Political Disagreement, Nazis and Growing Up

I have heard people I otherwise respect comparing Karl Rove to Joseph Goebbels, for example, always with a quick grin that projects that 'I'm so clever" look normally used by kids who announce they've made doodee.

These are not political or history neophytes, but intelligent, learned people. It makes me want to vomit.

My father was orphaned because his father took a Nazi bullet and it profoundly affected him until the day he died and I realize now it affected the way he interacted with me. He was seven years old when his aunt and uncle told him his father was dead - a couple of days latter he received a letter from his father, mailed before his death, and was overjoyed because he thought there must have been a mistake; Of course, there was not.

Less than a year before my father died he gave me my grandfather's Purple Heart and Army Air Force Patch from his uniform along with the citations, letters from Sec Army, FDR (no doubt signed with an auto-pen) and a picture of my grandfather, Bogan Haney, in uniform holding his M-1. They hang in my office now.

The Nazis killed millions via combat/aggression, millions more by extermination. I hear people all of the time squawking about how you should not question their love of country just because they question this war and administration. They are correct. But when they cross the line with cutesy Nazi comparisons, I think it's fair to question their love and respect for those who died in WW II defending freedom - like the father my father lost and the grandfather I never knew - and next time I will tell them exactly that.