What's in a name?

When I was a little kid, my parents told me that my father wanted to name me Aloysius, that's pronounced Al-O-wishus. Now, I like to think they were just having fun, and that no parent in the last 100 years would afflict a child with a name guaranteed to garner daily beat downs and unending ridicule. Parent's do tend to give their offspring some fairly fucked up names, who knows why. Celebrity parents like to curse their children with names like Rumor, River, Moon Unit ad Dweezil, just to name a few. But none of these can compare to Adolf Hitler Campbell or his siblings, Joyce Lynn Aryan Nation Campbell and Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie Campbell . Yeah, I know.

I was all prepared to fire off a couple of dozen one liners and wisecracks, Let's face it the story begs for it. Then I saw the little boys picture, and the gravity of it set in. This little boy, innocent and blameless is afflicted with something far worse than the name of probably the most hated person in recorded history, he was cursed with two scumbags for parents. It's easy to despise bigots. What we often overlook is how they came to be that way, why they think the way they do. Even the original Hitler wasn't born an anti Semite, he didn't goose step from the womb and it's a safe bet his first words weren't Filthy Jew. He learned to hate, and while he was clearly mentally deranged, someone planted the seeds of hate at an early age, it was instilled in him.

When you look at the picture of the little boy, his parents almost seem to hover over him licking their chops in anticipation of the mindless hate they are most surely instilling in his heart and mind. No doubt it has already started, I promise you that little boy can spout the words Nigger and Kike with the worst of them. He doesn't know what it means, he can't possibly begin to comprehend the centuries of hate, violence, genocide, and heart break behind those ugly words, but rest assured in twenty years he will be just as twisted, and just as easy to loathe as his parents.

You want to believe that just maybe this child will come to realize the wrong headed thinking that he is being fed. Like the main character in American History X, he will find the common bonds of humanity that we all share. He won't. This ain't Hollywood. Here in the real world he will almost assuredly grow in to a hate filled mindless piece of human refuse in the same vein as the two who brought him in to this world. He will probably go on to raise racist anti Semites of his own, and on and on it will go, from one generation to the next.

The biggest tragedy in all of this, is that there is nothing short of a bullet in the brain pan that will stop people like these two degenerates, and that isn't a viable option. No amount of threats cajoling, reasoning or pleading will change the way these people think. The hate has been nurtured and instilled in them, and unlike Edward Norton, there will be no epiphany, no sudden revelation when they see the commonality of us all. So no jokes or witty one liners on this one. Seeing that child's perfect face, and realizing the ugliness that is already being nurtured and encouraged in his impressionable mind, leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth, and no humor to be found.