Mary E. Rogers

A LETTER TO A SPOILED PRINCE

I’m sure if my WW11 Father were alive he would give me a going over for what I am about to write, maybe some of you all will too. I visited the Holocaust Museum in Washington. I have never been so deeply affected by anything as I was of that. Such an atrocity! It would be almost unbelievable to comprehend such a despicable act except for the fact that atrocities are still being committed today. Woody has named many. I can never and will never forget the atrocity of murdering the unborn babies of this world through abortion. We turn our backs on that just as they did what was happening to the Jews.

I remember my dad had tucked in an old steamer trunk a Nazi flag. I always guessed he brought it home from the war. I only know that one Christmas as we were searching for decorations, we kids came across it. We were very young and didn’t know what it represented. We thought it looked like it would make a nice tree skirt for under the tree, and thought we would surprise Mom and Dad. I will NEVER and I mean never forget the look on my fathers face nor the anger in his eyes when he saw that flag there.

I can only say that on the other hand, children are the same the world over, whether a prince or just a young redneck hillbilly. My sons have had some of the most god-awful haircuts you’d ever want to see. They have dressed in Gothic and my 17 year old once painted his face like KISS and went to school. Of course I had to go retrieve him when they kicked him out. I had warned him and give him a good speech on the way home. They have had their hair every color of the rainbow. A couple of them have tried marijuana. They have finally grown up. My biggest problem is the 33 year old son who could not stand seeing his father lying on the floor dying from a stroke and called the ambulance. The one I couldn’t call because we promised him that if anything happened we wouldn’t. Then after watching him merely exist and watching him die anyhow, my son is now an alcoholic. Maybe that’s why, maybe it isn’t! I regret not having made that phone call myself just so he wouldn’t have it on his conscience.

I just cannot believe this young man understands the implications of what he has done. I hope that he does make that trip to Auschwitz and realizes the impact of his actions. My son who is 23 never heard of the Holocaust in all his years in school. How can we expect our children to understand these things when many things are not taught to them and they are perceived to be unimportant? How much is dedicated to the Vietnam War in text books? Maybe a paragraph if we are lucky. I hope that this young man was merely being a stupid young boy, as so many are, and he is not so mean that he would be able to dress like that without conscience if he already knew the impact it would have on others. That would be the saddest thing of all.

I do not mean to sound insensitive to what this young man has done. I only know I have seen some kids do some pretty stupid things… probably my own have done some of the stupidest! Maybe I look at it the way I do because I was a rebel child and give my dad a lot of grief. My family still says I am the rebel child of the family. I guess it’s because I don’t live up to their religious expectations and I compare organized religion to organized crime. I think we all could look back over our lives and remember some really stupid things we have done. All I know is that if I’d have dressed up like that my dad would have given me the thrashing of my life. Hope I haven’t offended anyone.