Store won't put kid's controversial name on cake

Heath and Deborah Campbell of Greenwich, Pennsylvania are angry that the ShopRite supermarket refused to spell out their 3-year-old son's name in frosting on his birthday cake. His name is Adolph Hitler Campbell. Poor kid. An area Wal-Mart later agreed to decorate the cake. Others who read the story in a local paper were apparently upset with Heath Campbell about choosing that name for his child. That made him even angrier. From the Associated Press:

"There's a new president and he says it's time for a change; well, then it's time for a change," the 35-year-old continued. "They need to accept a name. A name's a name. The kid isn't going to grow up and do what (Hitler) did...."

Heath Campbell said he named his son after Adolf Hitler because he liked the name and because "no one else in the world would have that name." He sounded surprised by all the controversy the dispute had generated...

He said he was raised not to avoid people of other races but not to mix with them socially or romantically. But he said he would try to raise his children differently.

Cake request for 3-year-old Hitler namesake denied (Thanks, Jason Weisberger!)

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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Hakan

From the article:
“Say he grows up and hangs out with black people. That’s fine, I don’t really care,” he said. “That’s his choice.”

Well, as long as they’re not Jews I suppose.

It reminds me of Louis Theroux and the Nazis documentary. He was chatting and having beer with some neo-nazis until they figure out Louis is a Jew and it gets very tense from that point onwards.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=R_7eMk85ETM

It was very uncomfortable to watch, I wonder what Louis thought about it.
zuzu

Did you really name your son Robert`);DROP TABLE Students;–?

Seriously, “permissible names” are a bad idea. How about instead we allow our children to name themselves?
tizroc

elsmiley ,

There is no constant but change. Wouldn’t that also include meanings of words? We have seen the Swastika take a turn for the worse, yes.

Of course one of the greatest frustrations is holding on. To say that the swastika is ruined is an absolute. That leaves no room for growth and change. I don’t think it will happen anytime soon, but somehow it has to change because everything does. Just because it went from a great symbol to one representing evil doesn’t mean change has stopped.

The second point is that to me when I see a left faced Swastika with four dots it is a reminder. I do not hold it as a piece of my belief. As my statue of the Buddha is neither something I worship nor is it a piece of my belief. They are mental bookmarks to keep me mindful of the path I am trying to stay true to.

Please do not mistake my hope that someday things will change and the good name of the Swastika can be revived with an attachment to it. I do not expect it to happen in my life time. I just know that since all things change, to say the Swastika is ruined makes no sense to me.

However, in regards to the primary topic I would agree that the use of the Swastika in the home of the child is likely not one being used in good faith.

Again thank you for the engaging conversation. I hope you understand that I do see and understand what you are saying. I however believe there is no way to say the Swastika is ‘ruined’. It is a symbol, as a symbol it only value is what is put into it. I do believe many, many years from now it would be egocentric of us to think that future civilizations wouldn’t read/or what ever their text books and see the 20-25 years of the life of the symbol as a blip on the scope. (A disgusting, vial, evil, malevolent blip) I think it is more likely that they will see the symbols as separate from the crimes, as many people today see the symbol of a red cross as vastly different than the Moorish people did several hundred years ago during the crusades.

Thank you for the enlightening dialog. Best wishes.

-Tizroc
hobomike

Ha! This takes me back to the “whether or not you should have kids” thread that accompanied the Right-to-Water debate yesterday.

My friend, was determined to be childless until his wife convinced him otherwise by reminding him that stupid, shitty people are having kids anyways and that smart, caring people have to do their best to maintain the equilibrium. She was much more eloquent than I.

Today they have two kids and I’m glad they did.
Takuan

how came a son of Tash to the eight-fold path?
skatanic

I have never heard of someone naming their child after Hitler simply because its different so i was a bit suspicious of the parents. Reading the linked article i was struck by how much the dad denied being racist. Given that no one seemed to be accusing him of being racist i thought this was a bit odd. I want to thank #13 Bettywu for linking to the other article and confirming my suspicions. The dad (and mother?) don’t just have a strange sense of humor, they are neo-nazis. They have numerous swastikas decorating their house; deny the holocaust; and don’t believe races should mix. If it walks like a duck…

So, by all means people should be allowed to name their children whatever they want but its pretty apparent that this man didn’t choose to name his children in honor of nazism because he thought it would be fun and ironic.
cana

I agree the former comment that we should focus on the future and not on the past, and parents should teach their kids about it.
arkizzle

Wait, was that the gentlest fight ever? A Buddist-off?

lovely
Moriarty

Clearly these are bad people: racist, attention-whores, child exploiters, etc.

But those of you who are calling it “mental illness” and “child abuse” and whatnot obviously didn’t get the memo about “free society” and “freedom of speech” mean. The government doesn’t decide what ideologies it is acceptable for people to hold or what they can say, and starting to define the ones the majority abhors as “mental illness” is just another way of doing that. It reeks of fascism (ironically enough) and it’s just not acceptable. You should know better.

