The Human Chain

In the interest of full disclosure, I should say that while between 10 and 15,000 people peacefully protested the Nazi demonstration in the inner-city with their human chain, across the river, thousands of left-wing activists tackled the Nazis head on, at the location they had decided to move their march to. The lefties stood on train tracks, built barricades out of garbage, turned over cars, and attacked buses to block the arriving neo-Nazis. Their efforts are probably the real reason no neo-Nazi rally was held in Dresden this year. Check out this video for a little footage of the madness:



I, for one, question fighting violence, hatred, and extremism with violence, hatred, and extremism. I subscribe to the American freedom-of-speech ideal that allows anyone the chance to say anything, and assumes that what's right will float to the top. I'm finding many Europeans don't feel the same way about freedom of speech. The "bad" people and the "bad" ideas are often forcefully silenced here, sometimes by the law and sometimes by the other side, the "good" people and the "good" ideas. It's hard to disagree with people who want to force out neo-Nazism, a pretty obvious bad guy, but ultimately who's deciding what's good and what's bad? Of course, in a country where Nazism was once one of the ideas that floated to the top, maybe they've learned something here that we in America haven't yet — that trusting the open marketplace of ideas is a dangerous and flawed path.

At any rate, it appears that something like 20,000 Dresdners left the comfort of their homes on a frigid February day to defend their city's honor. And regardless of whether you agree with all the methods, I think anyone will have to admit that that's a pretty impressive statement.



JEM

All Dressed up ...

It's probably classifiable as some sort of disorder, but I'm willing to admit that I'm 26 years old and I love dressing up in costumes.

I was one of those morons in high school who lived for spirit week. (Dear Germans: In America public high schools have sports teams and mascots and cultivate a strong sense of loyalty and enthusiasm we call "school spirit". Many schools designate one week each year as "spirit week" in which students are invited to exhibit their spirit by dressing up like idiots with themes like "Hippie Day", "Crazy Hair Day", and "Backwards Day". Cool kids generally avoid participation. I participated to a humiliating degree.) And I was literally the only person in the newsroom of my last American employer who would dress up for work on Halloween. I didn't realize this would be the case the first year. After that I knew it would be the case, but I did it anyway.

I take my costuming seriously. Which does not mean that my costumes have always been good. Case in point: The Sheet Angel fiasco of Halloween 2004.

It does, however, mean that I try to put genuine effort in my costumes, and I generally get a good laugh out of the final product. And sometimes it does work, see Exhibit A: Jake and I partying as Mr. and Mrs. Macphisto, Halloween 2003:

(For the uninitiated, Macphisto was an alter-ego of Bono's during the early '90s ...)

That herculean effort of spray painting an entire suit gold unfortunately drained Jake, and all my costuming efforts since have been on my own with Jake rolling his eyes behind me with love.

ANYWAY, the thing is, Germany doesn't really do Halloween. It's coming gradually. But it's not a real nationally embraced thing yet. (Interesting tidbit: I heard that Germany's first real introduction to Halloween was via the film "E.T. the Extraterrestrial", and it's been slowly gaining steam ever since.) Germany's costume holiday is Fasching, a.k.a. Carnivale, a.k.a. Mardi Gras, a.k.a. Fat Tuesday. I didn't realize this our first year here, and when I went to our church's kids' Fasching party to help out, I found to my horror that I was the only person without a costume. I was mortified. Last Fasching I was unable to participate again because of Jethro reasons. And so this year I had some serious catch-up to do. And for the first time in seven years, I had a partner in crime — whether he liked it or not. So at the church party on Saturday (actual Fasching is Feb. 16), this was me and Jethro:


Spock to Enterprise: My mother is a sick, sick woman.


Yeah, yeah, I know Spock is supposed to have two gold bands on his sleeves but I ran out of trim, OK?

I understand now why chicks in '60s only washed their hair once a week.

On another Fasching-related note, I'd just like to observe that as far as I can tell, the top three Fasching costumes here, with adults and kids alike seem to be cowboy, American Indian, and clown. As an American, I think the first two are so random. Not that cowboy and Indian aren't fine costumes, I'm just not sure why Germans have adopted them. The clown just further deepens my conviction that not enough Germans have become acquainted with "It". The clown motif is a really common one here with kids toys and decorations. These people genuinely seem to like clowns. No clown toys in my house, though. *shudder*

Happy Fasching, all. Back to my mothership.



JEM