KANSAS CITY, Mo. -The state's litter prevention program got an unusual ally last year: A neo-Nazi group adopted a half-mile section of highway in Springfield and picked up the trash. Lawmakers responded with an amendment to a large transportation bill that would rename that section of road after Abraham Joshua Heschel, a rabbi who narrowly escaped the Nazis in World War II and later marched with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.Along with the adopt-a-highway program, the National Socialist Movement also gets it name posted along the same stretch of road they've adopted.
But the move is being criticized by Heschel's daughter, who objects to naming the neo-Nazi's patch of highway after her father and calls the plan "highly inappropriate and vulgar."...
"For the National Socialist Movement to be in the Adopt-a-Highway program is well within their rights," said Rabbi Alan L. Cohen of the Jewish Community Relations Board of Kansas City.I don't have a problem with any group of citizens who want to pick up trash and make their neighborhood presentable. Who would? If they want to tidy up, let them, or cancel the program for all.
"But obviously there were people raising the concern that this is the wrong message for people to see driving down a Missouri highway, that there are National Socialists out here," Cohen said Sunday.
I don't see a problem here. Where I see a problem is with The Program itself.
'The Program', of course means the cleaning crew also receives free road-side advertising for themselves. Hey, if it's good and righteous for a local baptist church, synagogue, or NAACP chapter, all of whom have political interests of their own, to used this government supported venue of self-promotion, then the same goes for the National Socialist Movement as well.
As for the upset poo-bahs of highway do-goodism, I have a better solution. Rename that stretch of highway "Obama Road". It would send the intended message to the neo-Nazis while at the same time providing the public with a more-accurate-than-not statement that Obama's brand of socialism is indeed moving forward nationally.
And since Obama is such the rock star, with street names already being proposed in his honor, who, besides these idiots, could object to his name being on this one?
(Ya know, I can understand why some segments of the population might feel offended, scared or put-off by this group. But to me, they just look silly.)
6 comments:
Only a half mile? What happened to that old Nazi work-ethic and efficiency we all knew and loved?
They can keep the trains running on time, but they can't maintain a full mile of highway?
Nazism used to be more than a party...Everyone likes a Party, but who likes to clean?
'but I will fight to the death to defend your right to say it'
sigh ...
what I don't get is why they bother tossing the inconsistent, half-mast whatever-that-Nazi-military-salute-thing is ... how half-assed can you get? "No really, we're making a serious comment about the state of racial relations, can't you see how serious we are? Dude, no really--seriously!!"
Per Dr. Horrible: that's about *standards.* C'mon, freaky fringe group ... if you want to be feared (er, respected, right, sorry, I forgot), pull it together!
Sometimes I think these white supremacist types really care more about eliciting reactions of shock and horror by reminding people that they exist than actually pursuing any racial agenda.
You know, like performance artists and shit. Ignore them, and eventually they'll go away.
I seem to recall noting with some amusement that a section of desert highway somewhere in SE AZ was adopted by the "Voluntary Human Extinction Movement", whom I would have thought would prefer to see a road in the wilderness go to seed, if anything...
tully: maybe i'll start a shredz party. wanna join? no cleaning necessary. we got women for that.
kr: oh,hi.
would you like to join our party?
brian: we'll need you to brew up a batch of beer for the party.
I've got four kids to clean up after already, who are you kidding ;)?
Make them clean a stretch of highway 1,945 miles long... Or if they're up to it, 6 million miles.
After seeing lots of newsreel footage of hundreds of Nazis marching in parades carrying handspades at "right shoulder arms", this should be no problem for 'em.
Robi1 - out.
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