Two truisms:

1) Trees are nice and you shouldn’t cut down trees all willy-nilly like.

2) Hitler was bad. I mean really bad. Like Lex Luthor x 100.

But what if these two truisms collide in a confluence of circumstances forcing you to make a choice between two truisms. A really difficult choice. What do you do if there was a tree planted in your hometown in 1942 to commemorate Adolf Hitler’s birthday?

Here’s the moral dilemma of the day. Was Hitler bad enough to make you chop down a beautiful tree planted in his name? (Hey, never ever say we don’t deal with the difficult issues here at CMR)

Here’s the story:

An oak tree planted in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War Two to mark Adolf Hitler’s birthday may soon face the axe if the local mayor has her way.

Authorities in Jaslo in rural southeastern Poland discovered the origins of the tree when plans were lodged to fell it to make way for a traffic roundabout.

“We obtained information that this is no ordinary tree but was put here to mark Adolf Hitler’s birthday,” said Jaslo’s mayor, Maria Kurowska. “So should I try to improve our town’s communications or should I allow a memorial to that criminal to remain standing? The choice is simple for me.”

But some are asking why should a poor little tree pay the price for Hitler’s crimes?

One Polish man asked “What is the oak really guilty of? It’s not the tree’s fault that it was planted here to honor the biggest criminal and enemy of Poland.”

Dilemma. Dilemma.

My quick response is to say rip off the tree’s branches and use them to beat anyone who’s defending the Hitler tree. Just kidding. While acknowledging I have the maturity level of a third grade juvenile delinquent I’m telling you I would actually tear down the tree just out of spite…and, of course, to improve the traffic blah blah blah…but mostly out of spite. You?