Hi Ken,
Yes, but it is the individual who carries out the beliefs and they carry
their foblies with them. I know the religions are harmless - just as guns
are harmless until you put them in a the hands of a human. I have lived all
over the US - so I have seen how the prejudices change from region tto
region. You must remember we immigranted in 1957 - WWII would have been
fresh in the minds of the adults and some of them would have lost family in
the war. It is hard not to hate when you have been directly effected. My
mother hates the German's with a passion - hence we became Americans as soon
as possible - in those days the wait was 7 years and the Judge in the little
town in Kentucky we lived worked really hard to try to deny our citzenship -
after all My Mom had been drafted into the Hitler youth (like she had
choice) and I was born not only German but illegimate and we don't want
trash here. Papa wrote his Senator in order to get thru. My grandmother who
joined us in 1960 - remained German and was also the best example of a human
I have ever seen - she hated no one, blamed no one. I think she knew hatred
diminishes the person, after all she lost her children and grandchildren to
the Americans and Russians, becasue Hitler conquered her country.
Trisha
> Maybe that was part of it, we did not have a big german population, heck,
> we
> only have about 15,000 at all. We do have a chinese group. I had black and
> indian and oriental friends as well as white.
> My religion kept me from hating, not caused me to hate. I know lots of
> things people said they were doing because of religion really was not what
> the religion tought.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Trisha Cummings [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Friday, October 11, 2002 12:44 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Question
>
> Hi Ken,
>
> Well, I am not a descended from German - I am a former German. I became
> an American on 4/24/64. As a kid I always got to be the bad guy when we
> played - I was the German (LOL), the bandit and the Indian - another
> chuckle
> here as my natural father an American ( I am a love child) was 1/2
> American
> Indian - which makes me I guess 1/4 Indian. Which may explain my perchant
> for nature and the natural beliefs. Did you have immigrants where you
> lived?
> We as American tend to look down on immigrants - todays being the
> Orientals
> and the Hispanics - History shows the Chinese and Irish in the past, etc.
> If
> we could ever get past this distrust of someone from the next village over
> the hill - we might have hope.
>
> Trisha
>
> > Well, trish, I may have just have had my head in adark place, but, I am
> > nearly 54 and I have never witnessed an incident of a german descended
> > person being blamed for what hitler did. And I lived in small town
> alabama
> > where predudice was shown quite freely as I was growing up. Anyway, I am
> > glad you have had now 15 years without this going on.
> >
> >
> > Then perhaps you should know Mitsubishi made the engines for thr
> Japanese
> > Kamikazi planes. And US cars today have engines made by them. Or we
> > could
> > remember WWII ended 57 years ago and the people who where there are very
> > old
> > now ( and some folks like my mother who where forced to become German by
> > Hiltler ) and you are directing your hatred towards people who have had
> > no
> > connection to it at all or had no choice as to their nationality ( like
> > me)
> > . In doing this you just incur their animosity. This would seem to be
> > silly
> > to my way of thinking that like holding the genocide the Jews did in
> Bible
> > times against today's Jews. As a former German - I must tell its only
> been
> > maybe 15 years since I have been able to say I was a born German and the
> > first words out of someone's mouth aren't - Oh, you are NAZI. The
> problem
> > with hatred it's directed against the innocence as well as the truly
> > involved. I grew up not liking the Jews - becasue the didn't like me - I
> > hated being bamed for what happened in WWII - I was born 8 years after
> the
> > war ended - in a refugee home. I had nothing to do with Hitler or the
> > Nazi's
> > but I have held accountable for there stuff. I can tell you its breeds
> > hatred - its on thing to be guilty but a totally other thing to be
> > innocent.
> > The people who do things should be held accountable - not the innocents
> -
> > or
> > everyone should be reviled for something becasue everyone has someone in
> > their past who isn't lily white. And on the totally amusing side - I
> have
> > inccurred Alex's Grandmother's wrath becasue I allow Alex to date a
> Jewish
> > boy - and he happens to be the son of a friend of mine and he wants to
> be
> > a
> > Rabbi. And I guess Simon gets falack for dating a non-jew. Can we say
> > petty! There are times when I feel religion was made by the Devil -
> > becasue
> > it feeds the hatred instead of creating love and better people. Of
> course
> > the ultimate perpetrators are the individuals themselves - we should
> begin
> > to blame individuals after all good and bad are found in everything.
> >
> > Trisha
> >
> >
> > > I'd no idea until today that Hitler'd had any role in the development
> of
> > > the
> > > Volkswagen Beetle. Not sure I'd have bought my car if I'd known at
> the
> > > time.
> > >
> > > Kat
> > >
> > > On Thu, 10 Oct 2002 12:57:08 -0400 Meir Weiss <[log in to unmask]>
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > > > Volkes as in folks/ nation
> > > >
> > > > Wagon/ car
> > > >
> > > > My father may he r.i.peace
> > > >
> > > > Was a child holocaust survivor (orphan)
> > > >
> > > > For his whole life he refused to buy german
> > > > products
> > > >
> > > > ESP volkeswagon-bmw (bavaria
> > > >
> > > > Mercedes benz
> > > >
> > > > All those
> > > >
> > > > Just fyi :)
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