Charlotte, NC

By now, everyone has heard about Will Smith (”Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” “Independence Day,” “Men In Black”, superstar rapper, etc.) and what he allegedly said about Hitler. Already, some of our Crown Towners are startin’ to act up about it. I mean, the nerve of that guy, sayin’ that Hitler was “good!” Right??

WRONNGGGGGG!

Y’see, Will didn’t say that at all! In fact, Smith thinks Hitler was despicable — a racist of the first order, and a maniac! What he actually said was that (and I quote) “”Even Hitler didn’t wake up going, ‘let me do the most evil thing I can do today.’ I think he woke up in the morning and using a twisted, backwards logic, he set out to do what he thought was ‘good.’”

Now, let’s get to a true “translation” of that: He’s saying “Hitler didn’t wake up thinking how much Hell he could raise. The dude was using the logic of a criminally-crazed person. He actually thought he was doing good!” Meaning that, yes, Hitler was demented — screwed up! His exact words were “backwards logic”. What’s that but illogical thinking??
Further, he said (another quote) “Adolf Hitler was a vile, heinous vicious killer responsible for one of the greatest acts of evil committed on this planet.” Now … puttin’ the words together from those two quotes: “Twisted, backwards … a vile, heinous vicious killer …”

Sounds like the words the Observer (and 99.9% of other major newspapers) use to describe murderers, doesn’t it??

So Smith’s words were “taken out of context.” It’s not the first time this has been done. Forty-one years ago, a young man, speaking on behalf of his group, supposedly said they were “bigger than Jesus Christ.” What followed could only be described as a knee-jerk reaction that led, first, to a shameful, angry display of hatred; radio stations around the country (including local WTYC) hosted “Beatle bonfires”, and many record stores refused to sell their records.
What John Lennon said, (and again I quote):“We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first — rock and roll or Christianity.” He said, “more popular” To wit: If you were to offer kids-of-the-era the choice of a Bible or the latest Beatle album (or tickets to the next Beatle concert in their town), which would most of them accept? If they had a choice of going to church on a given Sunday night or watching the Fab Four debuting their latest single, live, on the Ed Sullivan Show, which would they have rather done?
On top of that, which did mags like Time™, Life™ and others have on their front pages more often back-in-the-day? Which was talked about more? But John’s statement (which, for the sake of sanity and peace, he later apologized for) was taken out of context. As was Will Smith’s …

with one exception:

I mentioned the Beatles’ remark as “First”, which means there’s a second remark, right??

It came … at the sound of three bullets hitting Lennon’s body as he returned from a production review on December 8, 1980. The assassin … used those out-of-context remarks … to brutally murder one of the world’s most prolific musical talents — and a man whose one desire and goal was peace …

So, whenever anyone’s quoted anywhere, let’s make sure we read it right … think about it … and keep it “IN-context” … before we make any spur-of-the-moment remarks, huh?? It could save a lot of embarrassment, a lot of misunderstanding, a lot of hoopla …

It could even save a life!