Peter Straus, veteran for peace
Election night thoughts and feelings
(Donald Trump was just elected president)
a letter from
Peter Straus, a U.S. Army veteran
It's Wednesday morning, November 9, and I haven't slept yet. I'm very upset about the election results, and feel the need to write about it.
My father was a German Jew, born in 1911. He grew up in Germany. He spent what seems like a zillion hours over some years with me at night, at the kitchen table, talking about things. Including his memories and thoughts about growing up Jewish in Germany after WW I, with the rise of the Nazi thing, Hitler coming to power, and how the culture there changed. He and his family were heavily persecuted. He never got over that for many reasons (including his relationship with his parents. who were murdered at Auschwitz), etc. etc.
It made a very big impression on me. As did the time when I was in preschool that he came into the living room when I was watching a US Cavalry vs. the Native people in a big battle scene. He turned off the sound and told me that the Natives were actually the good guys etc., etc., etc. He used to talk with me about that too as I grew up.
One result of both those themes and others, is that I didn't grow up feeling like a normal American. I always had this lurking feeling that at some point in the future, the government, culture, and most people would turn against people like me in much the same way it happened to my dad and other Jews there. I didn't have an idea about what "people like me" would be, because we weren't brought up Jewish. But I'm actually grateful for that; I feel like it's helped me.
Anyway, tonight a lot of intense feelings for me from all that, and related things, have been hitting me pretty hard. Partly because I absolutely thought Trump would lose; it's a shocking nightmare, not that I like Clinton.
WHO WERE THOSE GERMANS WHO SUPPORTED HITLER, AND WHO ARE THOSE PEOPLE WHO VOTED FOR TRUMP? I don't get it.
One love,
Peter
November 9, 2016
PETER STRAUS
Veterans for Peace, East Bay Chapter # 162
U.S. Army veteran
pstraus(at)igc.org
