Dave Colbert

Originally posted on Facebook, August 23, 2017

I never loved Eva Braun…However, I confess…When I was a freshman in high-school, I thought Hitler was a genius. I had read a book about him, about his rise to power. He had balls like you wouldn’t believe and he brought a fractured Germany together. I was a punk (still am) and I thought the Swastika was a cool looking ‘fuck-you’ flag and one day I drew one and put it in my locker. I had never even met a Jewish person at this point in my life. Anyway, my favorite teacher (Mrs. Dotten) saw it and pulled me aside. She gave me a good talking to and right away I took it down. I wasn’t a nazi afterall ….I just liked to shock people.

I left my little town in Maine and moved to Rhode Island where, for the first time, I met and made friends with Jews and black people and, yes, even a Puerto Rican. I’ve lived through things that have both destroyed and reinforced ethnic stereotypes. When I meet someone, I like to think I treat them the same regardless of their background. I’m not a racist… I’ve got my share of hate to go around, but none of it is focused on any ethnic group. It’s all individuals and a genuine ‘rage against the machine’.. This is where I could go off on a rant, but I won’t.

I’ve had some bad experiences with people of other ethnic groups and when it has happened, I’m sure I resorted to using stereotypes and hate speech. Not proud of it and over the years I’ve really made an effort not to go there. I’m sorry for all the times I’ve made ethnic slurs and for all future times I will use ethnic slurs.

As for all the Confederate monuments being taken down….I’m all for it. We should never have put them up. But I live in Maine and that’s easy for me to say. I think putting them in a museum where they can be put in context is better than keeping them in our parks and town squares.

The point of this post is to condemn the hate and confess my past infatuation with the nazis. And maybe, just maybe, humanize the nazis you see marching…. It’s too easy to consider them monsters and flat out hate them, blocking out everything they say. Anyone who’s ever struggled to find their identity should understand that the alt-right offers that, just like all other clicks and sub-groups that we all fall into. Okay, maybe not ‘just-like’ but still.

The war against the Alt-Right is not going to won in the streets. We need to win their hearts and minds. We need to outlive and out educate the stupidity of racism. My father was racist…I am not. I don’t have kids but my nieces and nephews are not racists. It can be stopped, it’s just not going to happen overnight.

I don’t know, but I wanted to contribute something to the conversation we all seem to be in the middle of.