They were members of the "German Lutheran Church" in Postville.
The Königs. Or, if you do not have a German "ö" at hand, Koenig.
As second and third generation Americans, they had learned
to say, "Kay-nig". It pained my immigrant ear to say it.
During World War I, the anger against Germans, even in
Postville, Iowa, was so strong that they changed their name.
King. They said their name was King. And after the war,
after people realized the King's sons had fought in the war, too,
on our side, against Germany, they changed their names again.
Today there are Koenigs, again, in Postville, Iowa.
Today, the Governor of Minnesota, Tiny Tim Pawlenty,
whom everyone knows is a devout and good-looking
church member in one of those mini-mega-churches,
is arguing that American Muslims in New York City
should not be allowed to build a Mosque two or three
blocks from where the Twin Towers once stood,
where some of the members of the Mosque have worshipped
there much longer than Tiny Tim has graced his present church pew,
should not be allowed to build a place to worship because
they are Muslims, and it was Muslims who destroyed
the Twin Towers, and that would be a provocation.
Tiny Tim has not said anything about the fact that it was
Christians who persecuted Jews during the Holocaust,
or that it was Christians who invented the Inquisition,
or Christians who systematically stole this continent
from the people who lived here. He does not recount
how the American Revolution pitted Christians against Christians.
During World War II, more than 100,000 Japanese people
were robbed of their land and possessions and shipped away
from the West Coast because people believed that
they had something to do with the Japanese attack on
Pearl Harbor, in Hawaii.
Black people, generally speaking, have lived in this country
longer than most White-skinned families--for hundreds of
years! My family came two or three generations ago--but
people still curse and say Blacks ought to go back to Africa.
The Birther Movement--the claim that Barack Obama was
born in Kenya--is total nonsense, but perhaps even a majority
of people are not sure that his Hawaiian birth certificate,
or the newspaper account of his birth, at the time, are true.
It is almost certainly the case that the people who flew
the planes into the Twin Towers were Muslim. And it is
certainly the case that the people who live in New York
and who want to build a new Mosque are Muslim.
And what does that prove?
Hitler was White.
The Koenigs in Postville are White.
Barack Obama is Black.
Idi Amin was Black.
Leopold and Loeb were Jewish.
Jesus was Jewish.
Al-Khawarizmi, who invented algebra, was Muslim.
One of my relatives solved for "X"
and concluded it was a Big Mac.
We are a nation of immigrants. Even the First Peoples
were immigrants, recently through Asia, or the South Pacific.
All of us descend from the First Humans, in Africa.
Sometimes we act as if all that travel
had dislodged our brains, somewhere.
Hey, Tiny Tim! Quit trying to prove that this
is both the best of times, and the worst of times!
This isn't a Tale of Two Cities. We are a nation;
an immigrant nation, in need of honest thinking.
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."
--Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
The Königs. Or, if you do not have a German "ö" at hand, Koenig.
As second and third generation Americans, they had learned
to say, "Kay-nig". It pained my immigrant ear to say it.
During World War I, the anger against Germans, even in
Postville, Iowa, was so strong that they changed their name.
King. They said their name was King. And after the war,
after people realized the King's sons had fought in the war, too,
on our side, against Germany, they changed their names again.
Today there are Koenigs, again, in Postville, Iowa.
Today, the Governor of Minnesota, Tiny Tim Pawlenty,
whom everyone knows is a devout and good-looking
church member in one of those mini-mega-churches,
is arguing that American Muslims in New York City
should not be allowed to build a Mosque two or three
blocks from where the Twin Towers once stood,
where some of the members of the Mosque have worshipped
there much longer than Tiny Tim has graced his present church pew,
should not be allowed to build a place to worship because
they are Muslims, and it was Muslims who destroyed
the Twin Towers, and that would be a provocation.
Tiny Tim has not said anything about the fact that it was
Christians who persecuted Jews during the Holocaust,
or that it was Christians who invented the Inquisition,
or Christians who systematically stole this continent
from the people who lived here. He does not recount
how the American Revolution pitted Christians against Christians.
During World War II, more than 100,000 Japanese people
were robbed of their land and possessions and shipped away
from the West Coast because people believed that
they had something to do with the Japanese attack on
Pearl Harbor, in Hawaii.
Black people, generally speaking, have lived in this country
longer than most White-skinned families--for hundreds of
years! My family came two or three generations ago--but
people still curse and say Blacks ought to go back to Africa.
The Birther Movement--the claim that Barack Obama was
born in Kenya--is total nonsense, but perhaps even a majority
of people are not sure that his Hawaiian birth certificate,
or the newspaper account of his birth, at the time, are true.
It is almost certainly the case that the people who flew
the planes into the Twin Towers were Muslim. And it is
certainly the case that the people who live in New York
and who want to build a new Mosque are Muslim.
And what does that prove?
Hitler was White.
The Koenigs in Postville are White.
Barack Obama is Black.
Idi Amin was Black.
Leopold and Loeb were Jewish.
Jesus was Jewish.
Al-Khawarizmi, who invented algebra, was Muslim.
One of my relatives solved for "X"
and concluded it was a Big Mac.
We are a nation of immigrants. Even the First Peoples
were immigrants, recently through Asia, or the South Pacific.
All of us descend from the First Humans, in Africa.
Sometimes we act as if all that travel
had dislodged our brains, somewhere.
Hey, Tiny Tim! Quit trying to prove that this
is both the best of times, and the worst of times!
This isn't a Tale of Two Cities. We are a nation;
an immigrant nation, in need of honest thinking.
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."
--Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
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