As for “child abuse,” I don’t see any *demonstrable* harm. Parents ARE allowed to teach their kids their own beliefs, even if you don’t like them. Even if you REALLY don’t like them. Yeah, it will almost certainly cause the kids a lot of grief, but it’s ultimately just an extreme version of giving your kid a dorky name. It’s not grounds for taking them away.

I also don’t fault either ShopRite or Walmart in the slightest. ShopRite is free to refuse service if they think it might start trouble, and Walmart is free to make the opposite call, so as not be arbitrarily discriminatory. Isn’t this country great?
MajorD

Kinda puts the whole “boy named Sue” thing into a new perspective, don’t it?
Cicada

@70- You essentially answered yourself in your last sentence. No, extreme racism isn’t a mental illness. For most of human history–as in up until the most recent century- it was probably actually the norm.
Now, if you want to argue that extreme divergence from the prevailing social norms is insanity, you can…but then again, you’d be forced to declare that socially tolerant people in socially intolerant societies would be insane, should be treated to correct the problem, etc.
Xeni Jardin

@ Dr. Jules, my favorite part of the original article in the local Lehigh Valley paper is some random internet commenter who, after looking at the photo of the father, blurts:

is that a mullet? in 2008? wow! that alone is almost child abuse
- Antinous
  
  Mullets are hot.
briandodd

freedom of speech is more important today than it was yesterday or 50 years ago.

that said, someone needs to break daddys jaw.
Takuan

hot?
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1063/560845882_1d875daf61.jpg?v=0
- Antinous
  
  Hot!
Xeni Jardin

“The Campbells’ other two children also have unusual names: JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell turns 2 in a few months…”

BAHAHHAHAHAwait that’s not funny.
arkizzle

-1 Parents, for giving kid a name to live up to.
-1 WalMart for being dicks.
arkizzle

Oops, that was:
-1 ShopRite..

But WalMart can definitely keep their -1
arkizzle

This whole story is buckets of fucked-up.
The Resident Expert

There’s a kid with a bright future ahead of him.
arkizzle

“Heath Campbell previously had asked for a swastika to be included in the decoration.“
Takuan

ah yer just thinking of his proud makhila.
ROSSINDETROIT

Well, by the time he’s done with high school he’ll know how to take a punch.
ZippySpincycle

“I think people need to take their heads out of the cloud they’ve been in and start focusing on the future and not on the past,” says the dad.

Yep. Clearly his choice of name for his kid has no connections to the past. It’s only a name. Which is why he shouldn’t mind if I name my dog Asswipe Heath Campbell the Shithead.
arkizzle

Zippy, you don’t like your dog?
Tom Hale

Poor kid – his parents are idiots.

Walmart – being dicks? The kid is named Adolph Hitler – His parents might as well have named him Lucifer Satan Campbell. They are attempting to make a statement at their child expense.
zuzu

-1 Parents, for giving kid a name to live up to.

He’s taking it back! ;)

Boy will that name suck once he hits puberty and starts having sex. Having your partner scream “Oh Hitler!” is a dick softener if I ever heard one.
The Lizardman

If there is anything dumber than getting hung up on a name it is trying to pretend that you didn’t realize how people would react to that name and claiming it has nothing to do with your own fairly obvious racist proclivities.
BettyWu

“The Campbells have swastikas in each room of their home, the rented half of a one-story duplex just outside Milford, a borough in Hunterdon County. They say they aren’t racists but believe races shouldn’t mix.”
http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/warren-county/index.ssf?/base/news-0/122923112231930.xml&coll=3&thispage=1

Oh good! As long as they’re not racists.

http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/warren-county/index.ssf?/base/news-0/122923112231930.xml&coll=3&thispage=1
slywy

I’m with #60.

Dad falls over himself to be disingenuous and fails. He knows exactly what he’s doing, and he got all the publicity for his cause that he wanted, including people defending his “rights.”

I’ll go with the store’s right to not take his money to do something they had always refused to do, anyway.

Oh, the swastikas in his home? I’m sure they’re a tribute to Native Americans. Yeah. That’s the ticket. Surprised he didn’t claim that.
dimmer

I kinda like the Lucifer part of the name suggested @#10. I feel it has been unfairly abused.
nycjason

Just imagine what the cake at his Bar Mitzvah will look like…
broncospin

Choosing to call himself after one of the most reviled people in history would be freedom of speech. Giving that name to his son is not freedom of speech, it is child abuse.
Gag Halfrunt

From the article:

Campbell said his ancestors are German…

This must be the white supremacist version of claiming to have a Cherokee princess great-grandmother or some such exotic ancestor. (If you named your son “Adolph Hitler”, you’d probably want to be descended solely from blond, blue-eyed Aryans.)
MrJM

Why didn’t they just have the cake say “Happy Birthday Kid With Dumb-Ass White Trash Parents” and everyone could be happy.

– MrJM
Pipenta

You don’t think these people are mentally ill? Ha.

One could argue that racism is not a symptom, I suppose, but not when it is this severe. As far as racism being the norm, it doesn’t mean it is a sign of mental health.

