ABC News:
A son of the 88-year-old white supremacist who allegedly started a shootout at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum is slamming his father's "cowardice" and apologizing to the family of the security guard his dad is accused of killing.
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It sounds like this guy was nothing but a mean drunk. His son knew the score.
The son saw past his fathers hate and took a different path, good for him. But this is just not a right wing problem as there as been extremist on both sides. The problem is people on the left and right will not sit down at the bargaining table and discuss differences, because both want their own ways. This is just the beginning everyone. This country is going to split wide open into civil conflict.
What left extremists have murdered those they disagree with?
well, david letterman made a tasteless joke about sister sarah and her family and that has to count pretty high on the scale, doesn't it?
and bill maher made fun of sean hannity.
This guy IS a left extremist.
Hate is taught. I wonder when and who taught James Von Brunn to hate. From his son's comment, it looks like he has integrity and compassion and didn't follow in his father's footsteps of hatred.
FIrst comes the fear, then comes the hate.
What a blessing - that a fathers hatefulness did not contaminate his son.
What a tragedy - that a son will be forever tied to the perverse sins of his father.
What a disgrace - that some will see fit to elevate this father to the status of a hero.
What a sorrow - that an innocent man has to pay with his life for an act of cowardice.
What an injustice - that the wrong man lives.
You are so right.
It takes courage and integrity to make this kind of public statement. Erik von Brunn has nothing for which he needs to apologize, yet he will bear the burden of his father's actions for the rest of his life.
there is a strong element of mental illness with von brunn, all the more obvious by the mentally healthy response of the son.
before i got a handle on my bipolar disorder i felt the boundaries of my thinking were torn away and was being interfered with by strangers in the most preposterous ways.
BUT it never took the form shown by von brunn, so i believe his paranoia was fed by his "sane" learning.
as nancy reagan could tell you with respect to drugs, there's no such thing as the safe use of "recreational" drugs.
it's the same with right wing ideology. ayn rand's theories are a gateway "drug" to the hard core stuff.
Cowardice is exactly the primary reason for racism, not hate. You only come to hate something if it scares you.
My father in law was a member of the John Birch Society, NRA and Heritage Foundation and he became a paranoid raving shell of a man. I switched cell phone carriers today because the place where I got my previous phone had FOX News constantly going. I am writing the carrier to tell them this and to suggest therapy or at least sensitivity training for those who sell their products. I honestly feel that FOX contributes to the fear and paranoia of the white man and this has caused much personal and public harm. For every mad shooter many other families are seeing their loved ones become insane or at the very least difficult. It is worse than drugs. Honestly it is.
Good for you!
I hope scott roeder's family finds the courage to come out and disavow his hatred and actions like this brave young man did.
Mr. Erik von Brunn, walk tall and proud. Its not your fault.
Coward is exactly the word I used on my blog for this person. So the really nice Black guy with a 14 year old son dies because this bitter old man can try to go out in a blaze of hate.
And Von Brunn, although in critical condition, still lives.
No, Officer Johns died because he was protecting the children in the museum. He kept the bitter old man's blaze of hate to a mere flicker. That's a lot more than a "really nice" guy. We lost a real hero.
If you have a relation who is this disturbed PLEASE go to the FBI and police to inform them of his proclivities and beliefs and what kind of danger he might be to society. He was already on the radar but an insider could help them tremendously.
Weird. The apple fell VERY far away from the tree.
It isn't really so weirdl. If you grow up in a family this hateful and unbalanced, there are two options: buy into it -- or get out. Many kids who grow up in high-stress families do find a way to work through it and make sane lives. One of the big arguments in favor of public schooling ... it gives kids a chance to see that the rest of the world isn't what Crazy Parent says it is.
See...even in a pile of racist, neo-confederate feces a human being can grow!
Wow. That was a very eloquent response from the son of this madman. I hope no one harbors ill will against the son, who apparently suffered repeatedly from this bigot's abuse.
Explain to me again why southerners hate African Americans so much.
I mean let's all be serious...
I mean come on, the south sure as heck wasn't built by lazy southern whites slave owners.
Let's be even more serious. You don't know anything about the South. Before anyone could explain anything to you they'd have to recalibrate you. Von Brunn was born in the Midwest and lived in New York for over 20 years. He went to the Holocaust Museum to attack Jews, not African Americans. So how is your comment in any way related to this incident, or at all useful, except perhaps to let us gage your intelligence. I am a southerner, and I do NOT hate African Americans. Take your straw man and get stuffed.
Yeah, well I live in the South, too, and the only reason they don't openly say they hate blacks is because now it's bad taste in the South to make statements like that in public.
But they sure do think them, just as they hate lib'ruls, gays, and anybody who thinks differently from them. Last time I got into an email battle about this, the guy was trying to convince me that if I voted for BHO we would wind up paying slavery reparations.
he hated jews and blacks but he wrote on one of his sites: if he had too choose to ki|| off one group , it would be the jews...
Boboday555, If northerners had not gone to Africa to get Africans and brought them back here to sell then there would have been no slaves. Study your history. I love how the south gets the total blame for slavery because the pure as the driven snow northerners would never have owned slaves. And yes, I am a southerner. I do not hate African Americans. But if it gives you a warm fuzzy feeling to assume I do, then go ahead.
as a black woman who was born and raised in the south and has traveled around this nation, i have to say you really don't know what you're talking about. racism and hate is EVERYWHERE in this country.
so let's be serious, it is no more concentrated in the south than it is on the west, in the midwest, or along the east coast. Remember the guy in PA who killed the cops because he thought obama wanted to take his guns, or how about the black people in being terrorized and killed by hispanic gang members in the Los Angeles area? Did you see the videos of the Palin/McCain rallies from OH last year....th
Thank you coot08, I hate having to defend my part of the country so much. I know the south has a long way to go, as does the rest of the country, but the south has probably come farther than any other region simply because we do have so much to be ashamed of and we learned from that. I am a white woman in the deep south and a woman I respect and love and is one of my best friends and I strive to be like is African American. We are NOT all racists.
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First Posted: 06-12-09 04:34 PM | Updated: 06-12-09 04:39 PM