Rabbi Marc Gellmann in Newsweek this week makes a lot of sense in his piece Harry Windsor and the Prisoners of Ignorance. Many have pointed out Harry's ignorance (or disdain) of history in wearing the Swastika, but have failed to draw the link with the large number of people who wear symbols without any thought for their original meanings.

Much is made of our children’s insufficient knowledge of science and math. However I believe the greatest casualty of this era of videogames and iPods is the pathetic knowledge of history among our children. As a result, the symbols of history—both positive and negative—are stripped of their original connection to a set of ideas. In our symbolically confused time, Nazi helmets can easily adorn the empty skulls of patriotic bikers, and Confederate flags can appear in the rear windows of pickup trucks owned by people who have no desire to own slaves.

Recently a survey of Orlando kids and parents revealed that more than 60 percent of the folks living in the shadow of the Magic Kingdom could not identify Auschwitz, which, for all the friends of Harry reading this, was the Nazi death camp in Poland where more than 1 million Jews and other “undesirables” were starved or worked or gassed to death. One out of every three Jews who were alive on planet earth in 1933 had been murdered by 1945 and they were murdered by people wearing the same swastika Harry wore to get drunk and get laid. So if a majority of American 20-year-olds can identify Adventureland but not Auschwitz, Pamela Anderson but not Andersonville prison, what hope do we have to prevent the past from being replicated in the future? Symbols like the swastika and the Confederate flag connect to ideas, and those ideas must be understood and purged from our dwindling collective consciousness.

I feel the same way about the desiccation of positive symbols. When I see a cross being worn in the deep exposed cleavage of some rock-music bimbette or hanging amidst the gold chains of a rapper pleading for oral sex or the death of the police, I am not just offended. I am saddened for my Christian brothers and sisters who must endure such desecration—yes that is the proper term of opprobrium for the coring out of all meaning from a powerful symbol. For Christians, the cross is the most powerful symbol of salvation, sacrifice, humility, service, compassion, resurrection, hope and love. The cross is not bling!

Great closing sentiment. BTW, Dahr Jamail, the subject of my post yesterday, was woken this morning by the sound of a car bomb detonating across the road from his hotel room. His report is well worth a read.