Christopher Bauer’s Weblog

Greetings,

As some of you may know, a group of Neo-Nazis plan to march in Lansing in two days. Considering that it is Hitler’s birthday today, and the march is in two days, I figured that I would make my comments on their right to march, the right of a counter rally, and my overall thoughts on Neo-Nazism.

I believe that it is the Neo-Nazis (hereafter referred to as NN), constitutional right to be able to march down the streets of Lansing. If we were to begin to eliminate the right of extreme groups such as the NN, then that would establish a precedent that would be sited to halt the marches of other extreme group. From this, it wouldn’t be a huge leap of faith to hypothesize that other, less extreme, groups would then become suspect, and lose their rights to march and demonstrate. This, in my opinion, would be disastrous for the constitution, as it would provide a precedent to ignore certain aspects that we don’t agree with circumstantially. From there, your guess on the path of America is as good as mine, but mine is pretty dismal.

There is also a counter rally the same day, a diversity rally which was organized in opposition to the NN rally. This to me is more of a grey area. To be sure, I support their right to organize, however, the timing of such a rally conflicts with the NN’s right to do the same, as people will turn out to the diversity rally, rather than the to the NN rally. I would not be opposed to having a diversity rally the day before or the day after, which would show to the world that Lansing is not ‘pro-Nazi’ (a primary reason why the diversity rally was established). I suppose the main problem that I have with the diversity rally is that the NN had organized their rally before, and thus have priority over the diversity rally, and to that extent, I fear that it infringes on the right of the NN to march and demonstrate without restraint.

Finally, I would like to comment on Neo-Nazism in general. Hitler, alongside other leaders such as Pol Pot, Stalin, Mao Zedong, is remembered in history as a mass murderer and a paranoid war monger. Whether or not these claims are true (NN would state that the Holocaust never happened, and Hitler was a peaceful guy, actual words from the leader of the NN rally while on the radio), this is how Hitler is remembered. Therefore, looking up to him for inspiration would be, to me, insane. Just the mention of Hitler in any sort of positive way immediately puts people on the defensive, even if it may be true. To that extent, the idea that the NN would dare to align themselves with Hitler and Nazism does take courage in this society.

Although I respect the NN right to demonstrate and march, I disagree to a significant degree with their doctrine and style of confrontation, which often leads to heated tempers and violence.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 20th, 2006 at 8:28 am and is filed under General Interest and You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.