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Part of the general NJ stereotype might be that we are not KKK country, and are, instead, a melting pot of enlightened diversity, but let's not congratulate ourselves too hard. NJ has a pretty significant KKK history and has its fair share of Nazi wannabes and racists. My favorite are the idiots I see with confederate flags on their pick up trucks and hanging from the back porch. If you're a transplant with Southern roots, I can buy that it's a matter of Southern pride, culture and history. However, if you are a lifelong Jersey boy flying the confederate flag in NJ, there is probably a different motivation.
LOL...This reminds me of a post here from years ago where some guy from Cumberland County was trying to posit that residents of South Jersey were right to display the Confederate flag because South Jersey historically supported slavery and secession and that the south was "dragging kicking and screaming into the Union cause by Trenton" In reality, as it is today, Philadelphia's sphere of influence extended into South Jersey and the Quaker dominated southern portion of the state was heavily abolitionist. Main line Protestant ministers and political leaders in the NORTHERN part of the state were strongly anti-Lincoln and pro-slavery.
Part of the general NJ stereotype might be that we are not KKK country, and are, instead, a melting pot of enlightened diversity, but let's not congratulate ourselves too hard. NJ has a pretty significant KKK history and has its fair share of Nazi wannabes and racists. My favorite are the idiots I see with confederate flags on their pick up trucks and hanging from the back porch. If you're a transplant with Southern roots, I can buy that it's a matter of Southern pride, culture and history. However, if you are a lifelong Jersey boy flying the confederate flag in NJ, there is probably a different motivation.
I think it's unfair and inaccurate to dismiss the entire South as a place of general racist culture. I know there is a kernel of truth in every stereotype, but it's just as accurate to say that the South is full of backwards, racist rednecks, as it is to say that NJ is full of Snooki-esque and Giudice-like gaudy guidos and ape-dumb meatheads. Do those types of people exist in NJ? Sure. Is it fair to dismiss the entire state as only or mostly being full of those types?
But anyway, all the Nazi and white supremacist stuff in this story is almost irrelevant to me. More than anything, I think I feel sorry for this Heath Campbell guy. He obviously has mental issues, and probably stemming from how he, himself, was brought up.
We live in a land and time of compulsory (and free) education, and this guy is 40 and can't read? Who are the stellar individuals that brought this guy into the world, and cared so little about their son that they couldn't even be bothered to make sure he stayed in school long enough to learn how to read? If he's 40, that means he would have been in some public school system from 1978 to 1991, and in NJ, no less. We're not talking about a time or place where only the privileged people turned their kids out for a newfangled edumucation. According to one of the articles, Campbell was abused by his parents. And he suffers from medical & psychological disabilities which have resulted in him being unemployed his whole adult life. Sad.
It sounds like he was on the path to repeating history with his own kids who are also displaying developmental delays. It's a good thing DYFS got involved. Too bad they weren't around in the 70s to make sure Heath Campbell had a shot at a normal life. Hopefully he doesn't have anymore kids that he can't support, and bestowed with names that will cripple them for life.
On a lighter note, he looks sort of like Dave Grohl from Foo Fighters.
I definitely agree. I figured his parents were at least neglectful. There is NO excuse for that. My kids knew how to read by age 3 because we taught them. Parents MUST be involved. I don't think this man has the ability to do that. He'll need tons of work unlearning the maladaptive behaviors from his childhood, some of which helped him survive, but won't work outside of an abusive home. Like I said, its not your typical racist sociopath case.
As for the south, I agree with you. Its unfair to generalize, and I know its not all racist. I'm not generalizing, and i apologize to any southerners who may have taken my statements as such. No intention to offend there. That being said, the racism down there is a special kind of racism. There are still areas that are segregated, like the segregated prom a few brave teens, both whites & African Americans, protested, the "whites only" H.S reunion a couple of years ago, and there are quite a few places non-whites won't feel safe at all, and rightfully so. Heck there are certain areas of Pa I don't feel safe, which has been called the "Alabama of the North". The south's is a HISTORY of racial violence, and resistance to progress in that regard. NJ's has its racists, but not so evil, and not so many. Even our sun-scorched bimbos & meat heads are few. Our's is a bunch of artificially tanned idiots on "reality" TV. Yeah, there are some off TV, I knew a few who'd tease me for being so fair & refusing to tan, but that is not as common as southern bigotry.
He does kind of look like Grohl.
