Louisville Courier Journal: "[Playing] The Nazi Card". What A SHAME!
The Nazi card
Where are the rest of us, when it comes to condemning the evocations of Nazism in the current health care debate? Surely the Anti-Defamation League and other Jewish organizations should not be alone in their full-throated opposition to using Hitler analogies and swastikas to brand people with whom one disagrees about this hot-button issue.
Let us be clear. It is not acceptable when the left uses these heinous symbols on the right; it is also not acceptable when the right does it to the left, as is happening now with health care.
In recent days, loaded language and images have been used by right-wing commentators such as Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, as well as public figures such as former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
Yes, we live in a nation that guarantees their freedom to say and do these things. But we don't have to be approving or accommodating of them — especially as disagreements ostensibly over health care become vitriolic — and we most definitely should not be silent about their dive into history's gutter to smear people with symbols that are virtually unparalleled for the misery and horror they represent.
Where are our voices of condemnation for these messages of hate?
We see a swastika painted on the sign to a congressman's office, and we say nothing?
We see a baby in a stroller at a town hall meeting, that baby holding a sign bearing a hand-drawn swastika, and we say nothing?
We hear commentators bandying about terms and images of humanity's darkest days, as if they're just so much fodder for pushing their point of view, and we say nothing?
Almost a week ago, the ADL's national director, Abe Foxman, said, “Comparisons to the Nazis are deeply offensive and only serve to diminish and trivialize the extent of the Nazi regime's crimes against humanity and the murder of 6 million Jews and millions of others in the Holocaust. … Regardless of the political differences and the substantive differences in the debate over health care, the use of Nazi symbolism is outrageous, offensive and inappropriate.”
To that, we should all stand with Mr. Foxman and say a very fervent, “Amen.”
Editor's comment: Misusing the Nazi analogy SHAMEFULLY dilutes the HORRORS of that EVIL regime. Enough already.
Where are the rest of us, when it comes to condemning the evocations of Nazism in the current health care debate? Surely the Anti-Defamation League and other Jewish organizations should not be alone in their full-throated opposition to using Hitler analogies and swastikas to brand people with whom one disagrees about this hot-button issue.
Let us be clear. It is not acceptable when the left uses these heinous symbols on the right; it is also not acceptable when the right does it to the left, as is happening now with health care.
In recent days, loaded language and images have been used by right-wing commentators such as Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, as well as public figures such as former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
Yes, we live in a nation that guarantees their freedom to say and do these things. But we don't have to be approving or accommodating of them — especially as disagreements ostensibly over health care become vitriolic — and we most definitely should not be silent about their dive into history's gutter to smear people with symbols that are virtually unparalleled for the misery and horror they represent.
Where are our voices of condemnation for these messages of hate?
We see a swastika painted on the sign to a congressman's office, and we say nothing?
We see a baby in a stroller at a town hall meeting, that baby holding a sign bearing a hand-drawn swastika, and we say nothing?
We hear commentators bandying about terms and images of humanity's darkest days, as if they're just so much fodder for pushing their point of view, and we say nothing?
Almost a week ago, the ADL's national director, Abe Foxman, said, “Comparisons to the Nazis are deeply offensive and only serve to diminish and trivialize the extent of the Nazi regime's crimes against humanity and the murder of 6 million Jews and millions of others in the Holocaust. … Regardless of the political differences and the substantive differences in the debate over health care, the use of Nazi symbolism is outrageous, offensive and inappropriate.”
To that, we should all stand with Mr. Foxman and say a very fervent, “Amen.”
Editor's comment: Misusing the Nazi analogy SHAMEFULLY dilutes the HORRORS of that EVIL regime. Enough already.
Labels: General information
posted by KYJurisDoctor at 10:22 AM
1 Comments:
The point is well-taken, but the C-J editorialists act as if the GOP started it this time!
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