Murder has been the norm for much of human history, rape has been the norm. So what? Many cultures have had slavery as the norm. Slavery used to be the norm here. It no longer is.

The tragedy with the removal of the children from the Texas cult is not that it happened. The tragedy is the children were returned to the cult.

And as far as children being removed from their parent’s custody being unAmerican? What an offensive and meaningless statement.

We get all huffy and puffy about people’s right to breed. We’re not so demanding about their responsibilities towards their children.

And we hear equal indignation about parent’s rights to teach their children whatever they wish. Because children are chattel. And if you teach them things that hobble them and hurt them and isolate them from the society at large to keep them trapped, then that’s fine, because basically, you own their sad little asses.

There seems to be this misconception that child abuse is rare. It isn’t. It is rampant. Over the years, people have finally begun to have some clue about how common, say, sexual assault is. We need a similar kind of education about child abuse.

There is also this delusion that mental illness is rare. It isn’t. Shame, denial and ignorance keep all but a few personality-disordered people from being treated. It is an invisible epidemic. You don’t have to be raving and obviously delusional to be mentally ill. There are plenty of high functioning narcissists and sociopaths out there who are perfectly intelligent and can pass in society just fine.

You know people who were abused as children, but they aren’t talking about it. It is held as a shameful and painful secret. You learns not to talk about it because you learn that you will not be helped. Usually you learn that lesson early on from the other parent who, when you finally realize that what is happening to you is not right, is not, dare I say it “American”, they deny it is happening or worse, blame you for it.

You learn to expect no help from other relatives, and you sure don’t mention it to other people. Not teachers at school, not the folks at church. Because there the constant message that DADDY AND MOMMY LOVE YOU AND ALWAYS DO WHAT IS BEST FOR YOU is hammered in. We see headlines about the collapse of societal mores in all kinds of contexts, of the numbers of students who cheat in school, of the numbers of people who rob investors, who lies and steal. But still, MOMMY AND DADDY KNOW BEST. We just can’t grasp that maybe, just maybe, there are an awful lot of parents who are doing wrong by their children. Golly, it would make us really uncomfortable to think that. It would be like thinking that maybe the gov’t is not benign, that there are people who, gosh, abuse their power.

When you are a child being abused and nowhere do you see acknowledgment of the possibility that parents can be wrong, let alone bad, you suffer. It undermines even your sense of reality, and makes you feel even more wretched.

We cling to this myth, that all parents are loving, because golly, it just makes us too uncomfortable to open our eyes. Never mind that kids are in agony. Never mind that it is a cycle that repeats itself. Even if we see an example, a parent child relationship that, oh, makes us a little uncomfortable, we rationalize. If there are regular obvious physical injuries, we might step in, we might.

But plenty of abuse takes place verbally and emotionally. And this is all perfectly legal. It is a parents right to crush and terrify a child, to break them down emotionally, to make them feel that they are defective and will never fit in anywhere, to make them dependent on the abuser so that they stick around to continue to provide more narcissistic supply for the abuser.

Of course, narcissists and sociopaths are slippery. Most of the time, to a casual outside observer it is difficult to detect. But as one who was abused as a child and who knows many other people who were abused as children, who knows that for most children, there is no one who will help, to hear about a case like this, where the abuse is obvious, to hear people argue for PARENTAL RIGHTS, it makes me want to vomit.
RedMonkey

I feel very sorry for the child.
nehpetsE

Hey Tom Hale, Do i correctly infer that you mean to imply Adolph Hitler was an imaginary mythological character?
ASupertramp

Wow, just wow. Politics, racism, and everything else aside what a bunch of self bastards those parents are (the father came off in an especially negative light to me)! I can only imagine how that thought process went, “I know I’ll give my kid a horrible name that (at least implicitly) celebrates one of the most malevolent mass murders the world has ever know and will most likely be a mark of shame and mocking for this child because it has cachet!” I know this sounds twisted, but I would almost respect them more if they were racists, at least then there would be some substantive reason for doing such an awful thing to your child. I try to use this word sparingly but seriously what a douche!
zuzu

“Heath Campbell previously had asked for a swastika to be included in the decoration.”

No fucking way! ::disbelief:: (and I can be crass as hell in person.)

But it’s just a cake; I’d take it as an opportunity to say that’ll cost $100 and syphon whatever cash you can from this jagoff. And at the bottom the cake would have to say: Du wÃ¼rdest eine Krankenschwester brauchen!
Santa’s Knee

It is becoming apparent that the entire family should be cleansed with fire.
grimshaw

Here’s a link to an article about a related issue in Canada, where two admitted racists sent their daughter to school with a Nazi swastika and other racist symbols and statements written on her arms and legs.

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=3bd7d0d6-e631-42e8-8dcf-64314d62a766
zuzu

Oh good! As long as they’re not racists.

LOL. “I’m not a racist, but…”
oldtaku

Yeaahhhh, all his protestations about ‘Oh I just thought it was an interesting name that nobody else would have’ kind of go out the window when you find out about the swastika and that his poor daughter is named ‘Aryan Nation’.

