Justin Bieber's Anne Frank Gaffe

"In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.”
― Anne Frank

"Truly inspiring to be able to come here. Anne was a great girl. Hopefully she would have been a belieber."

― Justin Bieber

My first reaction was, "Are you kidding me?"  When I stopped knee jerking, I looked at it differently.  

I am glad that Justin took the opportunity to visit the Anne Frank house.  He travels a great deal and he could learn so much by taking a few minutes to explore wherever he is. He spent an hour learning about a sweet intelligent young woman who died before her time. Anne Frank accomplished a great deal in a short time.  Any one who has read her diary is touched by it.  She was loving and philosophical despite the desperate circumstances she found herself in.  Her diary put a face to the millions who were murdered in the Holocaust.

Justin signed the museum's guest book and people reacted.  I've been reading many of the online comments.  The majority thought he was disrespectful.  It appeared that he purposely turned attention away from Anne and back towards him. I don't believe that was his intent. The third sentence was silly, but I think Justin got it.  He saw Anne for what she was, a young girl, who would have been like so many other young girls if she had been allowed to live a normal life.

So for the first time, I am cutting Justin some slack.  He is young and inexperienced.  In fact, I see him emotionally younger than many of his peers. Hopefully, the backlash he received will be a learning curve and he will mature and move on.

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*On a positive note, a lot of people are using their browsers to learn more about Anne Frank.  That isn't a bad thing.