That’s what he said to me as I was staffing the La Crosse GOP booth at the county fair. I could tell by the look on his face that he had something to say as he walked by our table so I did what I do for everyone. I said, “Hi, do you have any questions I can answer for you?” while smiling as I normally do. And that’s when he laid that heavy question on me, “I suppose you’re supporting Hitler, huh?”

I’ve never been very good at debating and with only average intelligence I’m definitely not quick on my feet like Ted Cruz would be. But the millisecond I heard him say Hitler I knew just how to respond.

You see, my wife recently did some genealogy to learn more about our families. What she learned that I had never heard before while navigating through the branches of my mother’s side was that I have an ancestor who died to free the slaves. His name was Robert Briggs and he died in a Confederate prisoner of war camp. He had enlisted into the 37th Regiment of the Wisconsin Infantry during the Civil War and he died to free the slaves from their Democrat masters.

I bring that up because that knowledge emboldened me to never cower in fear whenever an ignoramus challenges me with their hateful lies about the history of our families and the history of the United States.

So when a hateful ignoramus asked me if I was supporting Hitler I told him, “I have a relative who was wounded on the beaches of Normandy to stop Hitler, so, no, I do not support Hitler. Now take care and God bless.”

As I was recounting that story to my dad, a hero who fought in the jungles of Vietnam, he reassured me that there are just some people in the world who are that way. “People are people,” is one of our common family sayings when we witness acts of hatred that simply boggle our Christian minds.

On a bright note, since the assassination attempt of President Trump, I have expressed my prayer that the love and patriotism that we witnessed during the RNC event in Milwaukee would spread throughout the nation and drown out all the hatred. I am pleased to report that those prayers are being heard because I received a note from a very liberal Democrat who expressed her appreciation for my prayer. May our Heavenly Father touch our hearts with His love and exterminate the hatred that exists there. May He help us see that it is possible to disagree without being disagreeable. Amen.