Grandmama is making her daily rounds. I regret that the swamp hasn’t been drained yet. But there are projects lined up from an overflow of unfinished tasks. Swamp-draining is not a priority when my writing is dangerously close to past deadline.
Grandmama does understand my priority listing better than some of the people who come in contact with me infrequently.
Grandmama is concerned about the title of this particular column.

"Looks like you took the words right out of Shakespeare’s mind," she comments.
"Well, not exactly," I respond. "I changed a couple of words to suit the purpose here."
"Since when are you entering the political arena?" she wants to know.
"It’s not political," I tell her. "It’s historical."

She’s probing my mind for what I do not say. And I have difficulty saying it.

It all began with a book that my friend Yvonne Bussmann insisted I read. Yvonne and I share an admiration for Albert Einstein. I had read several biographies about Einstein. Yvonne tells me that this particular biography is the one to read. To make sure that I read it, she forwards the book to me via another acquaintance. I’m looking at about 600 pages. I don’t mind 600 pages if the writing is good and the subject matter warrants 600 pages.

The writing is good and the subject matter is interesting. There are things that I was unaware of about Albert Einstein. Four hundred pages into the book, history intertwines with personal experience and the painful fact that I grew up during Hitler’s Third Reich and survived the rise as well as the fall of that dictatorship.

The statement was on page 408, and I am certain that it is historically correct:

Planck (world renowned physicist) tried to temper the anti-Jewish policies even to the extent of appealing to Hitler personally. " Our national policies will not be revoked or modified, even for scientists," Hitler thundered back. " If the dismissal of Jewish scientists means the annihilation of contemporary German science, then we shall do without science for a few years!"

That little incident occurred in 1933. I was not yet seven years old. I suppose I was too young to be informed about matters political. I was ten when German troops entered the Rhineland via Mannheim, my hometown. The year was 1936. Hitler had risen from Reich Chancellor to "Fuehrer," the indisputable dictatorial leader of the nation.

Ten years later, it was all over. The nation lay in ruin. Fifty-six million people were killed in the process and by that time, I saw the posters of the dead and dying in concentration camps. To this day, many people fail to understand how it was possible that we did not know about those atrocities. I did not know about the twenty million people Stalin killed. Briefly speaking, I knew very little about that period in history. At the end, I was grateful that it was over and I knew that I was not going to live on that continent where the young of the nations were sacrificed every second decade.

And now I am debating all this history in my mind with Grandmama. I am debating it basically because this nation is once again electing a president. I am an American and as an American, I have the right, the duty and the privilege to vote.
"Did you ever vote?" I asked Grandmama. Her answer came slow and reluctant.

"I was a woman, female, and I was expected to keep the house, to birth children and to raise them to become honest, productive, hard-working adults. No one ever spoke of the right of the woman, at least not during my lifetime. Surely you remember the village and the law of the land. Why do you vote?" she wanted to know.

I had that discussion with Gerry Balzer. Gerry knew most definitely what he is not voting for. Gerry is not voting for the color of the skin, nor is he voting for male or female. Gerry is not voting for fame or fortune for any of the, shall we say, unique reasons some people have to vote for or against. My friend Dan is so upset with the present Republican government that he decided to vote against everybody who is in and for everybody who is out. One of the ladies I see now and then at the store thought of voting for the "cutest" contestant in that race.

Gerry is not a Republican or a Democrat. Gerry is a registered Independent. His vote will go the person who is most likely to shoulder the responsibility that goes with the office of President and to do what is best for the nation. I agree with him. But what I fear most is the possibility of choosing a leader who will keep truth and knowledge hidden from the common man, who may usurp the power granted into the power wanted, and in this way destroy all principles on which this nation was founded.

The year was 1933 and Hitler decided that Germany could do without science, and apparently no one disagreed. Eventually Germany as a nation was doing without science, without rights, without food, and without shelter. All that was left for those who survived was life, barely life. It is said that history repeats itself. I just want to make sure that it doesn’t repeat itself in this way on my watch and through my fault.