Your hypocrisy

Published On: May 27, 2020|Categories: MRFF's Inbox|3 Comments|

Accessibility Notice

This post was created on the previous version of the MRFF website, and may not be fully accessible to users of assistive technology. If you need help accessing this content, please reach out via email.
Mr. Weinstein.
 
Your advocacy for removing the headstones of German soldiers buried in National cemeteries bearing a swastika appears to be nothing more than advocacy for your own religious affiliation. This posturing on your part given the quote you have so proudly emblazoned upon your organization’s home page seems to me to be more than just a tad hypocritical. These enemy combatants deserve no less recognition for their service than do our soldiers, many of whom are buried in countless unmarked graves around the world. I would remind you that these soldiers died far from their homeland and families and that today their relatives are unable to pay their respects to a fallen family member. While I disagree with you on any need to remove the swastikas I understand the abhorrence generated by that symbol for members of the Jewish faith. I do believe that there is a solution going forward and it is one that embraces the ideology expressed in your quote. As a veteran I believe that to place any religious symbolism upon the grave of a soldier only detracts from the sacrifice that individual made for a cause they believed in right or wrong. That said the practice going forward should be to allow only for the name, rank, id no., country of service, birth date, and date of death to be displayed on headstones within a National Cemetery. Going forward I would suggest that those International agreements on the handling of the remains of enemy combatants be changed to allow for the cremation of those fallen, an accurate record, and the mandatory repatriation of those remains upon the end of hostilities. Such measures would provide that families have closure and that individual Nations are allowed to honor those who served, again without regard for politics or religion if that’s possible given today’s climate.
 
I would have added that the flag of the fallen’s country be allowed but given that these banners often contain icons that some would find offensive and would, in my opinion, detract from the honor they deserve perhaps it is best that we not allow for this. At the end of the day perhaps those of the Jewish faith can take solace in the fact that under those swastikas lie the remains of an enemy that was vanquished, unable to do further harm.
 
Sincerely,
 (name withheld)

Response from MRFF Founder and President Mikey Weinstein
…sorry (name withheld), but we will not agree…..your otherwise relatively thoughtful e-mail did not need the obvious filthy and disgusting antisemitism extant in the opening sentence and I DO take offense….VERY MUCH SO!!…read the below 2 Op Eds from MRF Advisory Board Members and I’ll now accept your apology for the disgusting anti-Jewish sentiments of your open salvo…SHAME ON YOU, SIR!!…..FOR SHAME!!!……Mikey W.


Response from MRFF Board Member John Compere
On May 27, 2020, at 10:32 AM, John Compere  wrote:
First & foremost, thank you for your military service. However, your sarcastic anti-Semitic statements at the beginning distract disappointingly from your otherwise civil communication.
 
Swastikas are symbols of horrible hatred & hideous holocaust of 6 million Jewish children, women & men by the psychopath Hitler & his Nazi henchmen. Swastikas also serve as rallying signs for neo-Nazis here whose stated goal is to kill all American Jews. National data shows hate crimes against Jewish people & property are increasing. Germany even bans the public display of Swastikas & makes it a crime. Holocaust museums accurately preserve the history of the gruesome genocide.
 
Swastikas & Aryanism have no place in American military cemeteries with Americans who fought (over 400,000 sacrificed their lives) to defeat the evil Third Reich whose leader was the Fuhrer, symbol the Swastika & criminal ideology the extermination of all human beings born of Jewish mothers (like Jesus). The iron cross was originated by the Prussians. Nazis only co-opted & desecrated them with their Swastikas. The Department of Veteran Affairs has published an official list of 70 authorized religious & non-religious symbols for military cemetery graves. It does not include the iron cross with Swastika.
 
No intelligent American adult should be surprised many Americans of all races, religions & regions find the grave headstones offensive, anti-Semitic & anti-American. Moreover, they can be easily & economically replaced with appropriate identification of the deceased.
 
Would you feel the same about Islamic jihad terrorists & grave headstones displaying Al Qaeda symbols & praising Osama bin Laden in American military cemeteries with Americans who gave their lives (over 8,000 to date) fighting the War on Terrorism? If so, we have a serious disagreement over appropriate grave headstones in American military cemeteries. If not, you should carefully reconsider your contradictory contention.
 
Brigadier General John Compere, US Army (Retired)
Disabled American Veteran (Vietnam Era)
Board Member, Military Religious Freedom Foundation (over 80% Christians)

Mr. Compere,

 

My Statement at the beginning of my communication to Mr. Weinstein was merely my own personal observation, was and is not anti-Semitic in any sense and as a decorated military veteran I am surprised that someone of your rank would take my remarks so far out of context. I agree that this symbolism has no place today, but we cannot erase history and should not attempt to do so. Nothing in my communication had anything to do with Aryanism or how that symbol is being used today nor did it seek to justify the warped thinking of those who were the Third Reich. If we are going to remove these headstones then we should remove every one that depicts a cross, Star of David, or any other religious symbolism as well. I wonder if you have ever looked at the photos of what you did in Southeast Asia and the results of the indiscriminate use of napalm and carpet bombing on innocent women and children, certainly not something I’d be proud of. But then again, people make mistakes, they should be held accountable, they should be forgiven, and religion has no place on the headstones of any veteran in any military cemetery in this country the primary contention of my communication and far from contradictory. I’d remind you that our government, the same one that has refused me my God given right to worship not to mention Constitutional right, was founded by those who were religiously persecuted and upon the premise that church and state are separate entities. Perhaps you were asleep when you took that civics class.

 

Sincerely,

(name withheld)


Response from MRFF Board Member John Compere

On May 27, 2020, at 11:22 AM, John Compere  wrote:

“The truth of the matter is you always know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it.” – Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr. (General, US Army & Gulf War Allied Forces Commander)
 
“The closed mind of a contentious contrarian cannot be pried open with a crowbar.” – old cowboy colloquialism

 

 

Share This Story

3 Comments

  1. A.L. Hern May 27, 2020 at 5:35 pm

    There’s a memorable line in the classic film “Sunset Boulevard”: “Funny how gentle people get with you when you’re dead.”

    The problem with that observation is that not all the dead deserve to be treated gently, based largely on their actions before they got dead.

    In the case of German soldiers, it was that they fought to advance the aims of a genocidal regime, which consisted largely of killing the very American and other Allied soldiers who populate 99.9999 of all the graves in those military cemeteries. As noted above, not all corpses are created equal.

    So, whenever some apologist for these Germans state that they’re “just” soldiers, who served ‘honorably,” let them consider just what, and whom, they served.

  2. Watchman for Zion May 27, 2020 at 7:01 pm

    It is interesting that Compere cannot make a thoughtful statement without just copying and pasting from philosophers who are just as morally corrupt and sinful as he is.
    Mr Compere, when will you apologize for the massacre done by American troops in Vietnam at Mei Lei? There was not one thing that the gentleman above that was said is no way antisemitic.

  3. Watchman for Zion May 27, 2020 at 7:07 pm

    This whole thing about swastika’s on headstones saying that it is offensive for it signifies the genocidal sins of the Germany military of Nazi Germany. Based upon this, should we no longer have air shows where they fly a German Bf109 fighter with the swastika on the tail of the aircraft or should we still have Mitsubishi Zeros with the red circle on the play fly in airshows because it might bring up fear of WWII survivors especially of Pearl Harbor. How about should we have air show demonstrations of former MiG jets with the Russian star on them that flew in the Korean War etc?
    If you are going to allow a Bf109 fly in an air show with the swastika on the tail, then you must also allow for it on a headstone, to say one is ok and the other is not, that is hypocrisy.

Leave A Comment