Friday, January 28, 2022

Hitler, California

I have kith and kin who live in or have houses in Hitler, a small town on the California coast about ten miles north of Fort Bragg. The personnel in Hitler refuse to change the town's name. Their argument is that the town was named Hitler before the Holocaust, back when Hitler was considered a patriot and a man who had served his country bravely in World War One. The name was good at the time, and today it's a town tradition to take pride in. 

Fort Bragg makes a related argument, that while Braxton Bragg eventually betrayed the USA in order to defend slavery, the town was named Bragg before that misstep, at a time when Bragg was considered a patriot and a man who had served his country bravely in the war to annex half of Mexico. 

The town of Hitler, of course, is imaginary. 

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