July 8


USA:
The Sound and the Fuhrer: Hatemongering has no place in our politics


Stop it. Stop it this instant.

No more Hitler images. No more brown-shirt references.

It doesn't matter who started it. It doesn't matter who perpetuated it.

It doesn't matter how badly either party wants to win this election or how
much its partisans dislike the guy on the other side.

For those who've missed all the yelling, the Bush campaign has a Web ad
that tars the Kerry forces as "the coalition of the wild-eyed." In
addition to film clips of agitated Democrats, the spot offers glimpses of
two ads submitted months ago to a contest run by MoveOn.org, which likened
the president to the Nazi dictator.

Bush followers say the ads which MoveOn yanked after a few days from
among the 1,500 entries on its site fairly represent Democratic
fanaticism. Kerry supporters say his campaign had nothing to do with the
original ads, while the Bush campaign has everything to do with keeping
them in public view. Further, the Kerry-ites say, the Bush spot, by
juxtaposing Al Gore, Howard Dean and Adolf Hitler in what looks like a
spit-slinging derby, draws a subliminal connection between the Democrats
and the Nazis.

Frankly, my dear, when it comes to the nuances of the thing, we don't give
a damn.

Every political party, interest group or individual should retract any and
every Hitler image or reference, regardless of where it originated. Both
sides should apologize if not to each other, to survivors of the
Holocaust and World War II.

This cheap, tawdry brand of politics is an insult to the suffering and the
sacrifice that ultimately triumphed over one of the greatest evils the
world has ever known. No person in American public life today is
comparable to Adolf Hitler. No party running candidates for office is
comparable to the Nazis.

Hitler was an apostle of hate. Sixty years after his death, his image
still evokes hate only hate. Hate is a corrosive. To use Hitler's image
is to throw acid on the foundations of our body politic.

America is not immune to hate; periodically, we have flirted with it. We
have survived as a nation only because common sense, common purpose and
common decency prevailed.

So let's bury Hitler for good. Resurrecting him when it seems convenient,
like some kind of rhetorical boogeyman, is bad politics. It's bad karma.
It's bad for the country.

(source: Editorial, Dallas Morning News)





TEXAS:

Holocaust center nears deal on downtown land----Backers hope to create a
historical museum district near West End


The Dallas Holocaust Memorial Center is in the final stages of buying a
parcel of land for a $12 million facility it hopes will help create a
historical museum district in the northwest corner of downtown Dallas.

The new 35,000-square-foot Holocaust center will be built north of The
Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza and near the Old Red Museum of Dallas
History & Culture, which is scheduled to open next year.

Plans call for the center, which is now housed in the basement of the
Jewish Community Center along Northaven Road in North Dallas, to move this
fall to temporary quarters in a 1,500-square-foot space on Record Street
and Pacific Avenue.

Supporters hope to break ground sometime in 2006 and complete the facility
in 2008 or 2009, said Elliott Dlin, the center's executive director.

"We've signed the contract. Short of finding a munitions dump on the site
or something else totally unforeseeable, that's where we're moving," he
said.

Money for the center, which will be privately funded, is being raised, and
center officials are still deciding whether to include an underground
garage.

The red-brick building envisioned by Dallas architect Harold Baeck would
feature a four-story, high-translucent glass tower representing a yahrzeit
candle, which is lit to commemorate the anniversary of a loved one's
death.

The wall facing The Sixth Floor Museum across a DART rail line will depict
a large map of Europe, highlighting those countries where the Holocaust
was particularly savage.

The side of the building facing Houston Street will contain panels of
inspirational quotations, and a sidewalk along the front will be broken as
if riven by an earthquake.

Inside, an 8,000-square-foot permanent exhibition will contain artifacts
and photos of the Holocaust and the videotaped testimony of death camp
survivors and liberators.

Mr. Dlin said Holocaust center officials were motivated by a desire to
raise the profile of the museum.

"Our mission is to educate people, and the greatest fulfillment of that
mission is to go to where the people are," he said. "We wanted to build an
education facility in downtown Dallas in a place where tourists frequent."

He said he considered sites in Fair Park and the Arts District but felt
that the West End was more heavily traveled.

Officials were also intrigued by the proximity of the two other historical
museums.

"I can envision linking them together, even if they are on very different
themes," he said. "A teacher might use them, say, to teach a project on
oral history."

Greg Schooley, executive director of the West End Association, said the
Holocaust center would be an important addition to that section of
downtown.

"It gives us diversity of attractions, and that's what we really need
right now," he said. "We have restaurants, and we're happy to have them,
but this gives people another reason to come here."

Mr. Dlin said he did not think a museum commemorating genocide especially
across the street from one dedicated to the assassination of a president
would be too somber to attract tourists.

"Our function is not to dwell on the horrors and the suffering," he said,
"but to look at the past as a way of dealing with the future."

(source: Dallas Morning News)