Good for ShopRite. That’s some business you can afford to lose to Wal-Mart.
arkizzle

Tom, if this was only about the name (as I thought when I posted that comment, then I RTFA) I would say get over it, it’s just a name.

However, besides the name, there is a history between the shop and the parents – involving the swastika request, and also the two other kids have mental names.. these people are clearly mental.

Genuinely though, if it was just this kid and his parents had made a kooky, misguided choice of name, then ShopRite should have just gotten over it.
ZippySpincycle

Arkizzle, for the pup’s sake, shorten it, and just tell the dog that he’s named after a celebrity.
- Antinous
  
  Shouldn’t the hospital have called Child Protective Services when the parents named their children?
Smoakes

I think it’s worth noting that child protective services can do things other than take kids away from their parents; parenting classes, counseling for parents or kids or both together, government attention does not automatically mean that parents will lose their kids.

The question seems to be where does the parent’s right to name their kid end, and the kid’s right to not be named that begin.
I think the solution might be to make it possible and easy for a kid to legally change his name at a very young age.
Lauren O

I like how he says that he was abused as a child because his parents were racists, but he’s a good father for naming his kids Adolf Hitler and Aryan Nation.
keratacon

A private business has the right to refuse any individual they want.

Nobody can require you to sell something with “Adolph Hitler” on it.

If the parents were just looking for a birthday cake, they wouldn’t be insisting the kid’s middle name appear.
ROSSINDETROIT

Doesn’t Bruce Willis have a daughter named Aryan nation? Or was that Sarah Palin’s oldest?
saint_al

Hope the kid at least picks up a passable nickname- say “Audie”, instead of a more likely “Headlice” or whatever.
Public school is gonna be rough, an isolating experience at best~ maybe there’s a good, cheap private place nearby that does Odinist/lost cause puppy training.
Tom Hale

@ nehpetsE, Whateva! Both names are still horrible.

Picking fights are we?
arkizzle

Zippy, nice :)
MarlboroTestMonkey7

Jumpin’ single testicle name decision, Batman!
zuzu

Shouldn’t the hospital have called Child Protective Services when the parents named their children?

Sanctioned government kidnapping when the family has crazy beliefs such as racism and religion is a very dangerous precedent.
- Antinous
  
  Yeah, Zuzu, because children are just chattel property. But you pretty much view people as pawns to moved around on your theoretical chessboard anyway, don’t you?
Heinous

Man, that is cruel. I mean, what sort of twisted parents buy a birthday cake from Wal-Mart?
DWittSF

Some skinhead Johnny Cash wannabe ought to pen a song about ‘A boy named Adolf.’
arkizzle

ZuZu@32.. what, no link? :D
shutz

Here’s what will happen once that kid gets to school:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANkkNEEZ8VU
tizroc

elsmiley;

Thank you for your comment. As a Buddhist one of the other things “they” did was to actually twist and pervert the swastika. Many of my older statues of the various Buddhas do have swastikas in them. The difference being that the Nazi’s turned it backwards as they did most things (this time having physically reversed the symbol). Its original meaning is goodluck and wellbeing. So I guess the Nazi’s turning it around was rather symbolic. Having for obvious reasons meditated on the subject further I am sad to say that as stated, I was more than likely naive in my hope that someone had actually stood up for a tarnished name. My thoughts go out to those children who I seriously hope someday can free themselves from the narrow mindedness of their parents. They are after all children, and the seed of hope for all of us is with them (I.E. I hope they rebel against their parents belief of segregation).

Sekino;
Your response is very touching. How can we keep the negative bigotry from being passed down. How can I as a parent be free to raise my children in what I feel is a loving environment and yet stop someone else from raising their children. If that were to happen in this country I would be forced to raise my children into Christianity. Instead I teach my children about many religions and help them to find their own path. I wouldn’t like to have my children’s options revoked because of the likes of these few. As I said, I was perhaps too naive in regards to these particular parents. I still have plenty of hope for the children. It takes so much more energy to hate than it does to let go of hate, and I believe ones natural state should not need that level of energy. Thank you for your input, and thoughts.

-Tizroc
zuzu

Ok ok… “It’s our ranch and it’s our home.” :)
tizroc

I know this will be unpopular, and more than likely the minority. I hate the fact that one dick head can somehow ruin a word or name. Perhaps it is my love of words, but I have always been a firm believer in self empowerment.

As a good Buddhist I am going to give the parents the benefit of the obviously stretched doubt. Compassion is important to me. I also believe that no one should own, or destroy a name. I hope with every fiber of my being that they are honest, and I would love it if the children grew up to be positive and outstanding members of society.

I don’t want the names of these children to demean anyone who suffered the horribly inexcusable death, destruction and genocide that the historical Adolf committed. My family on both sides lost loved ones throwing down the yolk of tyranny, oppression and murder that he and those like him committed against anyone who was not like them. The thought of the concentration camps alone is enough to almost makes me come to tears. I would do anything in my power to give back to the world what they took from it.

I sincerely, and quite possibly naively hope that their intent was to take back something that doesn’t belong to that murdering bastard. He deserves nothing, and in my heart I would strip the power of his name to strike fear.

