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 :)