As I have said previously, I'm outta here, leaving my editorship to others. But on the occasion of this particular intersection with the planet I couldn't help but note these current events.

Josias Kumpf, a US citizen for over 40 years, father of six, retired, living in Racine Wisconsin, is (as he puts it) "in trouble, more in trouble". Why? This is a quote from his deposition about what he saw 50 years ago:

When he [Kumpf] arrived by train that morning, he said, he and other SS guards ate breakfast. Then they heard the shouts and gunfire. "All the people were in the hole. ... I (went) over there too and look. I turn around and I ... sorry, it's not for me, that's what I told my friends."

He finished his breakfast, coffee and rye bread with butter. He said he was ordered to watch. He was told to make sure no one escaped.

"I was watching them shoot some people," he said. "Some people was shot and not good enough so they was still able to move, you know. That's what we have to watch so that they don't go no place."

Then, Kumpf said, "Everybody was excited because so many dead ones to see, you know. I was not excited. I feel sorry for the people."

What is going to happen to Kumpf?

On May 10, U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman in Milwaukee revoked Kumpf's citizenship. He ruled that Kumpf had misrepresented himself to immigration authorities. "American citizenship," the judge said, "is bestowed only upon those who meet fundamental standards imposed by law."

The judge further ruled that Kumpf's mere presence at Trawniki meant he "personally advocated or assisted" in the massacre, and as a result, was ineligible for a U.S. visa in the first place.

(above quotes taken from Case of ex-Nazi Living in US Comes to a Head from CantonRep.com)

Richard Day doesn't think individuals are accountable for what their government does. Day was a neighbor to Joseph Wittje, another man who has been stripped of his citizenship:

"People shouldn't be held responsible for the actions of their government, and I think that's what happened in this case," said Day, 78, a U.S. Navy veteran. "When you're a private, you do what you're told to do. I don't see his service record as any different from mine."

(From a story Chicago man's trial indicates Nazi hunters not done yet in the Chicago Tribune, page two.

Britney Spears thinks we shouldn't worry too much about it - remember this CNN Interview with Spears?

Honestly, I think we should just trust our president in every decision
he makes and should just support that, you know, and be faithful in
what happens.

The question of responsibility is a troubling one, also currently hotly debated in schools. For example, this article, also from CantonRep.com, The ‘irresponsible’ should get blame, is certainly causing much deep thinking about cause, effect, and responsibility:

Sixty-five — again, 65 — of Timken High School’s [in Canton, Ohio] 490
girl students are pregnant.

That’s a number confirmed by Principal Kim Redmond, whose staff, in
less than a week, will inherit a problem it had no part in causing.

Whose fault is it that more than 13 percent of Timken’s girls are with
child? Some would say fault-finding isn’t a fruitful exercise, but in
this case, it’s critical. Suspects range from movies, TV and video games
to lazy parents and lax discipline. Only one thing is sure: Schools
don’t impregnate children.

"This has gotten to horrible proportions," said Redmond. "I wish I knew
the answer to why it’s happening."

Now Britney Spears, who is eight months pregnant, may not be a heavyweight on personal responsibility, but she has figured out what causes pregnancy, and she is taking steps that the situation is under her control:

Sexy pop star Britney Spears has reportedly mastered the art of giving oral sex,
thanks to a little help from Sex And The City star Kim Cattrall.

Perhaps Britney could explain things to Timken High's principal Kim Redmond. Maybe she could even put some thought into making her next megahit help the situation? It's something to work on.

Others feel guilt and responsibility over something they had no control over. This article from InTheseTimes.com tells the recent story of Gerard Matthew, who along with one of his buddies and several other soldiers decided to get tested for exposure to depleted uranium (DU).

Matthew, 31, decided that since he’d spent much of his time in Iraq lugging around DU-damaged equipment, he’d better get tested too. It turned out he was the most contaminated of them all.

Matthew immediately urged his wife to get an ultrasound check of their unborn baby. They discovered the fetus had a condition common to those with radioactive exposure: atypical syndactyly. The right hand had only two digits.

So far Victoria Claudette, now 13 months old, shows no other genetic disorders and is healthy, but Matthew feels guilty for causing her deformity and angry at a government that never warned him about DU’s dangers.

The US government has its own special way of dealing with such problems. From the same article:

Dr. Doug Rokke, a health physicist at the University of Illinois who headed up a Pentagon study of depleted uranium weapons in the mid ’90s after concerns were raised during the Gulf War, concluded there was no safe way to use the weapons. Rokke says the Pentagon responded by denouncing him, after earlier commending his work.

No one knows how many U.S. soldiers have been contaminated by DU residue. Despite regulations authorizing tests for any military personnel who suspects exposure, the U.S. military is avoiding doing those tests—or delaying them until they are meaningless.

"When we asked to be tested at Ft. Dix, they wrongly told us we didn’t have to worry unless we had DU fragments in our body," says Matthew. His buddy, Sgt. Ramos, who exhibits symptoms resembling radiation sickness and heavy metal poisoning, adds that at Walter Reed Medical Center he was grilled for hours about why he wanted to be tested and was then branded a troublemaker by his own unit. Matthew says Walter Reed "lost" his sample.

At the war’s start, the United States refused to allow U.N. or other environmental inspectors to test DU levels within Iraq. Now the United Nations won’t even go near Iraq because of security concerns.

"It doesn’t seem right that we are poisoning the places we are supposed to be liberating," Ramos says.

The Pentagon continues to insist, on the basis of no field evidence, that DU is safe.

Rokke's final comment is what motivated me to think and write this blog:

One way or another, the Pentagon will pay a price. "DU is a war crime. It’s that simple," Rokke says. "Once you’ve scattered all this stuff around, and then refuse to clean it up, you’ve committed a war crime."

The questions race through my mind -

Am I, like Josias Kumpf, guilty of war crimes because I stood by and watched? Am I really being supportive of our troops by sending them off to Iraq, only to have them come home and father (or mother) deformed children? Do I meet the "fundamental standards" for American citizenship? Am I or my children responsibe and will we have to pay for the eventual lawsuits filed by US and Iraqi citizens for the damage done to others in our names?

Or shall I just put on my headphones and listen to Britney Spears' song Overprotected?

What am I to do with my life
Why am I supposed to know what's right
I can't help the way I feel
But my life has been so overprotected