All or Nothing

I voted for President Trump not once, but three times. I firmly believe it was the best thing I could do, and, indeed, would do it again under similar circumstances. But I will not go to bat for everything he says and does. That, simply, is intellectually dishonest. People make mistakes or sometimes say and do things which are perplexing if not downright indefensible. We need to be upfront and honest about that, particularly about ourselves and those we support.

Everyone needs to do it. Full stop. I'm not trying to be particularly political here, honest, but President Biden and his supporters needed to do this in recent years. They weren't very willing to speak and act honestly about COVID and were loath to allow the expression of opposing views. The folks attempting to track every move ICE makes, as does ICE itself, need to consider how they act and what they say. So does the religious, the atheist, the sports fan, the everybody. It's okay to defend someone doing something when it is in fact good. We must also be critical of the one doing ill even if we otherwise agree with him.

If this world teaches us anything it teaches us that it is far from perfect. Yet we human beings seem to want everything or nothing. Quite a few of us litmus test. We're seeking gotcha moments rather than truth when we do that. 

I can support Donald Trump in securing the border while questioning just what the hell that speech at Davos was about. Democrats can call for open borders while asking themselves seriously whether Biden had mental troubles which affected his ability to be President. We ought, generally speaking anyway, to treat individual issues and actions as exactly that, and analyze them accordingly. None of that but you're guy is just as bad really helps. It is almost certainly hyperbole to assert a President is the Devil incarnate, even if it's Donald Trump. Or Joe Biden.

You can't have everything, and you must regularly question your own actions and motives. Above all you cannot demonize. That only hardens the heart of the other guy.

History Cannot Justify Everything

Over the past weekend the Detroit Historical Society Women's Guild hosted their twice a year rummage sale. It is a good time to find some bargains, while getting in a bit of history. The event is held on the grounds of old Fort Wayne, which is open to the public as part of the price of admission, and it thus offers those so inclined an opportunity to see a classic example of 1840's military architecture.

Often, there are events within the Fort which reflect on our history. One year they played baseball by 1867 rules, and it is not unusual to see Civil War reenactors showing their wares. Yet this past weekend was different. There were reenactors of World War II GI Joes and their Nazi counterparts, complete with a battle reenactment on Saturday.

The first and likely best question is: who would want to play Nazis? One answer is that as we grow away from WW II we need to reestablish a connection to it and its atrocities, and that means someone has to play the Nazis. That may be true of movies and documentaries but it sounds rather hollow as a reason for regular weekend entertainment. Certainly we need to remember Nazi atrocities; yet to actively play them as a diversion from reality in the same way Civil War reenactors find respite from their daily labor seems more to glorify than condemn the Third Reich. It appears to put them on a level playing field with the Allies to take refuge in the symbols of a totalitarian state.

Image if you will similar scenes with fake Al Queda operatives sometime in the future. If that sits well with you, then I think the question is well, if poorly, answered.

Even playing a Confederate invites the same skepticism. Why would anyone want to go even near towards justifying their cause? It is like playing games without proper consideration of the real meaning behind what happened, whether the American Civil War or the Second World War is the focus or not.

We do not need to see Nazis in our historical reenactments. It can only, even if only marginally, redeem our image of them. It is something which must be discouraged from our future reflections on why we fight tyranny.