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11/02/04

My Grandmother is Wise. Listen to Her.

My grandmother will be 90 next month. She has lived most of her life in the small town of Pekin, Illinois and I am proud to say that she has always been ahead of her time. In the early 30's at a local movie theater, a newsreel of Hitler came on well before Americans could conceive of a war with him. She was the only one to stand up and boo him. She was a Republican for most of her life, even serving as a Republican elections judge in charge of counting the paper ballots. She is a very thoughtful and very wise woman.

In 1992, my grandmother had grown frustrated with the direction that the Republican party was going, "They used to be the party that was about education. We didn't mind paying taxes then because we understood that is what paid for education and all the other important 'extras'." By 1992, she noticed that the Democrats had become who the Republicans used to be, and the Republicans had become something she didn't even recognize, "They got a selfish streak." She voted the Democratic ticket--Clinton/Gore--for the first time that year.

She believes with conviction that George W. Bush is the worst president she has seen in her lifetime, saying "He doesn't think further than the tip of his nose or the boundary of Texas." When I asked her what issues bothered her the most, she didn't even touch on the more expected issues of medicare or social security. No, she's angry about the environment, she is angry about the tax cuts and his economic policy, the war and our status in the world and most of all about how Bush reacted to September 11th. "When Pearl Harbor happened, the whole nation came together,food and gas was rationed and the military leaders were strong enough to know what they were doing. It isn't like that this time, now we just borrow money instead of asking citizens to help out."

Tonight she is making herself a chart of the entire US, putting in each states electoral votes so she can track them herself when they call the states. She is positive Kerry will win. "I can't believe the American people would be dumb enough to put him back in . . . I have more faith in them than that."