A Paper Tiger in Austria
Wednesday, December 21st, 2005 -- J. DoeA few days after the execution of murderer Tookie Williams, several politicians in Graz, Austria, the birthplace of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger discussed removing his name from a stadium there.
In 1997 the stadium’s name was changed to Schwarzenegger stadium.
They were proud of their native son.
Many Europeans, the citizens of Graz included, abhor the death penalty and call it barbaric. They were dismayed to see their local son uphold the law of the land that he now governs.
They were no longer proud of their native son.
While the officials were gathering names for a petition to actually remove the Schwarzenegger name from the stadium, Arnold beat them to the punch and sent a letter to them asking them to remove his name. In addition he told them he no longer wanted the ring of honor that was given to him by the city.
“Graz will not have problems in the future with my decisions as governor of California, because officially nothing connects us any more,” Schwarzenegger told the daily Kronen Zeitung in an interview for Tuesday’s editions.
“The death penalty is law here, and I have to uphold the law of the land and the will of the people,” Schwarzenegger was quoted as saying, adding that he still considered himself “Austrian with all my heart.”
After hearing that, Siegfried Nagl, mayor of the southern city of Graz, said he wrote Schwarzenegger pleading with him not to return a ring of honor bestowed on him by officials in his birthplace in 1999 and reassuring him that most residents still admire him.
“I hope that very soon we’ll hear you say, ‘I’ll be back,’” Nagl told the actor-turned-politician, one of Austria’s most famous sons.
It seems that when Nagl pushed and felt a force pushing back, he changed his story. Whatta wimp.
Stand by your convictions, right or wrong. (In this case wrong. Hello ? Is anybody home ? California is not a part of Austria. Austrian laws do not apply there.)
Read the rest of the article here.
