Robert Duvall vs Wal-Mart: One more battle at Wilderness battlefield

Just a bit of news that most might have missed. Robert Duvall is currently fighting with Wal-Mart over a new proposed location in Virginia. Now before all the left-wing, anti-Wal-Mart nuts start tripping over themselves in joy this is not about the company.

It seems that Duvall is a descendant of Robert E Lee. This may well be a factor because the new Wal-Mart location in Virginia is also the next to the site where Lee first fought General Ulysses S. Grant - Wilderness Battlefield. So for Duvall, Congressmen Peter Welch of Vermont and Ted Poe of Texas, this is a matter of historical preservation.

I am known for my desire to preserve - in fact highlight - the causes, repercussions, and reality of the Civil War. So to an extent I see the reason these men are fighting Wal-Mart on this location. But, the fact is that there are hundreds of battlefields that crisscross the nation from that war. And several are far more famous and significant than Wilderness.

For me, it is the pivitol and the last battles that matter. Not the first nor the minor. To preserve such sites seems in a way to be holding on to a romanticized dream of what happened, why and how. Of course had I ancestors that died in the battle I might feel different. Then again, my ancestors died before, during and after the Civil War on a regular basis - en masse at times - without so much as a gravestone.

But I will say this. In my conversation with Robert Duvall some years ago in Moscow. I came to find him to be a driven and purposive man. He is a deep thinker, and rarely acts without reason or forethought. He is committed to the actions he takes. So I am left to believe that this battlefield is perhaps more significant than I am aware. Still I notice that the Virginia representatives of Congress are not mentioned in reports about this.

I have readers in the South. I am sure at least a few are Civil War buffs. How important was Wilderness battlefield? Do the people of Virginia care about this site? Is this site worthy of being kept preserved, or is it just the quasi-political tether of family that drives this cause?

Adolph Hitler is just a name?

Ok, this is for the record books. Better yet, let me start with a simple question. Would you name your child after a mass murderer? How about naming the child after a historical leader? That just happened to kill hundreds, or thousands, or millions? So in effect would you name your kid Idi Amin Jones, or Ghengis Khan Thomas, or Adolph Hitler Clinton, or Joseph Stalin Vincenzo?

I think any parent, in any country, would not do this to their child. Parents that would do this are very questionable on several levels. (Though I do have to admit a certain like for Ghengis Vass - but I don't have kids and it is a whimsy).

But it seems that at least one set of parents in New Jersey think that Adolph Hitler Campbell is a great name for their child. Now these aren't some rock star entertainer parents that were perhaps drunk, stoned, or otherwise mentally impaired when naming their kids. This is not some kind of social protest like Dweezil or Moon Unit (for younger readers yes those are names of rock star kids). They just think the name is good.

The father of the kids explains

"no one else in the world would have that name."

Except a name is not just a name. A cracker is a name, but most Whites don't want to be called that. And being named after the most vile human being in at least the last century sure isn't going to help the kid socially, outside of neo-Nazi camp.

What disturbs me most about this is the fact that the other kids in this family share in the same kind of naming. JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell and Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie Campbell. But don't think the family are racists. Again the dad said

"There's a new president and he says it's time for a change; well, then it's time for a change," the 35-year-old continued. "They need to accept a name. A name's a name. The kid isn't going to grow up and do what (Hitler) did."

So we have a family that adores the names of Nazi's, wants their kids named after them. The dad was raised to not associate with other races, and wears military boots of dead Nazi soldiers. What are the chances of the kid growing up to be a racist, if not a full blown mind-numb neo-Nazi freak?

Of course all this came about because of a birthday cake for little Adolph. At least one supermarket refused, Greenwich ShopRite, and cheers to them. But sadly the cake was made with the full name inscribed thanks to the Wal-Mart in Easton Pennsylvania. And reportedly there was a party on Sunday, with the father Heath Campbell wearing his Nazi boots, that had children of mixed races their. I just have to wonder where he got them to come from to get to the party and how much that cost instead of the clown.

Honestly I feel bad for the kids. Their parents may not be neo-Nazi racist mentally deranged freaks, but they sure sound like it. And the kids will be the ones that suffer for their parents failures.