also allow them (licensed god Players) I.R.S. Tax-Free Status's aka not for Prophet? priviledges in U.S.A.!
WE [i] need to Stop Them finatics from making us (non Religious) look bad! Do i [WE] have to Change our Family Name , to not sound Jewish, to Escape their (not OUR) "Drunkin Racist NOACH religio enforecement Story??
So Mr.: A Lisenced Jealoust Rabbi's etc.. please Watch Who YE & Co., call a "WHITE"?, or "BLACK?, BROWN?, TAN?, YELLOW... "SUPREMACISTs"! The Pot Calling the Kettle Black?
Posted by: liveandlove | June 23, 2009 2:49 PM
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Sounds like Rabbi Hirschfield has the right of it, here. I think it sends a message that the public roads are for *all* Americans.
I worry, of course, that this idea will get turned around to *serve* bigotry: I could see a state of affairs where people who don't like Pagans and LBGT people will turn around and name a lot of roads after Jesse Helms or something, though that sends a pretty revealing message, too.
The reality is we're all one country, whoever seeks to divide us.
Posted by: Paganplace | June 23, 2009 2:31 PM
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Here, of course, are my sardonic suggestions:
ADOPT A HIGHWAY (Utah)
LDS for Curing Gays with Electroshock
ADOPT A HIGHWAY (Texas)
Southern Baptists for Nuking a Gay Whale for Jesus
ADOPT A HIGHWAY (Kansas)
Randall Terry Republicans for Murdering Doctors
ADOPT A HIGHWAY (DC)
New Republic Bloggers for Those Jews Deserved It
ADOPT A HIGHWAY (Alaska)
Palin Supporters for the Anti-Christ is a Homosexual
ADOPT A HIGHWAY (South Carolina)
Creationists for Evolution is a Lie (except for Michelle Obama)
ADOPT A HIGHWAY (Tennessee)
Republicans for a Portrait of the President with "Spook Eyes"
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/06/16/tennessee.email/index.html
Posted by: coloradodog | June 23, 2009 1:44 PM
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continued:
Fact: As a Son of Ex-HAGANA Ashkanazi parents that We was told, "It was the Hassidim, Satmar & Ultra-Orthodox & openly? Finatic Jews [of Europe, who now dare live in sweet sweet America & new Israel etc..] that CAUSED [OUR, not their near Extinction!] the-SHOA, aka the HOLOCAUSE'd!
In BERLIN the Ultra-Orthodox Judeo-Jews? "OPENLY" wrote in their Jewish Forwards etc.., that IF IT WAS NOT FOR THEM [Finatics Jews] that GERMANY & the EARTH Would not have been made! Nor It would not Rain nor will anything Grow. And
That G-D CHOSE-THEM Yiddishkites? , not YE, not Us SECULAR-judeo's, as if they truly (opposte MYTH) be G-D's children 1st & YE (us secular Jews) 2nd, Islamic/Hindu's/Budhist... 3rd, 4th, 5th!
Our Father/Prophet Hir ALBERT EiNSTEIN [pbuh] himself 'Hated' the Rabbinical Society. Note: Our Father refused to recognise Modern-Israel as a Rabbinical [Judeo] State!??
Via "Holocaust Museums" in America or Even Israel act as if the Holocaust/Shoa's Happened against them [Judeo-Religionists (not Us Secular Jewish?] in AMERICA or ISRAEL instead of EUROPE!???
Mr. Hirschfield & CO., You are a Jealously Licensed Rabbi (aka Theo-Crat, not a lisenced LAWYER) trying to hide/Paint your Mass Murders Rabbi's of Non-Judeo Jews, caused'd by Ye Rabbinical/Halakah JEWS kingdoms via MOSES & CO!
It is Possible that Facism, which follows Socialism, will arise in America! So
It's best , for the :OPENLY" Flouting Ultra-Orthodoxies (not openly Gays], like in MONSEY, N.Y., & BOROUGH PARK, N.Y.C et al to Move back to Europe, South America or Israel! Includes Openly Flouting Musloms, Christians, Buddhists, Hindu's, Sieks... too!
WE are tired of Ancient (not OUR) Pre-Apocalyptic ABRAHAMIC & VEDIC Songs & their Lisenced Jealous'd LEADERSHIPS whom are constantly Situationally Lieing & DENYing & Hiding their MASS (past) MURDERINGS (Directly, indirectly or by Proxy)! Includes them Jealous wannabe Finatic Copy Cats!
Note: VOTE: REmove All "Tax-Exempt" [Not For Prophet/Profit] Statu's of All IMPORTED (Abrahamic/Vedic/Pagan...) RELIGIONS [Not MADE/Born/Bread in sweet Sweet AMERICA] Systems!
Posted by: liveandlove | June 23, 2009 1:21 PM
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JEWS like Us whom became victims of openly flouting Proud Rabbinical Jews can [rightly] hate those JEWS TOO! In Israel, Europe, Israel etc..!
Sir: Pushing & simultaneously Denying Your (not OUR) "DRUNKIN racism NOAH STORY", is So RACIST" that it is otherwise known as the "Most EVIL Story Ever Told" & ENFORCED [by guess Who?]; on the non-[Jewish]-Religious! HITLER & CO., was Pravoked by the RABBINICAL JewishMonopolists so He & Co., Got Angry, not Jealous at G-D Players entrusted with (our, not their) HASHEM? business!
Hence the Price We Paid (for No Fault of our Own) for such Licensed Jealousy of a Religion via their Finatical Ultra-Orthodoxy in Europe whom are now [Stealthly] trying to Steal (OUR) MODERN-ISRAEL from under Our feet (not Their hard work) & "Convert" Eretz? into their (not SECULAR JUDEO's) Biblio Judeo "ANCiENT ISRAEL"!
America is No Iran. In Iran, Teheran & in other Nations that their MASS Murderers or Terrorists have street Signs with their Names on Them. Some Brown, Black, White & Yellow "Jihaddist'"s [same as a SUPREMACIST] also have names etched on their [not our] side-walks or Walls, in Gold!
Note: Russia's "Majority" vianastalgia have recently propped-up Mass Murderer's Joseph Stalin and recently have "re-erected" Statutes & re-named Streets after Him!??
Fact: Biblio Moses & his JudeoJEWS, not Blacks, not Whites, not ARAB's caused many many SHOA's/HOLOCAUS'Ds.
Remember & Never Forget: Because you & CO., are in DENIAL of Your own Peoples Mass-Murderings Transgressions & by boldly Using the convulated Word "White" & "Supremacist" , especially in America by a Jewish RABBi & CO., is very audacious! You should not have picked this subject here!
The Hitler HOLOCAUSED'd (Shoa?) Card in America & the World must End!
Note: Stalin Murdered all the MEN on my Mothers Side. And Hitler murdered All my Family on my Father's side!
continued:
Posted by: liveandlove | June 23, 2009 1:11 PM
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Or saints. You could be named after saints, too, (even if their names had Pagan meanings) as long as they were remembered as someone who converted your heritage. :)
Slightly irrelevant, but interesting parallels, here, in a way, in spite of your general mockery.