Store refuses to decorate birthday cake for Adolf Hitler

bleu7102's picture
Tue, 12/16/2008 - 17:52 -- bleu7102

http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/today/index.ssf/2008/12/holland_township_family_angry.html

What do you mamas think of this? On one hand, I applaud the store for not wanting to do this. On the other, it is just the boy's name, he had no choice in it. But the parents knew there would be some huge problems he would have to face when they named him this. And I suspect they welcome it, more publicity for their hate mongering. Ugh, gross all around.

Comments

dynamom's picture
Submitted by dynamom on

Seeing as how this family lives in the town I used to live in, and still part of the county I live in now.

While I strongly support freedom of speech, even when it is speech I do not believe in, I think there is nothing wrong with what Shop-Rite did. If the government refused to let them name their child that abhorrent name, I would have a problem with that. But the supermarket is the private sector and as long as they are not denying someone service based on race/sex/orientation/whatever then I don't see them doing anything wrong. (Besides which they offered them a cake with a blank space for them to write it themselves. Not to mention the fact that nobody puts their kids WHOLE name on a cake except ones that are looking to get a rise out of people, ahem.)

Personally, if I were the manager of the supermarket, I'm not sure what I would have done. I think I might have made the cake anyway. But as I said to a friend, I don't think a privately owned company has any responsibility to uphold freedom of speech the way the government does....I gave the example, that if I owned a tee shirt company and Fred Ph#lps wanted me to print up "god hates f@gs" on shirts I want to maintain my right to say "NO FUCKING WAY."

dynamom's picture
Submitted by dynamom on

How ironic that Wal-Mart WOULD print the cake? Ah, wal-mart, that bastion of freedom! Now let's go refuse to sell some books and CDs that we don't like.

azblue's picture
Submitted by azblue on

We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone.

A service industry does not have to do something if they don't want to.

Those poor kids, they are all labeled and will rarely be given a chance to be known for their true selves unless they change their names.

bleu7102's picture
Submitted by bleu7102 on

Yeah, the whole putting his first and middle name on the cake is just silly. Unless they really go around calling him that, which hell, they just might actually do. And you're totally right, the store has the right to refuse service.
I don't know what I would have done, either. Now, the Ph#lps guy, yeah, I'd tell him to go fuck himself in a heartbeat!

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yoginisinglemama's picture
Submitted by yoginisinglemama on

the other kid's name is aryan nation!!

sunflower's picture
Submitted by sunflower on

it is inevitable that his name (and his sister's!) is going to cause major problems for him. It was obviously a confrontational move by the parents to name him that and to wants the full name on the cake. I feel sorry for all of the children that they were put in this position. Living with extremists must be difficult.

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Sunflower the unflower

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pregnant boy's picture
Submitted by pregnant boy on

I'm an extremist, but I didn't name my kid "Vegan Anti-Capitalist Smash the State Queer Gender-fuck Jones". I also didn't name myself that when I chose my own name. Those parents really set their kids up for a hard time. Maybe I have too. My 3yo doesn't know who Elmo or Mickey Mouse are, but he can recognize the voice and face of Barack Obama and can also recognize Led Zeppelin and knows more grains, veggies, and seaweeds than his grandparents.

The thing is, while I have saddled my son with enough weird stuff in his short life to keep his future therapist well-employed, I am not glorifying hate. The parents are fools if they think those names aren't loaded. If they weren't, why wouldn't they have just named their kids regular German (or other) names. And the swastikas? The mom said they don't mean much - then Why are they all over the house? Maybe it is funny for aryan nation-ites to joke amongst themselves about naming their kids that crap, but the joke went too far. Man, I really wanted my kid's middle name to be Blue, but I was afraid it would be used as a verb... Seems small in light of this.

So, the kids were wronged by their names and god only knows what they are being taught. Then the supermarket would not put the name on the cake and gloss it all over and make it feel normal. Go supermarket. Boo WalMart. I want to go to Walmart and get a cake that says "ass sex" because that's the only way I'm getting any for my birthday. What? They don't make vegan cake? Instead of going to the press and whining (thereby minimalising actual discrimination} I will make my own freaky cake in my own freak den where it belongs.

The original store would not do the icing because they found it inappropriate. It is. It is inappropriate to make an Adolf Hitler birthday cake because it is inappropriate to name a kid Adolf Hitler, no matter what you fucked-up beliefs are.

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