I agree, the decision should be put on the ballot and the residents of Richmond Hill should collectively decide whether to keep Ford's name on the signs.

I don't know Mr. Kent, or what his motives are, but they seem pretty straightforward to me, and frankly if I were Jewish I'd be just as mad at seeing Ford's name on the signs as he is. As it is, I see Ford's legacy as being indelibly marred by his writings and support of the Third Reich and of Adolf Hitler, no matter how great an industrialist he was.

I believe he is being honored enough by the fact that the city adopted the name of Ford's plantation as the city name without having his name on the city's signs.

I don't anybody is trying to erase history, but do we really need to put Henry Ford's name in a place of honor?

Mr. Ford basically created Richmond Hill. Like anywhere else if your offended...stay out. Heck it may cut down on traffic.

Why? Why do we have to change any and everything the second it offends someone. So maybe I should call Ford and have them change the model name of the ford focus, I mean my kids have A.D.D. and they cant focus as do many Americans. I could even get the government involved or the ACLU involved cause it is discrimination right? Where do we stop? The Gays could argue the Ford Probe as well. I know this is absurd but no more then trying to have a Henry Fords name erased from once what was Ways Station. What next remove the holocaust , the World Wars, Vietnam, Civil war, Korean conflict and many others from the history books? I am sure those things upset others as well but where do we draw the line as Americans and say deal with it? It happened, its over, now let it go....it is remembered as history Mr. Kent and many others were not there maybe their family's were but we all have to grow a set once in a while and have to adapt overcome and move on.

Just another "progressive" that wants to erase history. There is a lot of our history that is great and a lot we are not proud of, but it is none the less our history.Either learn to live with our history or move to Iran.

First of all Dick kent needs to stay in Flordia.Like it or not ford built this city and i am not a Davis fan either so if you aint happy with the town ford built move on and it will cut the traffic flow and if you are jewis get over it !!!!

http://www.adl.org/ADLHistory/ford_le...

Read the conclusion to the ADL's statement.

http://www.adl.org/special_reports/ij...

The International Jew
Anti-Semitism from the Roaring Twenties Revived on the Web retrieved from: http://www.adl.org/special_reports/ij...

Those who would erase history are those that will ignore every aspect of a man's legacy and only remember the good while omitting the evil.

Ford built Way's Station when it was a tiny cross-roads town. Richmond Hill has only become the city it is today in the last 20 years!

We've adopted the name of his plantation as our city's name, that's a pretty good tribute to his contribution.

We all need to learn to live with our history, good and bad, and stop white-washing it to suit your wishes.

Greenman

Here's a link to the text of the Anti-defamation league's website with the context in which Ford's apology letter was written, only after years of pressure from the ADL and even from U.S. Presidents, and only after the U.S. entered WWII did he issue an apology letter with his signature on it.

Stop trying to erase history by only posting links to parts which support your opinion when taken out of context.

http://www.adl.org/ADLHistory/1920_19...

Greenman

Greeman,

I am not posting only parts which support my opinion, nor have I taken them out of context. I posted one piece here for others to read and research. I'm glad you have done that. Though, it seems you have come to a different conclusion than the ADL.

Remember, the ADL also said, "the Ford family and the Ford Motor Company have engaged in numerous projects and endeavors in the public interest, including many that have been supportive of Jewish concerns. Ford's grandson, Henry Ford II, consistently supported Jewish charities and cultural organizations. In 1997, for example, the Ford Motor Company sponsored the first screening of Steven Spielberg's "Schindler's List," commercial-free, on national network television."

I believe you left that out.

Their conclusion in the link you posted was that Ford's material is still causing damage to this day. Yes, it is. That is a fact that even Ford was aware of after he issued his apology. He sought to do something about that, but yes, the damage had been done. It was AFTER his apology that he sent the ADL's letter. All he could do, on a personal level, was restate his stance and apologize, which he did.

And yes, it was the pressure placed on Ford that "brought him to his knees" on this issue. So what? Good for those who pressured him. Good for him to finally give in to what was right. I don't see the problem there.

Blessings,
Chris

Actually, What the Ford Family, Ford Motor Company and Henry Ford II have nothing to do with our discussion. I have no issue with any of them; in fact I drive a Ford truck with no issue.

We are discussing whether Henry Ford Sr., the famous Industrialist and Anti-Semite, should be honored on our city's signs.

One cannot wash their hands of their sins by simply saying "sorry" for decades' worth of hate-filled diatribe, slander and libel against millions of people which led to their wholesale murder, support of the Nazi regime, after accepting the "Grand Cross of the German Eagle," the highest Nazi award for foreigners, from the Third Reich (another recipient of the Grand Cross was Benito Mussolini) photo here: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgur..., and as late as 1939 Henry Ford was quoted as saying about the Nazi invasion of Poland, "There hasn't been a shot fired. The whole thing has just been made up by the Jew bankers.”

Henry Ford himself never took great pains to recant The International Jew, rather that was mostly the work of Edsel Ford (Henry's Son) and Henry Ford II (Henry's Grandson, who took control of the company in 1945) and the letter, dated 7 January 1942, was actually written by the Director of the ADL, Richard E. Gunsadt, as part of deal worked out between Himself and Edsel Ford in order to clean up the Ford image.

Shortly before his death in 1947, when asked if Ford Motor Company would ever go public, Henry Ford said, "I'll take my factory down brick by brick, before I'll let any of the Jew speculators get stock in the company."

That doesn't sound very repentant.

Greenman