And that's so important because these are the people who helped mold us and who provided support and camaraderie during the most critical years of our lives. Inasmuch as our past helps to determine our future, their role in our lives endures no matter what.
Merle Winepol Lundy and I went through grammar school, junior high and high school together. Merle was always bright, savvy and independent-minded -- even as a kid growing up in Camden, New Jersey. And of course she had the good sense to marry one of the smartest and most-accomplished students from our high school class (Ed Lundy) and they've gone on to to build a successful life for themselves in Florida, with children, grandchildren and a bevy of friends.
Merle, Ed and I grew up in a solidly Democrat city. For the most part, our parents were Democrats, our relatives were Democrats and pretty much everyone else that we knew was a Democrat. In fact the only Republican that I knew was Miss Ryan, our junior high school librarian and even she was most respectful of the Democrat Party and then-President John F. Kennedy.
It was that kind of town and that kind of neighborhood.
But times change and with knowledge and experience we learn to probe, question, think for ourselves and make up our own minds about matters such as these.
Anyway, here's an e-mail that Merle just sent out to all of her friends and family members. She's given me permission to reprint it here in full:
Ed and I just returned from seeing 2016 Obama's America. Please see this movie and draw your own conclusions. Many things disturbed....no....terrified me, as I watch my country being brought to its knees, our cities crumbling; our friends paying their children's mortgages, knowing that their children many never achieve the financial success of their parents; China--a brutal regime which places no value whatsoever on integrity or the value of human life--is our creditor; and so much more. Closer to home, my son-in-law, a brilliant Dartmouth and Georgetown Law School graduate, was unemployed for two years. TWO YEARS spent pushing himself to mental, physical and emotional exhaustion, part of the time with a baby on the way. As I watched this movie and thought about the effects of nuclear disarmament and the intention to equalize the number of weapons with nations composed of nothing more than brutal animals, and so many other issues, one thing that clearly hit home was the issues for Jews. You all know that I am a strong Jewish woman. I tell it like it is and I have been a Democrat my entire life because my father was proud to be the first at the polls for every election and he, like every other Jew, was a Democrat. We tend to be socially liberal and I am socially liberal, and I tolerate bigotry in front of me from no one My Christian friends continue to ask me why Jews voted for Obama and I answered them, but this film is far more eloquent than I. Jews, and others as well, think that if they don't vote for the black person, they will be perceived as bigots. Am I a bigot? Most of you lean the way I do politically. Those of you that support Obama are getting this because I have endured your e-mails and, in some cases, rants in support of him.
I ask you to see this movie and then go home and think about it. I don't think a single one of you is a bigot, so please use your head, not your heart, when you vote.
xo--
Merle
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