From great generations come great questions

It's been almost ten months since my grandfather passed away and I am reading the 100 American Milestone Documents for my American Heritage class. Right now I am on President Franklin Roosevelt's Radio Address unveiling the second half of the New Deal (1936). This affected my grandfather's life! He voted; he was concerned. It makes me want to cry. I wish I could talk to him again about what it was like. How he made decisions.

I chuckle to myself when I think about my grandfather's political affiliations. He would never talk politics with anyone. He said the three things you never talk about with a man so as to avoid confrontation are Politics, Religion, and How to Raise a Family. Because everyone thinks they're right and no one wants to change. But, my grandfather broke his rule. One day as I was folding laundry he came up to me and just spilled out all of his feelings about the current political news. I think Clinton's scandal had just erupted. And, even though my grandfather had some of the highest morals I have ever known I was surprised about what he had to say. He told me about Kennedy. He talked to me about the New Deal. He wanted me to not evaluate a person based on one area of their life, but to look at the entire picture. He wasn't saying what Clinton did was right. He wasn't saying that Clinton was the perfect president. He was giving me a lesson in how to judge a man (or rather a lesson in how I should never make face judgements on a man). He was teaching me about life by swirling me among the images of his world. For a time I was enshrouded with images of the CCC, World War II, Vietnam, and the Great Depression.

I don't think he ever talked politics with anyone but me from then on. At least in the immediate family. Another day when he found out what I had registered as he came up and said "We're a lot alike you and me." I was thinking "How much of me is him? How much of me wants desperately to be the kind of man he is? Concerned about everyone's needs around him." And, as I silently wish my own political beliefs upon others I can't help but think about why they are what they are. How much of who they are is composed of their role models? Are they thinking "how much of me is him?"

I've been realizing more and more that I need to become more socially active in my community. I don't mean in an annoying "I'm going to force my opinion on you whether you like it or not" kind of way. I mean that I need to stake a claim to my beliefs, reevaluate them all the time, and look for opportunities to serve others. I don't want people to look at what I represent and see me as just a result of my desired profession or a desire to be an odd-ball in a very dominant culture. I want people to see who I am and what I stand for and say "Hey... that's Emily." I want to live my life and when I die my grandchildren say. "How much of me is her?" "How much of me is her?"