[FWDLK] Responsibility for the past

[Dave Stragand <dave.stragand@KETCHUM.COM>]

I understand that many of the people on the list are old enough to have
served our country in World War Two, but at some point I really think we
need to let go of the "Nazi" thing with reference to Mercedes.

Most of the people working there now weren't even born yet during the
war, and probably a good number of their parents weren't even born yet
as well.  To generalize all of them as Nazis is unfair and inaccurate.
To be perfectly honest, the United States has a larger number (and
larger percentage of its citizens) that are Nazis than the whole country
of Germany does today.  With that in mind, it would mean that -Chrysler-
is the Nazi company, not Mercedes.

While it's important to remember the past in order to prevent bad things
from recurring, it's also important to remember that responsibility ends
with the people who were responsible.  Responsibility does NOT carry
through generations.

Remember also, that the US has not always been a goody two-shoes.  We've
had slavery, we've had internment camps...  In fact, I can remember in
the 1960's that we segregated out people to separate schools, separate
bathrooms, separate dining rooms, separate seating on trains/buses...
because these people weren't "human"... Sound familiar?  How many of you
remember watching black Americans who wanted only their civil rights
beating clubbed, beaten, and hosed down in the streets?  How many of you
in the south actually enforced those actions?  That was 20 years AFTER
the Nazis, folks.  How many of you remember those things?  I'm sure it's
a larger number than those of you who remember WWII.

I refuse to take any responsibility for the sins of my forefathers.  I
had no possibility of  influence over their actions, just as the current
workers at Mercedes had no influence over their forefathers' actions.

Don't get me wrong, I think the Nazi atrocities were of the worst
possible things that man can do against man.  I also appreciate and hold
in high honor those who fought and served our country to stop the spread
of those crimes.  Remember though, time goes on.  Generations come, and
generations depart.  Over 50 years has passed.  Mercedes  equals Nazi
about as much as Forward Look equals racial discrimination.

Please try to keep that in mind.

-Dave