I am not sure these parents are the ones that can take away some of the last vestiges of power that despicable man has over everyone. I hope their hearts were pure, and their motives good. I am not sure that it was, but it would make my own heart sing to take the fear of the name and shatter it onto the pavement of daylight freeing another prisoner.

I know it might not be the popular thing to say, and I honestly do not want to hurt anyone with my opinion. I believe that his evil should never be forgotten. I also believe anything he still owns, if forfeit and we should take back. Even in death he doesn’t deserve to hold sway over us. If the parents motives prove to be false, then it is my hope that as with all children the hope that is their potential does what their parents didn’t intend and make good what is such a burden for a little guy. Theirs will be a tough row to hoe, but I hope they do the world a favor. Here is to hope, and change.

-Tizroc
arkizzle

Hah! I never saw that RobotChicken sketch, classic.
“Now, it’s my problem.“
manicbassman

should have been nipped in the bud by preventing him from naming the child Adolph Hitler in the first place…

Italians have the right idea:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7686564.stm

and those parents only wanted to call their child Friday…

Mind you, he’d probably have run screaming to the courts that his free speech rights were being infringed…
Marshall

Wow.

Wow.

Wow.

If the parents would own up naming their kid after Hitler it would be one thing, but how stupid do they think the rest of us are? You would expect someone with the balls to name their kid after Hitler to at least be totally bold about their magnificent racism, not try to dodge the issue in what must be the lamest reasoning of the 21st century.
Tensegrity

But god forbid these children had been raised by or adopted by gay parents. That would have robbed them of the ‘normalcy’ of having both a mother and a father.
arkizzle

Zu! I never saw that before, so orbital!
Thanks :)
Anonymous

Mandatory Wal-Mart Cake Wrecks link.
Nawel

The whole thing is so fucked up. Now the guy claims he’s no racist? yeah, right. He knew what he was doing when he chose those names.
Takuan

“A private business has the right to refuse any individual they want”

oh? so I can put up a sign saying no dogs or whites?.
zuzu

Hitler in England (Monty Python)
Alex

Perhaps they’re secretly highly ironic uber-nerds, looking to preemptively invoke Godwin’s Law in any internet conversation their kid would ever be involved in.
Hel

@22 It isn’t the kids’s fault their parents are idiots. Don’t hold the kids responsible.
And, really, invoking cleansing in a topic that’s got ethnic cleansing as a background topic? Seriously?
elsmiley

Tizroc: Â I, too, believe in the Noble Eightfold Path, with all of my heart. But just a note: The symbols on the Buddhist artworks were symbols that may have resembled swastikas, but only when they were inverted and used in the context of racism and genocide did they actually gain the moniker, and thus the eternal, inherent meaning, of the swastika.

–El Smiley
zuzu

Le sigh… no, I totally support youth rights and autonomy for “minors”. But I vastly favor making legal emancipation easier, than allowing a government agency decide what the “right” way to raise kids will be.
Inkstain

The parents are the type that love attention, and they are getting it. This is *exactly* what they wanted when they named their kids.
Avram

I’m holding out a dim hope that the girl named Aryan Nation overcomes her name and grows up to become ambassador to Iran.
Pipenta

I’m with Anti, this is flat-out child abuse.

Child Protective Services should come in right now and remove those all those children.

And with a name like that, his parents are making damn sure the child will be emotionally isolated and have no one else to turn to for help.

Yeah, the kids need to be removed from the parents right now. And then the parents need to make a trip to the vet for spaying and neutering so that they can’t have any more children to abuse.
halfcaptain

I could probably type an essay, or several, with reasons why this is wrong and I’m angry. I would be, and I’m trying to, except I have to hand it to these parents for being so exceptionally dumb and monumentally ignorant. They’re actually so stupid, they’re almost funny.
GregLondon

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090114/ap_on_re_us/hitler_cake

Apparently, the children have been put under state custody.

article
Sekino

This sort of thing just makes me wonder how come trashy morons are so darn fertile. These people are not only messing up one kid; they’re messing up three (and counting, probably).

Humanity has been dodging natural selection for too long.
Takuan

in a free society,all you can do is make sure these kids have a safe place to run to when they get old enough.

Hitler hmm… no,not “Titler”, used that one last week;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k7U-_tJVmw
zuzu

But god forbid these children had been raised by or adopted by gay parents. That would have robbed them of the ‘normalcy’ of having both a mother and a father.

Again, illustrating the problem with government / social services defining the “right” way to raise children.

But if children find their parents intolerable, I’m strongly in favor of creating “exit strategies” available to them. i.e. youth empowerment

In my life I’ve known many people whose parents just outright didn’t provide / care for them. They were ostensibly on their own, but crippled by laws and regulations assuming the aforementioned “loving parents” cliche. For example, there’s virtually no way for children to earn a living due to well-intended child labor laws, even if labor today means designing websites or trading on eBay, instead of operating dangerous machinery. And good luck getting paid when banks don’t allow minors to open checking accounts.
travelina

They could always decorate the cake themselves. It’s not that hard, and 5-year-olds aren’t that particular.
zuzu

Yeah, the kids need to be removed from the parents right now. And then the parents need to make a trip to the vet for spaying and neutering so that they can’t have any more children to abuse.