I can't believe this is still going on. I'm glad though that no one here is screaming about this guy's Constitutional right to name his kids anythign he wants, as was the case when this was at the forefront o fthe media. It was never about the names but about the parents' utter incapability to raise those kids to be functioning adults (not to mention the possibility of abuse, given the father's history of domestic violence). That link kind of proves the guy is totally around the bend though. Such a relief to read that the other kids have been adopted, but I wonder what the lasting damage will be or if they were traumatized if they were separated from each other. It was just such a sad, sad case once you cut through all the media hoopla.
But when they tried to show up at a custody hearing with the wife's already-drunk-at-9am alcoholic mother so that SHE could take custody of the children, I kinda figured it was time to sever their parental rights. They just aren't capable of being effective parents, and the kids were already beginning to show the effects. The father may have slipped through the cracks, but there's no reason to let his kids do the same.
This always makes me so sad when DYFS needs to get involved. Poor kids, I hope they can reunite someday, or maybe the adoptive parents will have a heart and try to set up visits with the other adoptive parents? Too sad...
This always makes me so sad when DYFS needs to get involved. Poor kids, I hope they can reunite someday, or maybe the adoptive parents will have a heart and try to set up visits with the other adoptive parents? Too sad...
Yeah, but whatever the damage, it won't be as great as if they had stayed in that home. Which is even more depressing when you think about it - it was actually better for a family to be torn asunder than for it to stay together because its configuration was THAT toxic. Ugh.
Yeah, but whatever the damage, it won't be as great as if they had stayed in that home. Which is even more depressing when you think about it - it was actually better for a family to be torn asunder than for it to stay together because its configuration was THAT toxic. Ugh.
Disagree, none of us has much to go on except externally gained third hand opinions. AI might not agree with the guy I wouldn't know since I don't know him or much about him, but everyone has the right to dress silly. Doesn't make you any points if you dress provocatively to court since this is a very judgmental society ewe are in.
Its just as bad to make this a headline than to act this way.
Freedom of Speech....what happened to First Amendment rights?
We may not agree with him and may feel bad for his children, but it is HIS children and has the right to name them whatever he wants. This is ridiculous and crazy.
My favorite are the idiots I see with confederate flags on their pick up trucks and hanging from the back porch. If you're a transplant with Southern roots, I can buy that it's a matter of Southern pride, culture and history. However, if you are a lifelong Jersey boy flying the confederate flag in NJ, there is probably a different motivation.
There was one guy on our site like that (worked for one of our subcontracting companies), pretty much had the flag up specifically because he was a racist - he did grow up for some time in Jacksonville, but he's really a Jerseyite. He was a racist because in Jersey City when he was a kid the black kids would beat his ass every day and call him honky until he "freaked out" as he said, which is the only good reason I've ever heard to be a racist. It didn't help he was also a kind of weird guy, strong extrovert, loud type, always talking, it was kind of funny, he'd just babble joke stuff as he's working and go from the last thing he said, usually racist-joke stuff, it was pretty funny.
Freedom of Speech....what happened to First Amendment rights?
We may not agree with him and may feel bad for his children, but it is HIS children and has the right to name them whatever he wants. This is ridiculous and crazy.
As we've gone over his kids weren't taken from him because of the naming, he does indeed have the right to name them that, but the guy is nuts.
Trust me, I'm the first guy to distrust the CPS - they'll take your kid in a heartbeat for no reason if they feel like they can make it stick, because they get more money for doing so, but in this case it was warranted. Trust me, I'm a libertarian-type, I HATE government and bureaucrats, I remember stuff like the story in Alexandria (Virgiania) where the CPS was basically picking kids to take on the order of wealthy and well-connected beltway people who wanted kids of their own - honestly, that stuff makes my blood boil, you wouldn't want to see what I would do to those SOBs in a room with no windows. I HATE government. - - But in this case this father really was screwy and so was his wife.
Indeed, NJ is NOT bastion for the KKK types. He doesn't have to go far in the south though. He can travel west into Pa, and he'll feel more than at home there.
I dunno. I've seen quite a few Confederate flags around in Central NJ which I never saw in Bergen or Passaic counties. IMO it's worse since NJ WAS IN THE FRIGGIN' UNION THAT FOUGHT TO KEEP THIS COUNTRY UNITED! At least down South they can make claims that it's about "heritage." Here you're just showing you're a white trash, racist, Southern cracker wannabe. These types do drive mud-covered pickups just like their idiot brethren in Alabama.
And NJ was home to many Nazi rallies in the 1930s.
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and that the south was "dragging kicking and screaming into the Union cause by Trenton" 
In reality, as it is today, Philadelphia's sphere of influence extended into South Jersey and the Quaker dominated southern portion of the state was heavily abolitionist. Main line Protestant ministers and political leaders in the NORTHERN part of the state were strongly anti-Lincoln and pro-slavery.
