For a few hours, I was really mad at Tom Perkins. Next, I thought it was funny to watch a great man dive off into the deep end and drag his reputation down with him.

Today, I am sad and a little ashamed of myself for my glee in watching a great man self-destruct. I’d like to think I was raised better.

Who should we be upset with?

82-year-old Tom Perkins, for his rant comparing San Francisco’s anti-Google protestors to Nazis?

Or the Wall Street Journal for publishing it? And Bloomberg for giving him the opportunity to double-down and add the Occupy Movement to his octogenarian harangue.

Easy: We should blame the Journal for giving a great man, who is now an old man, a former director of the Journal‘s parent company, no less, a platform to embarrass himself. His letter should not have been printed.

It isn’t news. It’s not even opinion. It’s the sad twilight of a once-great man.

While I find Tom Perkins’ comments nonsensical and offensive in their comparison of upset San Franciscans to perpetrators of the holocaust, his evident love for ex-wife Danielle Steele was touching. And equally nonsensical in its expression.

The picture emerges of a once-great man who has gotten old and should be allowed to gracefully fade into the background. He’s the grandfather — I had one like this — who would say unfortunate, over-the-top things because he’d gotten old, not out of a lifelong pattern of evil.

I still cherish Buddy Garrett’s memory, even the ones where he launched into rants about communist/hippie anti-Vietnam war protestors and offered me serious money if I would just cut my hair — which he considered much too long.  I never took the money and never questioned his love for me. He is still a great man in my life.

It would be a shame if someday all people remember about Tom Perkins are the sad statements of an old man and not the companies and economy he helped build. Many of us owe a debt to Tom Perkins and others of his generation for creating the industry we work in. Is this how we show our appreciation?

Still, billionaire old men can afford to be as offensive, obnoxious and loud as they want. They get mad when criticized and can get even worse. Some do great damage.

Before that happens, I hope someone who loves Tom Perkins will convince him that his legacy is worth more than this. And the rest of us could show the man some respect by simply ignoring him.