"Honorarium Revoked"

Do you like honorariums? I watch the "Hall of Fame" inductions in football and baseball every year with great interest. As I get older, I have more interest in the "old-timers" as I am now an "old-timer" myself. People who attain a measure of success are often rewarded with honorary degrees; usually this will mean more donations from alumni because of the notoriety of the honored recipient. Some folks get honors that, in retrospect, people regret. Obviously, O.J. Simpson is a prime candidate for this regret. O.J. is in the NCAA Hall of Fame, the Buffalo Bills Hall of Fame and the NFL Hall of Fame. I'm sure he was given honors from the city of Oakland, California as a famous citizen. Yes, O.J. has had a plethora of honors. O.J. now has the honor of room and board for several years as a guest of the Nevada Penal System.

Mel Gibson has been a big movie star for many years. Mel has received Academy Awards for best director and best picture for "Brave Heart"; a terrific movie which I highly recommend. Unfortunately, we have seen sides of Mel that were less than flattering. We have seen drunken Mel; anti-Semitic Mel and misogynist Mel, not Mel at his best! I'll bet there are people in Hollywood who would gladly strip Mel of his Academy Awards. Sometimes awards come back and bite the givers in the butt!

This is 2011, a long way from May 1945. There is a town in Austria called Braunau that is having second thoughts about an honorarium which was given many decades ago. A man of humble beginnings who rose to world prominence was made an honorary citizen by Braunau; but now, Braunau is reconsidering this honor, which this man has held since the early 1930s. We have already talked about O.J. Simpson and Mel Gibson and their faults; who is this man and how bad could he have been to have this honor revoked after so many years?

If you haven't guessed by this time, the man is Adolf Hitler. Poor guy, this is probably the only honor left to him and now it is being taken away! I find it humorous that it took only about 70 years to consider this action. This is a great example of the government moving slowly in taking action. It took 70 years to rethink Hitler as an honorary citizen! Now I understand why our budget talks are taking so long!! We don't want to rush into anything boys! Unlike the Hitler citizenship issue, our budget needs immediate action; and we must employ policies that will stop this continued pursuit of debt permanently; we can't wait 70 years! Hitler is dead; our debt and deficit is not. Soon there will be another election, and soon Americans will choose who to "honor" at the polls. To those in Washington, I say this "America will not wait 70 years to revoke your honorarium, so let's get with it boys!"