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My mother was a Rosie The Riveter and my dad worked in the same aircraft plant she did....both of them thought of themselves as "war workers", doing their part for the "war effort". As children, my sisters and I collected newspapers, tin cans and any scrap iron we could find. We hauled these to school in a wagon and turned them--all because it was for "fighting the war". We made posters in school encouraging people to "buy war bonds" that were placed in local businesses. Everyone was mobilized to "fight the Nazis" and/or "the Japs". We drew pictures of American airplanes shooting down aircraft that had swastikas or the rising sun on them. Everyone I knew thought of themselves as "helping to fight the Nazis and Japs". To minimize the contribution of Jan Brewer's father for working in a munitions plant is a disservice to him and to all of the other people on the "home front" (yes, that's what we called it) who were doing what they could to serve their country in a time of war.
My understanding is that no one has minimized contributions of her father. If I’ve heard all this correctly; it was she who brought her father into the public view and she embellished the story in the original content that she provided.
Personally I have no idea why her father is part of any news story to begin with, I’m only interested in what she is doing in public office for the people of the state. After that her life is her business.
I, too, am interested only in what she is doing in public office but now that she is being attacked as a liar, it becomes more than just the issue of her public actions.
People are attacking her for saying that her "father died fighting the Nazis", calling her a liar and by doing so are saying that her father wasn't "fighting the Nazis" but that he worked in a munitions plant and died ten years later. What I'm saying is that, technically and likely in his own mind, her father was "fighting the Nazi's" and that the disability that led to his death 10 years later was a result of his employment in the munitions plant. While her statement is misleading people to immediately assume that her father was in the ETO and died in combat, his death was the outcome of what he did on the home front to "fight the Nazis".
People on this forum are, for the most part, either too young to remember how people thought of themselves and the country during that time in history or they weren't even born yet. Jan's father probably thought of himself the same way most others did who were involved in war efforts from within the country and may well have conveyed that same idea to her. That era wasn't solely all about just the soldiers directly involved. Bringing her father into it the way she did was a mistake (obviously ) but my point is that she has probably had that idea all her life--that her father was "fighting the Nazis" and that his death was a direct result of that.
Those on the Left are so quick to forgive their own who not only "misspeak" and outright lie but also commit illegal actions (Bill Clinton, Sandy Berger (remember his theft of documents from the National Archives?), Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Barack Obama--the list is endless) and so quick to viciously condemn anyone on the Right who, however innocently, may misrepresent events in their own lives.
Just to show how seriously people left at home took their "patriotic duty" to support the "war effort", here is a video about the North Platte Canteen, a little known effort by the women of North Platte, Nebraska to give the soldiers who came through on the troop trains on their way off to war a good send-off. Really, it's worth 7 minutes of your time to watch this.
If anybody has ever done real family history and been confronted with the facts vs. the received story, then you'd know that that this is the sort of thing that Brewer should get a pass for.
Most people have only the most dim and distorted grasp on what happened in their families before they were born, and those stories absolutely morph through time. I have lost track of the number of people I have had to break news to that, no, grandpa never played pro baseball, or no, you actually don't have any native American blood after all.
I have little doubt that Brewer was raised to understand that her father died because of work he did fighting the Nazi's. And in that distorted story lays a kernel of truth.
This in no way compares to Richard Blumenthal's lies about serving in Vietnam... something about which he should have undistorted, first hand knowledge.
HistorianDude, no one is comparing the two lies, but Brewer told this story yesterday. If you've seen somewhere online that she believed, all these years right up until her interview yesterday, that her father "died fighting the Nazi regime in Germany," please give a link to it.
Unless you're buying this spin?:
Brewer's spokesman said that her father died from the toxic fumes he inhaled while working at an ammunition factory, but said, "She wasn't embellishing the story at all. You're reading something into this that isn't there."
Wow, now there's a spokesman earning their pay. Sadly, though, we have a bigger problem than people simply lying. We have people not telling the truth about things that can very easily be verified. That's not just someone who lies; that's someone who's stupid.
HistorianDude, no one is comparing the two lies, but Brewer told this story yesterday. If you've seen somewhere online that she believed up until her interview yesterday that her father "died fighting the Nazi regime in Germany," please give a link to it.
Why would that be reasonable? When was Brewer called a Nazi before this immigration controversy? What is the likelihood it would even have come up before had that not happened?
In my own family, I grew up with a father who gleefully recounted the stories his own father told him about coming through Ellis Island. Imagine my surprise to get the ship's manifest and discover that he arrived in the US via the Port of Philadelphia?
That didn't make him any less an immigrant.
Hey... nobody has to agree with me. But I'm giving Brewer a pass on this one.
Why would that be reasonable? When was Brewer called a Nazi before this immigration controversy? What is the likelihood it would even have come up before had that not happened?
No, she wouldnt have been called a Nazi before the immigration controversy; why would she have been?
As it actually happened, however,
1. She oversaw passage of this controversial law.
2. Someone called her a Nazi for it.
3. She said that that hurt her feelings, because her father died "fighting the Nazi regime in Germany."
4. Someone checked that, discovered that she lied, and made her lie public.
It's pointless to speculate what if.
Quote:
Originally Posted by HistorianDude
In my own family, I grew up with a father who gleefully recounted the stories his own father told him about coming through Ellis Island. Imagine my surprise to get the ship's manifest and discover that he arrived in the US via the Port of Philadelphia?
No, she wouldnt have been called a Nazi before the immigration controversy; why would she have been?
Exactly.
So why would you expect there to be a link to any previous mention of her father's work during WWII?
The man worked in a critical war industry when (unlike today) being at war involved the entire nation, civilians too. He died as a result of that work.
I choose to honor his sacrifice and that of his family, to include their attachment of meaning to his death.
Quote:
Originally Posted by delusianne
No relation, as it were.
Okay. If you don't get the point I'm trying to make, you don't. No biggee.
Oh -- no, I meant, if in the meantime she has clarified her story -- that she had never in her life heard that he died of lung disease in a factory but had always understood that he died on a battlefield, if you would post a link to that new article. Sorry to have been unclear.
Okay, agree to disagree. (She's a big fat lying liar using her dead father to get cheap sympathy) No really, okay
She didn't LIE.
She misspoke.
Although how you can misspeak when you are reading from a prepared text is beyond me.
She miswrote...?
Oh my goodness. And he died ten years after the war?!
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) but my point is that she has probably had that idea all her life--that her father was "fighting the Nazis" and that his death was a direct result of that. 
