I'm going to side with you idealogically, but not semantically.
Jewish people do not "own" the word holocaust. This is the same argument in principle that was raised when black leaders started bitching about "master" drives and "slave" cylinders. It would be the same as me claiming that nothing else could be referred to using the word "reconstruction".
There was THE holocaust, which was without question the most unthinkable, evil, tragic event in memory. There was the institution of slavery, a terrible and unthinkably ugly chapter. There was Reconstruction, which was little more than rubbing salt in open wounds and a campaign of indoctrination and punishment and looting. But the words themselves carry meanings beyond specific events attached to them.
I understand the hurt attached to the word. It ain't all that smart to talk about "reconstructing" anything in these parts...far better to choose "rebuilding". And in no way am I implying that anyone should just "get over it", "move forward", any of that self-coddifying bullshit that some of us hear all the time from certain parties. Just pointing out that a word can have a meaning beyond an event, and that part of the mental warfare employed by opposing factions know this and use it as a weapon every bit as effective as a machine gun.
