Oh boy, the National Socialist party is returning to Toledo!
OK, I'm not that thrilled about hate speech coming to town. Santa Claus, on the other hand ... wouldn't incite riots.
Because the last time the Nazis made a public appearance in the Glass City, well let's just say we made national headlines.
It's bad enough we're a shrinking metropolis. Our incumbent Democratic mayor was lost in the November election to a former Democratic ex-mayor by 24 points. Native Toledoans show up on TV as cross-dressers and, scarier still, want to marry Tom Cruise. One of us stole millions of the dollars from the state. And we have a Catholic elementary school across the street from a Hooters.
OK, so we're a weird, quirky town for a Midwest haven. Not only do I accept it, but I thrive in it and embrace the city.
But the public violence in October is far from weird. It's far from quirky. It's sad. It's extremely saddening to know that my people resort to throwing rocks through an ambulance windshield and razing a convenience store simply because they are offended by that Nazis came to town to stage a hate-filled rally. They got their wish — the rally never occurred — but as a result they turned a Toledo neighborhood into chaos and thrust our weird little city into national headlines where they don't belong.
But it seems that on hot-button issues like race and politics, America believes it should take its own rectal temperature on such issues by jamming a thermometer into us. We may be at the geographic midpoint of Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinnati and Chicago, but we were in the crosshairs of the 2004 election when our city aired more political ads than any other market.
Article comments
1 - Connie Phillips
Matt,
What an interesting take on "our fine city" (OK, I'm out in the burbs, but close)
I'll be watching the news in hopes the city stays home, ignores the Nazis, and doesn't (yet again) ask for that encore.
2 - Matthew T. Sussman
Or maybe interracial couples can make out in front of their faces.
3 - Connie Phillips
That's an option too.
All I meant was that I hoped elevated emotions wouldn't raise to the violence and destruction that happened last time.
4 - tommyd
I don't see any of you Ohio residents protesting the high rate of crimes committed by rampaging blacks upon whites in Toledo, which is in fact what initiated the White groups to take their protests to the streets. I don't see all you brave Ohio residents writing blogs on the rise in black on white crime rates, just the same 'ol, same 'ol about "evil nazi" pro-White groups doing a little protesting. Sad.
Also, the White protest groups are not the ones who started or involved themselves in the first riot in Toledo, it was rampaging blacks, doing what they do best, and burning their own neighborhoods because they were pissed off at the mayor for letting Whites exercise their First Amendment Rights.
As far as I know, freedom of speech still exists in this country. More power to the people who exercise that right, no matter what their message is.
5 - RJ
The Nazis have a Constitutional right to speak in any city in the US they want to. That's a fact.
And if the residents of Toledo are smart, they will completely ignore the Nazis when they come to town.
So, no riots this time, okay guys? :-/
6 - Alethinos
Nazis suck. M*A*S*H rocks!
Alethinos
7 - Matthew T. Sussman
I know "shut up Nazis" is an easy argument to make, but we're talking about Toledo here.
I also failed to mention a lady ran for mayor in Toledo whose platform was that she was God's chosen one to build an amusement park. Dead serious. And how glorious it was to watch the live debate on TV.
We can't have hate speech and riots in a city whose idiocies are in perfect harmony.
8 - RJ
Saw some FoxNews video earlier today where a neo-Nazi spokeswoman was nailed in the face with a snowball while three menancing-looking young men glared at her and rhytmically chanted about 10 feet away...
Other than that, though, I haven't heard of any violence...
Anyone have an update?
9 - Anthony Grande
The radicals and gang members made fools out of blacks in Toledo the last time the Nazis came to town and that is the reason why the Nazis are coming back. They are hoping that they can make the black population look like the bad ones, again.
10 - Matthew T. Sussman
There were some arrests, but no violence.
Sorry, FOX News. No soup for you.
11 - Sad
America, please get your act together. This I can promise. The neo-nazi, the jew, the black and people of all color will join together. This will happen within this decade. America will wake up.