OT: Granny Power

[Guest guest]

This appeared in an OpEd page of the San Francisco Chronicle.

 

Granny Power

 

By Jeffrey Earl Warren

 

The 64,000-dinar question is why did the Iraqis vote in such large

numbers? Who among us in America would have left the safety of our

homes to go out and dip our fingers in purple dye under the threat of

amputation, beheadings and beatings? Where did the Iraqi people find

such courage?

 

The talking heads have it all wrong. Their talk is riddled with Shiites

and Sunnis — and the three " Big Als " — al-Qaeda, al-Sistani and

al-Zarqawi. Surprise. They missed the story.

 

On my way out of the house to cut wood Sunday, I flipped on the TV to

see if there was any news about the elections in Iraq. My mouth dropped

open. My boots came off and I hit the couch, riveted to the TV screen.

 

No writer could have captured what the lens was bringing us. There,

live, were men and women waiting in line, or marching down the street,

with one goal: To vote. What we were watching was nothing less than the

birth of freedom — and an amazing testimony to the dignity of man — led

by women.

 

The situation in Iraq is a toughie. I have many friends whom I deeply

respect who disagree with me on our involvement in Iraq. Their counsel

always gives me pause. The basis of our argument has these roots: To

those who revile the president, I concede. If the war is about oil. If

he lied about WMDs. If it's about Halliburton or just good old Admiral

Perry American Expansionism, Sen. John Kerry is right.

 

But call me crazy, I just don't believe those things are true. I

confess, I have had my doubts. Every story about corruption and

inefficiency chips away at my confidence. But I cling to another belief.

And this is where we part company.

 

I maintain that all people are the same. That farmers just want to grow

their crops; worship their God; send their kids to college; and be safe

in their homes from late night knocks on the door.

 

My friends maintain that I don't understand other cultures. It is their

belief that theocracies are incapable of handling freedom. Tribal

societies are just not ready for American style democracy. Their culture

is different, and we are the embodiment of the Ugly American to believe

otherwise.

 

I see it differently. The Ugly American, to me, is the one who believes

that just because one has a different color skin, speaks a different

language, worships in a different way, comes from an agrarian

background, or has thousands of years of nomadic or tribal rule behind

him, that he is incapable of embracing the ideals of Jefferson: life,

liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

 

I confess that there is no way to empirically know who is right. But no

one can deny those pictures we saw on TV.

 

It was the old folk who got me the most. The old women. How they

reminded me of my two grandmothers. They looked just like them — wise,

tough, defiant, independent, strong. No punk 20 something terrorist was

about to tell them what to do. They were the heroines of the day.

 

I imagined the actual conversations going on in each house. Clearly,

husbands were begging wives not to go out — and vice versa. No doubt

college age kids were defying their parents by voting — or telling their

parents not to vote. Can't you just hear the arguments? All through

Iraq, families must have been screaming at one another — each side

threatening the ones who endangered the family by voting. I'll bet the

arguments were fierce.

 

Clearly, many homes house three generations. So how did they decide what

to do? My guess is, the decision was made just the way controversial

decisions were made in our house — and the houses of all my friends.

 

The grandmothers decided. You could see it on film. Old ladies

everywhere. I can hear them now: " That Yusuf. He's not going to

terrorize me. I knew him when he was a bed-wetter. I'm voting. "

 

" But Grandma, Massoud has threatened to slit our throats. "

 

" I taught Massoud to read. He pulls anything, he'll have to answer to me. "

 

What neighborhood terrorist was going to take them on? You can bet the

thugs are more afraid of the local grandmothers than any al-Zarqawis.

Like neighborhood thugs worldwide, no one was gonna diss the grannies.

And when granny decides to vote, who isn't going to follow her?

 

Age has its prerogatives. Grannies have more power than people give them

credit for.

 

Tears ran unashamedly down my cheeks all day Sunday. It was a great day

for man. Made possible by women. It was the American soldier who gave

Saddam the boot. But it was the Iraqi grandma who gave Osama bin Laden —

and terrorists everywhere — the finger.

 

Jeffrey Earl Warren is a lawyer in Napa County. His grandmother was Nina

Palmquist Warren, wife of former three-time California governor and U.S.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren.