They Should Be Ashamed

       In wake of the national debate that has been transpiring over what to do with health care and the current administration's proposals for it, many sad and sickening trends have developed. In an effort to change public opinion, Town Hall Meetings have been implemented by many politicians in their own local disricts. However, the politicians who have attempted to host these meetings have been met with radical opposition.

       Yes this is America and everyone has the right to a certain extent to assemble and protest peacefully, but the majority of the protesters have behaved in a way that is downright atrocious. The chief reoccurence is the comparison of President Obama to Adolf Hitler, and that of his Health Care plan to the Third Reich's Final Solution. Whether or not the vast majority of the populace find the President's plan acceptable or lacking, the methods that have been undertaken in the name of self expression are not acceptable.

        Invoking the name of Adolf Hitler and all of the hatered, fear, and pain that he caused in his short time is not something that should be done lightly. As an educated politician Sara Palin should never have dared to condescend to claim that the plan would create "death panels." A death panel was the doctor who would examine a prisoner at a concentration camp such as Auschwitz, and point to either the left or the right. Either that prisoner would have joined the other skeletons still deemed fit to suffer on, or be lead off to a death chamber and murdered. The former govenor should never have had the audacity to utter such absurdities.

       I hope that the people who showed up at these meetings and behaved in such a manner will one day be capable of understanding just what they were implying by their posters and chants. Can anyone honestly wrap their mind around the deaths of over eight milion people simply due to the whim of one man. Or the millions of others who were in those Concentration or Death Camps or whose family was. Or the countless number of people whose lives were greatly affected or ruined by the travesties commited by Hitler and his cronies. There is no greater indecency than to make light of the absolute hell that all of those victims went through. No one should have to experience that agony, and then to top it off live to see a multitude of fools treat it like it was nothing.

       So yes I will say it: Every single person who participated in drawing any comparison no matter how small from Adolf Hitler to Barack Obama should be ashamed of themselves. Before drawing such comparisons they should go watch Schindler's List. They should have taken even a quick minute to consider just what exactly they were saying. Better yet they should listen to the archived broadcast made by Edward Murrow about his first hand account of Buchenwald. The transcript itself is sickening but hearing it said takes it to a whole other level. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/murrow.html

      The actions of these protesters also highlight several other significant problems within the world today. The first is that as a whole we fail to talk to each other and simply talk at each other. All of the hullabaloo does naught to help us understand each other. It is this failure to communicate that leads to everday discord and discrepancies. Over time it even leads to ignorant extremism and injust wars and other horrifying acts of violence. The second is that as a whole we fail to seek truth and understanding for ourselves. Instead, we simply spout off whatever we read over our morning coffee or heard on last night's news. This fallacy must be corrected. Each bit of news must be examined with respect to who it was reported by and for whom it was intended. Read and listen to both sides of the story. If you often find yourself in agreement with Bill O'Reilly tune into Keith Olbermann. If you prefer the New York Times try reading the New York Post. Everything is biased. Accept this and move on to finding the truth by looking for common ground. The third and final problem that the actions point to is the overwhelming tendency to speak in extremes. I myself often fall prey to this erroneous manner of argument. Extremes, as their name implies are neither accurate or truthful. They are the absolute limit on where a stance for a particular subject can go. As such, bringing up Adolf Hitler is not accurate, not necessary, and should never be found acceptable.

       I am in no way saying that those people who chose to partake in the myriad of protests at all of the Town Hall Meetings should not have done so. The right to peacefully assemble and all of the other rights names in the Bill of Rights are essential to humanity. It is our duty as citizens to act when we do not agree with something that the government is doing. This ability is what enables us to exist in a nontotalitarian democracy. Without the right to protest we would be at the mercy of those we have elected or appointed to office. I would simply encourage those protesters to be more aware of what they are entailing when they make such flawed and excessive claims.

       There is a reason we remember and are taught about the Holocaust. There is a reason it brings up so many haunting memories for so many people. It is not to be brought up simply to make a point unless doing so is utterly merited. Therefore, I would hope that in future events those involved will have the grace and forethought to exclude such claims; though, I fear that too many will not.