Parents can’t have cake and eat it too

In regard to the article about the Shop Rite supermarket that refused to write Adolph Hitler Campbell’s name on his birthday cake (“Cake request for 3-year-old Hitler denied,” Dec. 17), I have to wonder about the parents’ attitude that “a name is a name.”

They condemn us saying that we all need to live in the future, not the past (in the typically defiant mode, I might add). Yet, in spite of this “hooray for the future, hooray for change” attitude, why would they choose a name as old and infamous as Adolph Hitler? Not to mention, the name has already been given once. Once is plenty, in my opinion. So much for change, eh?

As far as Dad’s statement, “This kid isn’t going to grow up and do what Hitler did,” how can he be so sure? We all know that there are certain personality traits associated with certain names. For example, can you see Mick Jagger as an Elliot Jagger, any more than you can see someone named Elliot as Mick? I can’t.

I think the Campbells need to take their own advice and stop rubbing salt in the wounds of Jews, the weak-minded (a term given by the Nazis to people who suffered from mental illness, epilepsy and other conditions) and others.

As far as Shop Rite goes, you rock!

Joan Michaud

Waynesboro