I was born (1950) and raised as a Republican. My father always said his family had been Republican since the Civil War even when being a Republican in Sequoyah County (Oklahoma) was dangerous. I wasn’t involved that much in politics when I was younger, though in retrospect, I wish I had been.
We didn’t talk about politics much in my home. My father was born (1916) into an extremely poor single parent family, always saying that they were so “poor” that they pronounced it PORE. He dropped out of school before graduating from high school. He’d partially been raised by his uncle who had a farm and five daughters before having two sons. Daddy worked for him from the age of seven, several years before the sons were born.
After Daddy dropped out of high school, his uncle wanted him to learn a skill and gave him $100 (which, as Daddy always said, was like $1,000 now—no matter when he said it) to enter into an Aircraft Mechanic program in Wichita, KS. He loved the work and learned well. At some point, he entered the NYA (National Youth Association) program developed by Franklin Roosevelt that focused on providing work and education for Americans between the ages of 16 and 25.
He was president of his NYA “class” for two years. After completing the Aircraft Mechanic program, he was hired by Beechcraft. He was drafted for WWII, but Beechcraft requested a deferrment because they needed him. It happened again & he was again given a deferrment. The third time, he told Beechcraft that he wanted to enlist and he did, joining the Army.
Once he’d joined, they evidently gave enlistees tests. Once they found out he’d been an Aircraft Mechanic, he was transferred to the Army Air Corps (now the U.S. Air Force). He traveled through the U.S. obtaining additional training before ending up in England at Lavenham Air Force Base as an Aircraft Mechanic Supervisor.
At the end of WWII, he came home to Oklahoma and applied for the Aircraft School at Oklahoma State University (then Oklahoma A & M). He was able to enroll due to the G.I. bill, but the Aircraft School planned during the war, was discontinued. While talking to an advisor, he was encouraged to look at other option, including Architecture. Daddy didn’t even know what that meant, but his advisor told him and he enrolled in the College of Architecture.
He was older than many of the other Architecture students due to his military service, so he decided to work twice as hard. He graduated with two five year degrees (Architecture & Architectural Engineering) in four years total.
During his time at college, he met my Mother who had worked as a secretary in the college’s Military Dept., then in the Registrar’s office after the war ended. Mother’s dad died when she was 12 and her mother had died when she was 21. She’d graduated from high school at 15, having started early and skipped a grade and graduated from college at the young age of 18 with a lifelong teaching degree. They married in 1946, had a son in 1948 who was stillborn, then I was born and had one sister.
Growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, I had little interest in politics. I was, and am, a “Baby Boomer”—one of those families who were first able to buy instead of rent a home. I remember getting a television, then a color one. I vividly recall getting our first dishwasher and washing machine and dryer. My parents were both college graduates and taught us that we (my sister & me) that we needed to do the same.
Mother died, though, of cancer when she was barely 49 years old. I was 18 and in my first year of college. My sister was 17, in her junior year of high school. Daddy was devastated and never remarried.
Around 2005, there were four things that made me re-evaluate my political beliefs I’d been raised with.
(1) I was not happy with G. Bush first. I was Executive Director of my own private 501(c)(3) non-profit company by then, having written and received a grant from the U.S. Dept. of Labor for directing Workforce programs dealing with low-income youth who had barriers to completing their education or obtaining and retaining employment, displaced homemakers, dislocated workers, those who lost jobs due to company closures or re-locations to foreign countries, or having lost jobs from natural disasters. My company helped those who qualified for “Welfare to Work,” a program that helped a large number of people gain the skills they needed to get off welfare and take care of their families. Then, Elaine Chao (wife of Mitch McConnell and, at that time, Secretary of Labor) said the Welfare to Work program wasn’t working and offered money from the DOL to the military to fight more wars. I believe to this day that she was wrong.
(2) Hurricane Katrina was the second “red flag” for me. I was mesmerized by the coverage and my heart turned me to want to help. I was ready to quit my job and help any way I could. Then, I found out that some of the evacuees were being placed at a military training facility within 20 miles of where I lived.
I was there the first day they arrived and on the day the last refugee left, and every day in between. I met those refugees and I loved them. My heart broke when they told me that police wouldn’t even investigate murders where they lived. I often took those who had found jobs, even hours away, to & from work. I was well-acquainted with all the guards who I had coffee with in the middle of the night while waiting to awake those who had to be at work at 2:00 am in a small town about 35 miles away. I’d take one group in my van to that facility, wait for the ones who got off work at 3:00 am and return them to the military facility before going to my “real job” at 8:00 am and getting off at 5:00 pm. After 5:00, I’d often travel to a community about 20 miles away to take another Katrina evacuee who’d gotten an apartment about 20 miles south, to work at midnight, pick her up at 8:00 am, go to my real job, and start all over the next day.
(3) A bumper sticker, which merely said “If you’re not appalled, You’re not paying attention.”
When I saw that bumper sticker while sitting at a red light, I realized that I needed to start paying more attention and I did! I had been working on researching my dad’s geneology for several years and started finding out that my ancestors in England had been heavily involved in the Protestant Reformation, which intrigued me even more. I followed them from being Lords, owning Castles and lands, to being beheaded by Queen Mary. They immigrated in the early 1600s, fleeing oppression.
In 2008, Daddy (aged 92 then) had lived with my husband and me for a couple of years. During the 2008 debates, we both listened to each & every one of them and discussed them later. Surprisingly (to me), Daddy liked Barack Obama. I had become a fan of Obama back in 2005 while meeting and working with the Katrina refugees.
One of my best friends since junior high school was living in Germany at the time and was an official Democrats Abroad delegate in 2008. I jokingly begged her for months to stuff me in a suitcase & let me join her at the convention in Denver. At the very last minute, she called & said her roommate had to drop out due to an illness in her family and she invited me to join her.
My husband is from Colorado Springs, so I told him I was taking off work and that I would drop him off in Colorado Springs to visit with his dad and that I was going on to Denver to the convention & I’d pick him up when I was through.
(4) ENDING
While in Denver, I was blessed to meet every morning for breakfast with Democrats Abroad from all over the world and hear fabulous speakers at each. My friend and I found great seats at a session with Michele Obama. We also met high school friends who lived in Wisconsin and had a great visit with them. He had a press pass and my friend living in Germany was a delegate so they both were able to sit on the floor. His wife & I joined the Democrats Abroad group and watched from afar.
One day, while my friend was in a meeting I couldn’t attend, I walked outside the Denver Convention Center to shop the booths set up there. I bought several buttons with pictures & sayings which I attached to the shoulder strap to my purse. I found a booth where a young black gentleman was selling baseball type caps. Since my Daddy loved ball caps, I stopped & found one I wanted to take him. The vendor who wasn’t very busy came up and started talking to me. He pointed to a button on my purse strap that had a picture of the Obama family and said, “I’m scared for them.” I, sadly, told him I was, too. He then told me that Barack Obama had been a huge influence to him. He said, “He makes me want to become a better husband and father.” He said that was why he was there. I told him that I understood that. He then paused and said, “Will you pray with me?” We stood there, an older white woman and a young black gentleman, hugging and praying in the middle of the area outside the Denver Convention Center. We didn’t exchange names and I still have no idea who he was, how well he did with his booth, or what his life is like now.
I still pray for him and his family. That hug & prayer changed me forever.