We all heard about how little Adolf Hitler and his two sisters were removed from their parents' home shortly after ShopRite refused to put his name on a birthday cake. The state says oh, they'd not remove a child just because of his name. There would have to be other factors involved, like, the name is really bad and would place a "stigma" on the kid.
HELLO???? Is it not obvious that a name like "Adolf Hitler" might just... you know, sorta be kinda bad and maybe place a "stigma" there? A little??
A kid in Emperor's preschool class was named "Jihad." The kid would have had to have been born right around September 11, 2001. Just seeing that kid's name on the smiley laminated desk tag got me mad. "Jihad." I still think "Crusader" would be a way better name, and he could kick "Jihad's" butt on the playground. Twice. Tolerance, my butt when I see names like that. That kid is not invited over to play. But you don't see me stomping around and proposing we take the child away from his parents. I mean, who gets to decide when a name crosses the line into offensiveness? You can just go thank Allah it isn't up to me. :]
I think parents are pretty crazy people naming kids stuff like this. But it also creeps me out to see news story commenters say it means you should have your children taken away. I get a little nervous about that, not necessarily because little Adolf won't have a good life in a foster home (hey, he probably will, and his name is probably Andrew or Aiden now, thanks), but because I'd be concerned about the slippery slope in this and other areas...
Susan R. recently posted on the state going a little too nuts over accusations that aren't worth investigating anyway. When is it even worth the social worker's time to come by for a visit? Apparently homeschooling and owning weapons gets you under suspicion.
Are you "isolating" your child from the "real world?" I see some claim that you shouldn't be allowed to do that. The government should make you send your child to public school to make sure he gets a "chance" at a "normal life." On some blogs, I even hear talk about how this or that kid should be taken away and/or those religious fundies shouldn't be teaching their kid about religion. Unless they're Buddhist. Or Pagan. Oh! Or even Muslim. That's ok because that's "diversity."
Remember Texas? Where were the self-described liberal bloggers defending the FLDS people's right to marriage the way they define it? Nope. I saw a lot of giggling about the silly dresses and how wack homeschooling those kids was. Sheltering them from the real world. A whole media series on the "lost boys" in this Mormonish sect who had to move out. How hard life was for them.
Aargh.
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Look Out, Dad!!
My father is the purple dot above the blue weather station. He's juuust outside Milton's evacuation zone. Well! My brother and I jus...
The whole Adolf Hitler thing warrants comments on so many levels. I mean, WHO puts a kid's whole name on a birthday cake?
ReplyDeleteMoving on, I was disturbed when I heard that the kids were taken. With the FLDS, there was at least an accusation of abuse. Every newspaper said that there had been no reports of abuse or neglect. Which leads me to suspect two things:
1. The state was concerned because the family was receiving death threats. There *have* been threats, including threats to a family with the same surname (Campbell) in the same town.
2. This is NJ. (NJ is insanely regulated, and not always in a good way.)
Personally, I wouldn't name my kid Adolf Hitler. Or Jihad. Or, um, Isabella Madison. But, yes, we go down a very dangerous path when we start banning and regulating names.
Most countries outside of the United States actually have an "approved" list of names. I used to be outraged at this, but hafter many years, have come to see that it prevents these sorts of incidents from taking place.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, I once read a book on Indian meditation (which I still have) which discussed one way of meditating was to repeat God's name over and over. He brought up that some people asked what possible value could this have. His reply was to have people look at it in the inverse and imagine if someone chose to meditate saying aloud the name of Satan, over and over. Hardly anyone would doubt that this would be harmful. He thus showed the benefit of meditating upon God's name, or something else similar.
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