It’s not like negative eugenics was part of the Nazi political program or anything.
travelina

As Homer once declared belligerently to Marge: “They’re my kids! I own ‘em. … Oh okay, WE own ‘em.”
minTphresh

get the networks on this! ” Raising Hitler” reality t.v.! the wacky antics of young adolph hitler campell and his not-so-bright family. i’m callin fox!
zuzu

in a free society,all you can do is make sure these kids have a safe place to run to when they get old enough.

Exactly.
mitechka

Well, besides all the silly rhetoric and general hilarity of the situation, this raises two very important questions.

1. Should parents be able to name their children as they please? If not, then what names should be allowed?

2. Should these people be discriminated for holding an unpopular views? If yes, where do you draw the line between “we will discriminate against X, but not Y”?

P.S. I love all the “lets neuter them” comments in the light of “cleansing” policies of nazi Germany
P.P.S. #35 you made my day!
Anonymous

Reminds me of an old Johnny Cash song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M89c3hWx3RQ
OM

…I’m sure that Dick Cheney Wallenstein and his sister, George Dubya, sympathize with li’l Adolph :-P
bradford

Who puts the full name of their kid on a cake?! This isn’t about freedom or change. This is about using your kid to push an agenda.

I wouldn’t be eating that cake. I’m sure it was sabotaged in some way.
technogeek

The customer is not always right. The customer is always the one with the money. Sometimes you have to choose between being right and taking the money, and sometimes you have to speak out rather than implying acceptance/approval.

If the parents weren’t deliberately trying to make trouble, they could have settled for “Happy Birthday Adolph Campbell” one the objection was raised. They didn’t. They created the problem; they can live with the outcome.

I really do think the store was entirely reasonable in saying “This is where we draw the line; feel free to take your business elsewhere if that bothers you.”

And frankly I won’t blame poor ‘Dolf if he burns down the house one night in a writ of fage. His parents deserve at least that much.
Duffong

After WWII, lots of German kids were running around with Adolph names. Most commonly they changed their names to Adi. That’s how Adolph Dasler came up with the name for his company: Adidas. Seems like this would have been a simple fix to shorten his name to Adi.
Anonymous

I think one of the most ridiculous things about the whole saga (and the reason why the father can’t pull the I’m-Not-A-Shitstirrer card :P) is the fact that he wanted the MIDDLE NAME on the cake too. Who does that?! “Adolph”: no issue. “Adolph Hitler”:…sheesh.
phunktion

It’s one thing to name your kid Adolf (which was a common German name in the past). It is however quite a different one to add Hitler to the middle name, it serves no purpose other than to
a. enflame others
b. create a monster
c. scar their kid for life
I say Child Protective Services should have been called the moment the birth certificate was filed and criminal charges brought up on both these bigots. It’s one thing to be an ignorant racist yourself but to brand your kid with that same ignorance from the moment he is born is a crime beyond measure.
Anonymous

I’ve gotta say the part of this that stood out to me is that he insists on calling his son by his full name. Did any of you have your ENTIRE name written out on your cake? That alone makes it obvious that the guy’s trying to cause a fuss.

Also how in the world are you supposed to know your parents are mad at you when they’re ALWAYS calling you by your full name?
powermatic

“He sounded surprised by all the controversy the dispute had generated…”

Kind of like if someone wore a sweatshirt with all sorts of electronic-y, blinky stuff on the front to a major airport, and was then surprised when they were arrested….
mightymouse1584

my bologna has a first name, itâ€™s A-D-O-L-F
hallpass

A couple of things:

Boingboing gets a reading comprehension FAIL for this post. The family lives in Holland Township, New Jersey. The ShopRite is Greenwich, N.J. The newspaper that originated the story is across the border in Pennsylvania, hence the dateline.

It’s stupid, but that’s the way the Associated Press rolls.

I wouldn’t want Pa. to be tagged with any instances of white supremacist activity that it hasn’t earned. It doesn’t need them.

Mightymouse @ 61

“I think one of the most ridiculous things about the whole saga (and the reason why the father can’t pull the I’m-Not-A-Shitstirrer card :P) is the fact that he wanted the MIDDLE NAME on the cake too. Who does that?! “Adolph”: no issue. “Adolph Hitler”:…sheesh.”

As a journalists and former employee of the newspaper that “broke” this story, I have serious concerns about the news value here.

This guy went out and purposely created a conflict and then reported it to the newspaper. He wanted to draw attention to himself.

My position here is that if you’re going to write about this family at all, it should be a process of getting access and telling the story of white supremacist parents raising three (?) children in suburban New Jersey.

