Why would a group (like the Nazi's) choose to use a symbol that represented health as their representation for national purity?

I can't write that well, but here's my personal answer.

Groups that seek national purity, such as the Nazis, want to maintain the purity of their population based on race, ethnicity, gender, etc.

For example, the Nazis sought racial purity- they wanted to keep the German people as pure "Germans," they did not want to have the Jews contaminating their pure German population.

In a sense, the Nazis saw the Jews as a disease that needed to be eliminated. The Jewish genes would mix with the German genes and pollute the entire population. It was for the sake of "health" to kill the Jews.

To achieve "national purity," a group similar to the Nazis would likely eliminate other groups to remove their genes from the overall human gene pool. In a way, such actions are for the sake of health.

I mean, if we killed all the elderly, disabled, and genetically defective people in the world, wouldn't the world be a better place? Their genes will not be able to affect other people, right? Theoretically, yes...

...but on so many moral, ethical, and physical levels, so much no.

Why would they use a health symbol for their representation of national purity? These groups try to use the premise of "health" as an excuse for their horrible ideals of national purity. They believe that national purity is what determines the "health" of the individual and of human society. It's the idea that the purer you are, the more healthy you are. I can't stress this enough: wrong on so many levels.

Groups like the Nazis use health symbols to show that national purity is, in some demented form, a measurement of someone's health. They kill other people because these individuals are a disease that needs to be eradicated. Their impurity contaminates the purity of the whole.

Got a bit off track, but I think you get the idea. Hope this helps!

1. read the following excerpt from franklin d. roosevelt's "fireside chat 19":

on the other side of the picture, we must learn also to know that guerilla warfare against the germans in, let us say serbia or norway, us; that a successful russian offensive against the germans us; and that british successes on land or sea in any part of the world strengthen our hands.

remember always that germany and italy, regardless of any formal declaration of war, consider themselves at war with the united states at this moment just as much as they consider themselves at war with britain or russia. and germany puts all the other republics of the americas into the same category of enemies. the people of our sister republics of this hemisphere can be honored by that fact.  

the true goal we seek is far above and beyond the ugly field of battle. when we resort to force, as now we must, we are determined that this force shall be directed toward ultimate good as well as against immediate evil. we americans are not destroyers — we are builders.

analyze the effectiveness of this excerpt. how does it function within the speech as a whole? how does the structure of the excerpt to convey the speech's purpose and key points? support your argument with evidence from the speech. (10 points)