Panzerfaust

From Robert Longley of about.com US Government Information, Sept 29, 2004.

"The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) reports that a hate music company with links to neo-Nazi and skinhead groups plans to distribute 100,000 "sampler CDs" at schools across the United States in the coming weeks, in an effort to attract young people to the music and ideology of neo-Nazi bands.

"The ADL, which tracks the activities of extremists and reports its findings to law enforcement and the public, has been alerting school districts across the country to the planned CD distribution effort, dubbed "Operation Schoolyard USA" by its organizers.

"Spearheaded by Panzerfaust Records, a neo-Nazi music label based in Newport, Minnesota, the distribution campaign will target schools with sampler CDs of songs by various white power bands whose music is filled with racist and anti-Semitic themes. The record company plans to draw on a network of "volunteers" from various white supremacist groups to help distribute the CDs at schools across the country. The target audience, according to Panzerfaust, is middle and high school children ages 13 to 19."

My personal feeling about hate groups is that they enjoy too much freedom. The whole concept of freedom is based on a mutual respect between people. This cannot exist simultaneously with groups that hate each other. Thus, one fundamental requirement for freedom must be tolerance.

One way to enforce this tolerance is to take away freedom from group that express hate. For example, Panzerfaust would like to publish the doctrine of hate. One response is to take away right to privacy. The government should publish the name of all associated with this group on the internet.

The names of those who support this group financially should be given extra emphasis. Any government official who takes donations from these people should be required to publish this fact. Any newpaper that employs these people should be required to publish this fact. No government contract chould be awarded to companies to employ these people.

The names of the those who are simply members of the group should be published annually. Companies that do not employ and universities that do not teach these individuals should be given tax incentives.

The freedoms of these hate mongers should be taken away before they commit the crimes. It is too dangerous to allow these people to live along side those they hate. They are truly second class citizens - a step below those who are tolerant.

This shouldn't turn into a witch hunt. I support the allowance of immaturity. Kids will be kids. However, each individual should be required to publish a detraction of the policies of hate before their name is cleared. It should be easy to remove your name from the "black" list. Your privacy should be protected as long as you have stated that all people deserve the same freedoms you want, and stopped supporting the groups and policies of hate.