Driving down Bothell’s Main Street last week after picking up my daughters from school, we were waved at by a political group standing in front of their signs. Normally I might nod back in acknowledgment — I’m all for free speech and participating in the democratic process. But this group had political signs on which they’d printed a picture of their opponent with a Hitler mustache. It is not appropriate to call your opponent “Hitler” if in visual form. If this was done in a student election, there would be repercussions — the signs taken down, apologies requested. But car after car drove by this group and no one, including myself, pointed out to them that disagreement is OK, but what they were doing was just rude. It puzzles me: How can we bring the political rhetoric up to an adult level?

Cynthia MacDuff