When it became apparent that Barack Obama was to be tapped as the Democratic Nominee for the Presidency, I braced myself for the inevitable defaming language that was certain to be used by a significant segment of our society. This notion became more prevalent when Obama was elected President. With the recent prevalence of these so-called "tea parties" (or "tea baggers") and the vitriol that's been raised at town hall meetings and rallies all across America, it's been apparent that opponents of both Obama and his policies, health care reform notwithstanding, are willing to use defaming language to define him.

The use of defaming language hasn't surprised me. Also not surprising is how Obama's opponents have taken to using an "N word" regarding him. What has surprised me is the use of a certain "N word," a word that's being thrown around with alarming frequency.

No, not "nigger."

"Nazi."

By now, you've no doubt seen pictures of Obama sporting Hitler's square mustache, and you've no doubt heard how many of the HCR opponents have taken to comparing Obama's reforms as something similar to what Hitler would have mandated in Nazi Germany. It's this kind of rhetoric that clearly discredits the anti-Obama activists who insist on comparing the "public option" in his health care reform bill to Hitler's "Final Solution," the systematic genocide of 6 million Jews throughout Europe. It's not so much their usage of the word "Nazi" and everything associated with Nazism to describe Obama, it's the willfully ignorant fashion in which they throw the word "Nazi" around, as if somehow this is some kind of attempt at humor. Sick humor to prove their point. Their point being, what, how ignorant they are?

Which leads me to think about how the word "Nazi" is even used these days. Say you're in your office, and you're discussion something among colleagues about some difficulties you're encountering with Janice from Accounting. You're trying to prepare your financials to your business partners for your project. Janice is going over all your financials with a fine-toothed comb, and she's making it very difficult for you to get your work done. You're venting to your colleagues, one of whom tells you Janice is "the budget Nazi."

We all remember "The Soup Nazi" from Seinfeld. Wisely, Al Yeganeh did not franchise his soups with the word "Nazi" in it.

On an episode of last season's Celebrity Apprentice, Joan Rivers (a Jewish woman, by the way) compared Annie Duke to Hitler, and called her a Nazi several times.

The Clintons, Bill and Hillary, have been compared to Hitler and the Nazis. Bush was compared to Hitler as well. Despite Bush's misguided, illegal and ultimately futile attempt to bring the War on Terror into Iraq, comparing the violence that escalated between coalition forces and Shiites and Sunnis and Al-Qaeda to the Nazis steamrolling across Europe and North Africa and killing, enslaving and interning non-Aryans is equally misguided. I never bought into this notion that somehow the Bush Administration took a page out of Joseph Goebbels' playbook and attempted to introduce their version of American Nazism (or Fascism) into America and the world. So, yeah, comparing Bush to Hitler was just as reprehensible.

As a minority, I'm always sensitive about the user of defamity and slurs. In no way shape or form do I find words like "nigger" and "spic" and "baboo" and "gook" to be acceptable, no less defensible. Slurs like those feed off of prejudice. Using a word like "Nazi" to describe someone or something is to simply minimize the horrors inflicted upon millions of innocents in the hands of Hitler and his evil-minded followers. I can only speculate what a Holocaust survivor, or anyone who's survived those dark years under Nazi rule, must feel when they see how ignorant tea baggers (yes, I'm lumping them into that category, at the risk of seeming hypocritical) toss the word "Nazi" around when protesting President Obama and his policies.

When I hear this kind of hateful garbage being spewed, I think back to my childhood, to my neighborhood, where a man and his wife ran a little antiques shop. He was also repaired watches, and it was his shop to where my dad would bring his watches. I once noticed the watch fixer had some numbers stamped on his forearm; as a young boy, maybe 10 or 11, I was aware of what the Holocaust was, but I was never aware of the extent to which Jews (and other non-Aryans deemed "undesirables" by the Nazis) were persecuted and condemned to die in ways previously thought unthinkable. I would later be tempted to ask him about his experiences in the concentration camps, but I never could muster the courage to ask. Survivors of trauma are often reluctant to talk freely about their experiences, so I thought it best to let this man be and not ask him to reminisce or recall where he was concentrated, what he witnessed, or how many of his family and relatives were put to death for the crime of simply being Jewish. Now, I think about what this man would think about anti-Obama protesters likening him to the man who tried to kill him and killed millions of his fellow Jews.

Recently, a survivor of the horrors of Nazi Germany by the name of Henry Gasparian took offense to both a poster comparing Obama to Hitler and to fliers being passed out by supporters of Lyndon LaRouche. LaRouche, for those you don't know, is a fringe (and I use that term loosely) Presidential candidate who often spews racist rhetoric in his speeches. He's also compared the President's health care proposals to the extermination of Jews and other non-Aryans. Mr. Gasparian scuffled with LaRouche supporters, and now he faces 2 counts of fourth-degree assault. I'm sure, I'm hoping, actually, that the charges against him will be dismissed quickly. Personally, I'm glad to know someone who suffered such trauma under Nazi Germany stood up to these thugs, the same thugs that use Nazi-style demagoguery to portray the President as a Nazi. Mr. Gasparian's comments regarding the incident sum up this kind of hateful indignation properly: "I saw Hitler's soldiers. I saw swastikas every day. To call Obama stupid, even criminal — OK, that's politics. But Hitler? It's hurting to anyone no matter who is president."

When I hear President Obama address our nation in a concise fashion, presenting his facts (regardless of whether or not you approve of his reforms), and steering clear as possible away from demagoguery, and I hear and see the actions of anti-Obama camps (especially those supporters of that odious LaRouche, who I wouldn't be surprised worships Nazism in some form), I wonder who's really the Nazi here?

Regardless, I want to see the word "Nazi" used as it should be, to define the actions carried out by a psychotic mass murderer and his minions, and not in ways to minimize or trivialize the horrors of Nazism, or, in these recent cases, demonstrate ignorance and insensitivity towards the Holocaust. Let's not use the word "Nazi" so carelessly or stupidly.