My Dad, George Gussman, grew up in Boston. He was the fourth of six sons of a Russian Jewish couple who fled to America in 1900 to escape murder and oppression. My grandparents quickly assimilated in their new country. They named the first two boys Abraham and Immanuel. The next four were Ralph, George, Lewis and Harold.
Dad enlisted just before World War II, almost too old to enlist at age 34. When the war broke out, he was sent to Officer Candidate School and commissioned. His fist command was a Black company in the then-segregated Army. He later commanded a Prisoner of War Camp for German Afrika Korps prisoners.
Whether running a warehouse, or an Army unit, Dad said the best way to motivate Americans was to tell them they could not do something. "Tell 'em they can't and they will show you they can," Dad would say. "Tell a driver there's too much snow to get to a load New Hampshire and he'll be there ten minutes early and calling to bitch they haven't plowed the unloading dock."
If Dad were alive today he would be 114 years old. But he is still right about Americans. Tell us we can't and we will.
America kept the world from falling into tyranny by defeating Naziism and then defending the world against Soviet Communism. I have been terribly worried about tomorrow's election, but right now I am thinking about the poll workers in 3,000 counties who are being told by Trump forces that they can't do a fair vote count and they can't protect their polls.
They've been told they can't.
They will.
They are Americans.
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