10/11/10-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
Rich Iott decided to go on CNN and denounce Eric Cantor over the House Minority Whip’s denouncement of him on FOX. The man who use to enjoy dressing up in an SS uniform was none to pleased to see Cantor- who is Jewish- come out and condemn the supposed educational value of whitewashing Nazi history to not include things like the division that Iott and his buddies were busy reenacting was linked to the notorious Nazi doctor Josef Mengele. Iott even went on to insult Cantor by attacking him as a -GASP- Democrat!

Iott stated “I think that Representative Cantor did what so many career politicians do. He reacted before he had all the facts. He didn’t know the whole story. He didn’t understand what historical reenacting is all about, or the education side of it. And he just made a decision without all the facts. My opponent here is cut out of the same cloth. Those are the people who passed the health care bill before they knew what was in it. The same folks who passed the stimulus bill…”

Of course, Iott wants to claim that his ‘hobby’ of dressing up like an SS officer has educational value:

“The purpose of historical reenacting is not to glorify war, necessarily, or the sides,” he said. “It’s to educate people. To learn about what happened. And to keep those memories alive, so we don’t let it happen again.”

He even went on to say “participating in historical reenactments, living history, is a much better way to get the message across” than other forms or education. “It’s a great outreach to the public.”

He did say that he and his son, who was fifteen at the time, did “on many, many occasions we talked about the horrific things that happened during World War II. That was absolutely one of the low points, I think, in human history. It’s a tragedy that we don’t want to forget.” Or whitewash or paint over, but that is what the people he participated in this with did.

He does not regret dressing up as a Nazi SS officer. He stated “What I regret is that we’re wasting the time talking about this issue, when we should be talking about the real issues that are facing the country today.” Like the KKK rally to support the homophobic Augusta State student, or the scapegoating of Muslims and Hispanics? In fact, we should be discussing these issues except that people like Iott are all for painting over the history in order to provide a glorious rationale for their belief system even if that system would destroy the country.

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