For many cultures, naming your child is a very important thing. The name is everlasting and creates a definition of character and outcome for the child’s future. Names do not only help you stand out from the rest of world but also gives you a place in it, as well. It offers a sense of purpose and guidance along with giving a sense of personality and individualism. Family history can be passed down with a name, commemorating an ancestor; or perhaps even commemorating an influential figure in history. But what if you take on the name after someone in history who was deemed the absolute personification of evil? This person being, Adolf Hitler?
News broke out in the local press about a supermarket’s refusal of a family’s request to decorate a cake with the name for their three-year-old son, Adolf Hitler Campbell, with “Happy Birthday Adolf Hitler.”
The father, Heath Campbell, went on to say, “They need to accept a name. A name’s a name. The kid isn’t going to grow up and do what [Hitler] did.”The Campbell family also have two other children who bare the names of JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell, 2, and Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie Campbell, 1, who was named after the SS head Heinrich Himmler.
No one needs a reminder of what Hitler stood for and the suffering he casted upon many innocent people. The mere mention of his first name, alone, will cause a spring in your back to jump.
Even if the kid won’t grow up to be like Hitler (hypothetically speaking), the name carries within itself the image and reference of a man of hate. No one will see it as just a name but rather a meaning or definition of the person who bares it. What Campbell doesn’t realize (if he was stupid enough to think it wouldn’t happen) is that passing this name down puts a stigma on his own child. Hate begets hate, the way violence brings about more violence. If a name is passed down, so does the history that comes with it and whoever bares it will suffer harassment and rejection from those around him. He may not feel or experience now but come his late teen years and early manhood -- he will surely feel the sting.
Interestingly, this story asks us to reflect on our contemporary society; We have just elected a multiracial man into the white house, yet, most of us are still unable to accept gay marriage. There are still things our society cannot let go of. However, if history has shown us patterns and motifs, it is natural for movements to brew and to experience struggles before causing a change. But what are we hanging onto with hate that’s so important? Many people across the globe still hold onto the beliefs of hate because -- for the only justification I can conjure -- they feel the need to secure the lineage of their culture and beliefs.
We’re in an ever changing world where cultures and races mix and grow from their diversity. Hate only close minds and segregates ideas and people, which brings about destruction through violence. Campbell shows that he is an advocate of hate and racism by passing down these names to his offspring. There’s no way of telling what these kids will do to their kids but hopefully they won’t see the world through a hateful perspective.
Campbell says they’re “just names that no one will ever use” but clearly his true beliefs in these names lie in some other justification.
Subscribe to this comment's feed
written by Jenn, August 06, 2009
Can you imagine JoyceLynn marrying someone of a diffrent race with the middle name Aryan Nation
-
- +0
-
-
written by Mixed Pandora, August 06, 2009
-
- +0
-
-
written by Jacob Konstanly, August 07, 2009
I was on the fence but now that I think about it I don't think it was such a good idea. Just imagine if YOU were called Adolf Hitler.
-
- +0
-
-
written by Carmen R, August 09, 2009
I agree with your closing remarks entirely but (and this is just me personally) what prompted the parents to name him that? Better yet, why name all their kids after murderers and sadists?
If the parents were trying to use their children to "prove a point" or "promote change" I think they did in the worst and wrongful way (sacrificing their childrens names and dignity for it).
-
- +0
-
-
written by Lou Dobbs, August 09, 2009
"Even if the kid won’t grow up to be like Hitler (hypothetically speaking), the name carries within itself the image and reference of a man of hate. No one will see it as just a name but rather a meaning or definition of the person who bares it. What Campbell doesn’t realize (if he was stupid enough to think it wouldn’t happen) is that passing this name down puts a stigma on his own child. Hate begets hate, the way violence brings about more violence. If a name is passed down, so does the history that comes with it and whoever bares it will suffer harassment and rejection from those around him. He may not feel or experience now but come his late teen years and early manhood -- he will surely feel the sting."
And if a man can't realize this ^ over his personal desires to name a child Hitler for whatever reason, then maybe he isn't fit to be a man much less a father?
One could debate that (let's put on our thinking caps)
-
- +0
-
-
I'm not surprised with the publics reaction though, world war 2 is still in the memories of a lot of older people and in a way you can't blame them.
It's funny, being a condoner of rationalism has always been a fortay of mine but pushing expectations on others never has been. Makes me have to really boggle.
Nice post