Hat in Hand

And foot in mouth.

The mayors of Mannheim and Heidelberg who visited Washington this week to rally support to retain US army bases in the southwestern German region say there’s a chance they might succeed.

Speaking on Friday after their return from Washington, the mayors said it would be not be easy to reverse a four-year decision by the US to close bases in the Rhine-Neckar region but added that there was no final word on the debate.

“The door isn’t closed yet,” said Peter Kurz, mayor of Mannheim.

As for Mannheim, the outliers of the are American bases are closing here and there anyway, and they won’t much miss many of the locals’ indulgence in hating Americans, even if they‘re more likely to know them than most Germans.

anti-Americanism in and of itself does not bother me at all IF it is an opinion derived from empirical facts. But so much of what I see in German media about America is factually inaccurate - from whatever motivation - that I want to probe any anti-American rationale before I consider it worthy of dialogue - or even agreeing with it. For example, a German woman I 'met' here who is married to an American in the Navy lives here in Virginia. She sent me a translation from her hometown newspaper in Mannheim that talked about American 'concentration camps for children'.

Too bad, so sad, “lord mayors”. I guess you’ll miss those American 'concentration camps for children' after all.