PC Estonia

I have to say, I think that both sides of this story are out of line.

Estonian Defence Minister Jaak Joeruut tendered his resignation Monday after the director of a museum linked to his ministry wore a virulently anti-communist T-shirt to a football match.

A group of anti-communists contesting the October 16 local elections in Estonia distributed red T-shirts at a weekend football match, emblazoned with the slogan "Commies to the oven" and listing the names of 35 Estonian politicians who have been members of the Communist Party.

"The shirt had a list of people against whom it was directed, and it began with the names of the president and prime minister of Estonia," Joeruut said in a statement to explain why he had handed his resignation to Prime Minister Andrus Ansip.

"When the director of a war museum belonging to the defence ministry of NATO and EU member country like Estonia goes along with a campaign to burn people in ovens, including the leaders of our own state, I'm totally lost," Joeruut, who was a poet before he went into politics, said.

It sounds to me like the issue wasn't so much that the shirts were anti-communist, it's that they suggested that communists ought to be burned in ovens. Obviously, that's inappropriate. However, for the defence minister of Estonia to step down over this issue is kind of ridiculous; seeing as how Estonia is now a NATO country, and seeing as how NATO is anti-communist, the base message of these shirts shouldn't be very offensive.

God forbid we should acknowledge that communism killed more people in the twentieth century than fascism. Being honest isn't tolerant!