I think the newspaper handled this clumsily.
Cicada

As far as the childrens’ isolation goes, they may well wind up having a happy, fulfilled existence living among other racists of like mind. Where’s the abuse in that case?
Anonymous

Godwin’s Law! oh, right…
Anonymous

Isn’t this the beauty of democratic society? Numb-skulls can name their kids whatever they want, and bakeries can refuse to bake a cake for whatever reason they want.
ykaznik

May I suggest a fourth name?
Joseph Gestapo Goebbels. It’s almost consonance.
misshallelujah

He said he was raised not to avoid people of other races but not to mix with them socially or romantically. But he said he would try to raise his children differently.

“And I’m going to start by giving them names like Adolf Hitler and Aryan Nation, brilliant!”

Seriously, that’s just so much bridge-in-Brooklyn material right there.
Dr Jules

Unbelievable.

My favorite part from the original article is one of the photo captions, which reads, “Young Adolf Hitler Campbell will be getting a cake from Wal-Mart this year.”
Takuan

here’s a question: the government(in some places) can take a child away from jehovahs witness parents that prefer that child die before getting a medically necessary blood transfusion. Physical, medical safety trumps parental rights of control.

Agreed?

Why then, cannot raising a child to hate (and eventually kill) on some nonsensical ideology of skin pigment paucity also be deemed medical necessity? Is being dangerously crazy an illness? Are these parent’s not mentally ill? In the face of all fact and evidence,is not any voluntary nazi mentally ill? Should they be permitted to infect innocent children?

Extreme racism = mental illness = legal cause.

If mental illness is indeed sickness.
All Jelly No Toast

Thanks, zuzu.

It’s not a compound… it’s our ranch, and it’s our home..

On infinite loop.
Talia

Its a great shame to the world these worthless excuses for human beings bred.

That being said, naught to be done about it but hope they don’t further breed and wish the kids well.

Scumbags.
Ned613

Pescovitz’s title is all wrong this is not a “controversial” name. Everyone agrees the name is inapporirate. A handful of people believing othewise is not a controversy.

Pennsylvania must establish and enforce guidelines about baby names that are permissible. I’m sure “Adolph Hitler” or some form of it would not be allowed on a licence plate.

The WalMart manager that permitted the cake to be decorated with this offensive name should be demoted or a least strongly reprimanded for this foolish action.
tizroc

It was just dialog between two different views on the topic, and how long evil can ruin something.

@Takuan, it was a faily straight forward progression, how long will the stigma of the name and symbol last.

@Arkizzle I like that, A Buddhist-off (Laugh). I think it was just a little culture shock that it didn’t degrade into Troll-dom. We were discussing our views on a topic. I know it is hard to believe on alot of websites. It can be done without degressing to name calling. Elsmiley and I just disagree on the lenght of time that something should be tainted by an act of evil.

@ Cana. I was talking about the future, and the present.
Note Antinous’ “The symbol of my yoga lineage is a swastika inside a star of David under a rising sun. Seeing the whole thing together, people don’t seem to find it controversial.”

I think the fact that those two pieces can exist in harmany speaks volumes for the war against evil. (Please US do not start a war on evil until you have finished your other “wars”.)

-Tizroc
Anonymous

@ZUZU,

Now you’re contradicting yourself. Normally you are monolithically consistent on the “autonomy for all” front, libertarian purist, which I understand and can respect to a point. Even in this thread, your posts are consistent with that view.

But in the water thread, you seemed to argue that no one should have kids, except maybe people that are wealthy and unimaginative and live in the third world.

You even used the word SHOULD. WTF?
Anonymous

His name seems fine to me…

Signed- Atilla the Hun
Takuan

I remember a hoax where they published a “yoga contest pose-off”. Lulz.
zuzu

“Mental illness” is fuzzy enough as it is without extending it to include “belief systems”. (Didn’t you ever see Twelve Monkeys?)
rebdav

#49 It is interesting you say that, I had a friend from Iran, Jewish, had to sneak out, he tells me that Persia was renamed Iran because of the affinity of that Shah or dictator in the 30′s for the Nazi cause and to let everyone know that persia was the brthplace of the aryan race, aryan…Iran same word different spelling.

In any case naming a kid like that is just a crime. Even though my kids have beautiful Hebrew names we have Anglicanized them for passports and American documents since most TSA types would freak if they suspected these names as being Arabic or worse foreign.
tizroc

elsmiley

Very close, the Sanskrit word svÃ¡stika both in name and physical form is just the product of bad press. The Nazi’s perverted it, in a similar way that other faiths ruined the Entangle.

In recent years I have been happy to see people take back the Pentangle in all its incarnations and see people begin to recognize it as an icon of good.

However there is a fundamental difference between the two. The Pentangle was just bad mouthed, and denigrated by those who opposed the faiths that used it. The poor svÃ¡stika was actually used an a monicor for a people who actually did many great evils. It is hard to over come the twenty five to thirty years of bad use the svÃ¡stika was used for. Even though it was used for good, represented good for almost four thousand years, just the smallest twist of fate, and one massive ass and four thousand years of good is down the drain.

