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Monday, April 15, 2013

Anyone upset over the Bieber Anne Frank "controversy" needs to take a breath

Teen idol Justin Bieber visited the Anne Frank museum in Amsterdam. Upon leaving, he wrote in the guestbook: "Truly inspiring to be able to come here. Anne was a great girl. Hopefully she would have been a belieber."

And the hysteria commenced.

Justin Bieber is one of the biggest music stars in the world. There are a lot of things he could have done with his limited time on tour in Europe. He went to the trouble of visiting the Anne Frank Museum to actually see and learn about one of the stories that has become a touchstone of Holocaust education. That is commendable.

One of the reasons the Diary of Anne Frank is taught in schools is to remind children that the victims of the Holocaust were normal kids, like them, who were caught up as victims of a whirlwind of senseless, murderous, bigoted hate. If Anne Frank were alive today, as a normal teenager, there is every chance she would, like millions of other teenage girls, be a fan of Bieber.

And for crying out loud, the Beeb's only 19 years old. He didn't write anything evil - he expressed the wish that Anne Frank would have liked him.  Is that so wrong?

If there had been an Israel at the time Frank was born, she would have been able to escape her fate. I wonder how many of the people expressing asinine outrage over Beeber's note would like to  see the Jewish state eliminated and with it more Jews?

There are a lot of terrible things going on in the world today. I'm not a fan of his music, but seriously, Justin Bieber isn't responsible for any of them.

And as an addendum, it turns out that Bieber has actually done something that organizations like the Simon Wiesenthal Center only dream of - he`s managed to get millions more people interested in the story of Anne Frank.

2 comments:

Pyrodafox said...

I must admit I overreacted when I heard about this, but I still find his comments extremely self-serving though I do not believe he meant to be insensitive of inflammatory. As you suggested, he actually accomplished some good. Hell, with the rise of Islamism in the West (with the accompanying antisemitism and Holocaust denial), Justin Beiber did more good with this act than the so-called "progressives."

Richard K said...

I think you nailed it with that last sentence Pyro.