"This is personal, folks. Glenn Beck said on his show that the youth camp on Utoya island in Norway where scores of young people were slaughtered by a madman last week was a camp that "sounds a little like the Hitler Youth or whatever."
Unlike Beck, Norwegians actually know what real Nazis were like. My mother, may she rest in peace, was a Norwegian who spent her teenage years under Nazi occupation. My grandfather was a member of the Labor Party that ran the camp on Utoya, and he put his life on the line in the underground fighting against Nazis during World War II.
Whether I would agree with his politics today is irrelevant. My grandfather is my hero. He was arrested by the Gestapo more than once and tortured. Once he was turned in by a member of the Mormon congregation over which he was branch president. But he never gave up the fight.
He wasn't alone. Scores of patriotic Norwegians and their children were tortured, sent to frontlines as cannon fodder or executed by Nazis during those years. To even raise the name of Hitler in this manner during the aftermath of the biggest tragedy in Norway since the war years is not only insulting, it's painfully ignorant.
But here's the best part. Glenn Beck asks, "Who does a camp for kids that's all about politics? Disturbing."
Turns out a tea party group in Florida sponsors just such a camp for kids. [see the Desnews blog for the link: http://www.deseretnews.com/blog/33/10012129/Perspectives-on-the-news-Glenn-Becks-insult-to-Norway.html]
I wrote my own, similar letter to Mr. Beck! But since it's unlikely he will read it, I'm posting it here. Sometimes you have to take a stand:
Dear Mr. Beck:
I don't think you have any idea how horribly offensive your comments regarding the Norwegian Labor Party summer camp were - in likening them to the Hitler Youth. It shows a deplorable ignorance of facts.
Norway suffered horribly during the 5 years of German occupation during WWII. I know, because I was raised on stories about things that happened then. You see, my mother was born and raised in Norway, emigrating to the US in 1950.
My mother was forced to attend a real Hitler Youth camp as a young Norwegian. As a patriotic Norwegian, she suffered for it!
Even mentioning Hitler Youth in the same sentence with a pleasant 5-day youth camp just creeps me out. I can't believe you would use those terms! I'd like to see you use Hitler Youth and, say, Boys' or Girls' State programs across America in the same sentence!
Likewise, the Norwegian Labor Party was started by people who earnestly sought humane treatment for workers in Norway. I know this, too, from my family history, as my grandfather and his brothers championed the Labor Party back in the 19-teens and 1920s. They fought for humane conditions and fair wages for the ordinary laborer in a time when frightful conditions existed.
To Norwegians, in a tiny country with a population of only 4.8 million, this is their 9/11. I can't believe you were so disrespectful and insensitive of the grief they are experiencing as a nation.
I think you totally deserve the flak you are getting for your idiotic and poorly thought-out statement. The press in Norway is having a field day with it, I see. I hope you are not planning a Scandinavian vacation real soon.
Maybe you should be more careful next time!
Sincerely,
Anne-Berit's Daughter
Marianne Evensen
Thanks for letting me vent. I feel better now.
No comments:
Post a Comment