I work very hard to educate people on the differences between the two very divergent svÃ¡stikas. Since they are physically backwards from each other (Like the US version of a peace sign, and the Australian version reversed have very different meanings. I am afraid that even the good svÃ¡stika will have a bad name for awhile, but as long as people remember that it was once a symbol of good. Maybe someday it will be time to remember that its use in Germany was the hick-up, and that it was perverted by evil people for an evil purpose. Until that time, I want to think of all the good it has done, and is doing in southeast Asia (and my Buddhist altar).

Great talking with you.

-Tizroc
arkizzle

Tiz, as before: lovely :)
takeshi

@ mightymouse1584:

THANK you. It took 61 posts for someone to point that out? BB is slipping.

As for the kids being taken away by the state, freedom of speech exists, and as long as the kids aren’t being physically harmed, I just don’t see it happening.

No one’s kids are being sent off to foster homes because their families have crosses in their homes. The presence and possession of swastikas, hammers, sickles, and pentagrams is not illegal in this country. Teaching your kids to be stupid and hateful seems to be all the rage, anyway, most often unintentionally.

But unless there is some demonstrable crime, I believe that it would be criminal and even un-American to take children from their parents, regardless of the anguish they must be undergoing as a side-effect of all the scrutiny. It’s the kids who suffer from overanalysis, remember. Probably in more ways than one. Of course, if no one paid any attention…

Nazism is a more focused kind of hatred, to be sure, but is it illegal to teach your kids to hate or fear others? Perhaps if they were teaching their children to destroy others, but it seems that they are incapable of doing even that. Still, it doesn’t concern me. Why do people even care, really? Aside from the absurdity of the story, there’s not much there. Crazy guy names kid “Hitler.” Who didn’t see that coming? And why has it taken so long? Fifteen minutes are almost up… and… YOW! We made it, guys. The world didn’t stop spinning.

The guy might not be racist at all, but simply mean-spirited. Someone who enjoys getting a rise out of others; a thrill-seeking sociopath. Plenty of them out there. More information would be needed to draw a solid conclusion, because the swastikas, the kid named “Hitler,” all of it goes together thematically. If he was doing it simply to freak people out, why wouldn’t he allude to more racism while simultaneously denying it?

Their children will either grow up hating them, settling in to a life their parents never knew, or else they’ll end up just like them. And either way, they’ll probably rename themselves at some point, assuming the poor things don’t get murdered by some other idiot first.
eti

“There’s a new president and he says it’s time for a change; well, then it’s time for a change,”

IDIOT! Bush is still president until January 20, 2009!
Tavie

1) My mom had an uncle Adolph (born ~1900). Everyone called him Eddie.

2) The part that made me really mad was when Mrs Neo-Nazi said:

Deborah Campbell said a swastika “doesn’t really have a meaning. It’s just a symbol.”

The very definition of a symbol is that it has meaning. You ignorant leech. (Leech because neither parent works, both are “disabled”. I know plenty of people with “bad backs” who aren’t on disability. Taxpayers are subsidizing their hate-symbol-decorated lifestyle.)
elsmiley

Tizroc: A true Buddhist whould not hinge his beliefs on a symbol. Nothing that the symbol stood for before the Nazis appropriated it is “down the drain.” The symbol is irrelevant. We can find many others or create a new one. The swastika, however, is forever tarnished. As is the name Adolf Hitler. Once things like WWII happened, we need to bend like a blade of grass and accept that the human race has perceptions. We can adopt new symbols or, better yet, none at all.
- Antinous
  
  The symbol of my yoga lineage is a swastika inside a star of David under a rising sun. Seeing the whole thing together, people don’t seem to find it controversial.
elsmiley

Tizroc@88: I think that was a thoughtful post. I agree with the concept that we shouldn’t let that murderous psychopath own something like an otherwise perfectly decent German name. But to make such a statement at the expense of a child is not the way to go about such things.

And besides, that’s obviously NOT what his bigoted and small-minded parents had in mind. Unless, of course, they’re also trying to free the otherwise noble sign of the swastika from the tyranny of Nazi ownership.
Tavie

In fact, if these are NJ people, then *I* am personally subsidizing their hate-symbol-decorated lifestyle.

Which, you know, I understand and I support social programs and I’m glad my taxes are there to help people and grateful that the programs exist. But I don’t want to know about the personal lives of them for that reason. Makes me mad.
jtegnell

The amazing part, to me at least, is that, after three years of this, the guy hasn’t learned how to decorate his own goddamn cake.

It’s not that hard. Everything you need is right there in the baking supplies aisle at the supermarket. The guy could add all the swastikas he wants.
Sekino

I sincerely, and quite possibly naively hope that their intent was to take back something that doesn’t belong to that murdering bastard.

I wish I had your good faith. But seeing that the girl’s middle name is Aryan Nation, I have no doubt about their ‘intentions’ whatsoever.

The problem with various ‘freedoms’ is that they eventually grow to override each other. If we defend parents’ right to indoctrinate their children as they see fit, or use their child as a tool for political, religious or social activism, we trample the child’s right to be free from unnecessary stigma and miseducation.

Question is, how can we protect both the rights of both parents and children? It’s like a chicken and egg situation.