Carl, Nate, Paul, and Hyman, the young, funny, handsome brothers of my mother and her three sisters were stationed overseas during World War II.
I remember my Bubbie and Zadie's joy and relief as their naturalized daughters read to them the crisp blue folded sheer letters. The boys were still alive.
I remember air raid drills in grammar school. The sirens interrupted our classes and sent us hiding. I can see the wooden desks where we cowered, and feel the black curlicue parts that we grasped. I spot us, children, rickety, as we climbed the fire escape stairs that hung outside our building.
These memories, and the fear that my family, our neighbors, and classmates felt during that time have generated this theory: The Republicans who admire Putin are too young to absorb the possibility of a World War.
In those long gone years, we took shelter to save us from bombing. But if Putin pushes further in his megalomania ambitions, how will we protect ourselves from a nuclear attack? The times and weaponry have changed. But the delusions of those who flatter despots are tragically familiar.
If they were my age, 83, they would certainly not be fawning over a dictator, who as I type this, cares not for the Ukrainians, or his fellow Russians who will be killed in his brutal undertaking. Neighboring people, who are leaving homes behind to keep their families safe, do not trouble him. Neighbors. Relatives of his own citizens.
My mother's brother-in-law, Maurice, had relatives who weren't able to immigrate to the States, or to any other place that would accept fleeing Jews. They died in the Holocaust.
Hitler was in power at that time. Putin likely admires this monster. He is mimicing the fuhrur's expansionist foreign policy. This is whom some Republicans, and their heinous leader, Donald Trump, stand behind. How shameful.
Dear deluded fellow Americans -- I will honor you with that description for the time being -- have you seen or read anything about the Holocaust? Or is this just another part of our history you are trying to erase? Back to the old days for you.
Perhaps we should ask our movie theatres to replay the black-and-white films of my youth. First, lolled into stupor by the latest Tarzan movie, cartoons, and candy bought in the lobby, we startled awake as we watched news of the world thunder on the screen.
No cheers or wild clapping from us kids accompanied those reels. Every single child stuck to the worn and littered seats had a relative overseas. We were too young to understand all we saw flickering before us. But we somehow realized it was related to the tension in our homes when our parents heard the same news.
My father, a diabetic who required daily stabs of insulin, was declared 4F. He remained behind the counter of our mom 'n pop corner grocery store. But rationing books, food shortages, and the worried faces of our customers brought the war to his post.
I remember roller-skating along our Division Street sidewalk and eyeing windows with rolled up shades. The display, a mixture of sorrow and sacrifice, allowed passerby's to see the blue stars. The young man who lived there did not come home. Maybe more than one.
Try this Putin fans: come with me under the wooden desk of Lafayette School in Chicago's northwest side. Some of my classmates were survivors. My best friend Ruth and her mother escaped Poland during the War by posing as Gentiles. Her father was killed there. Ruth thought the Americans would hoist them, and others who made it out, on our shoulders. It didn't happen. Americans forget.
To this motley crew of Putin/Trump/Republicans, I wonder: if you are old enough to have been drafted, perhaps you never saw war. Maybe prestigious parents, faked illnesses, and other get-out-of-combat-free cards, enabled you to stay home. Safe.
Did any of the Putin/Trump/Republicans serve in World War II? If so, I can't fathom how they would follow that ghastly trio.
I think this herd is too far-gone now for reason, for a history lesson. But I pray there are other Republicans, perhaps with relatives who mirror my memories, will stand up to them. Certainly there are sensible members of that party who wish Putin and Trump were not best pals.
Both my parents and their families are long gone now. Natural causes. I pray that's how we all leave this earth. Don't Republicans wish the same?