It's interesting to hear their stories, whether they were in the US or Europe.

I know it has been interesting hearing from my great-grandmother about rationing during the Second World War. Luckily she saved quite a few newspapers from the era, too.

The holocaust symbolizes a cause of hatred embodied in racial genocide, religious persecution, fanatical goverment, a mindless majority that let this happen, a vindicate world community that gave reparations a chance to breed vengence, and callous everybody for ignoring the problem until they had political agendas to go to war. All the while, the gas chambers burned our best to ashes of faith and humanity.

I think a little Nazi lives in every human being. The Nazi's spilled seed physically and metaphysically through their ideas, yet they were fertilized from the same seeds themselves, throughout history. The Romans were Nazis too. So were the Spanish Inquisitors. So was the American government in putting a value on scalps.

The Nazis attracted an entire nation to a false cause founded on racial and religious hatred. They justified it through blame. They promoted it through propaganda and lies. They ran over neighboring countries with tanks. They threatened the world with their violence. They were successful because the rest of the world left Germany to suffer after WWI, too many reparations and no chance for redemption. And the rest of this callous world did not stop the Nazi when they heard of the stink in the sky. They ignored it and went to war only when threatened themselves. Early, much earlier, the world could have listened and intervened to prevent conflict and meet the real needs of the people attending Nazi rallies. They needed to live, not hate.

The best legacy of the Nazis is in their victims and why they had to die, tormented and denied. And Never Again means we don't act and behave like Nazis or Romans or Crusaders or Colonialists. We need to respect individual and religious differences. We need to stop fighting wars. We can't torture and torment people. We must recognize all people as human beings with rights and flaws and needs. And we need to persecute and judge only the Nazi within ourselves. Teach the rest of flawed planet about peace.

Remind me about the next Nazi demonstation too. I need to go there and pray for them and follow them around telling them about how phoenixes rise from flames and dead people cry out from ashes. Peace. The idea never dies but pursuing it is the opposite of being Nazi. It fits with Easter too. It fits many faiths and many persecuted people.

I have a cool idea for avoiding Nazi leaders. I will only elect leaders who have suffered greatly and transcended their suffering. Since we are all human, that means those who have made mistakes. I want to hear confessions of wrongs instead of finger pointing. I want to hear what they think is they did wrong and how they think they fixed it. Then I will listen to what they've learned. I will not vote for any person who has not broken a law, or hurt someone, or learned values that define every life as sacred. Since they are going to lead ME, I have to think those things need to be grander than my own experience. I want to vote for someone with time served and no money in his bank account. I want to be assured that they can love and also forgive, even when they were truely wronged. Any faith professed needs to include those who don't share it. And I need to hear solutions for peace, ending suffering, human rights and freedom.

Got any candidates? All things being equal, I will vote for a woman of course. Personal bias, we all have them. I can't run for office because I hate to be in charge. It brings out the Nazi in me haha. I would rather demonstrate on the fringes and pray.

Crusty says,"I can't run for office because I hate to be in charge. It brings out the Nazi in me haha. I would rather demonstrate on the fringes and pray."

Also the realities of the world would interfere with utopian views bantered around here on these pages.

I agree with you TFI. We need to listen and learn from our seniors.

I have three year to go before I can speak for seniors, and the downtown seniors I wrote with know I need to learn more. I will apply in three years. For now, I am not as wise as a senior. And I will check my hair for roots. The wrinkles are OK. Mostly they get buried under smiles. I do look odd when I frown. It makes my face creak because the lines pull in the opposite direction. It's even painful.

The downtown seniors are especially cool. They lent me a wheelchair and let me write with them in a poetry group while I couldn't walk. Let's hear it for the downtown seniors. They also explained life journeys to me. I am still dealing with empty nest, boo hoo, find me more to do. But I write, I don't lead. And Utopian views get practical during discussion and through negotiation. Just a little idealism to ever improve policies. It beats the heck out of obsessing about weapons of mass destruction and whether people are listening to our phone conversations.

I have a little fun with my telephone at times. I may try it with random solicitations: Cough Cough let me get my telephone activated weapon of mass destruction out of my mouth. Oops, its got a homing beacon! Its headed down the phone line! I could be headed for you or the dirty white house. I'm a really bad cook. I think it's loaded with last night's dinner.