Political Beliefs Forged in War: A Primary Place Report

One of Exeter’s faithful Democrats has opened his house on a warm Saturday afternoon to host the party’s annual chili fest and 50/50 raffle.

CUT (sneak in) 7 tickets for 5 dollars/ I’ll get you 5 dollars/

Beyond the chili and cornbread, the main attraction is a Democratic senator from Delaware standing in the middle of the kitchen.

CUT: I’m Joe Biden and I’m one of the 800 candidates for president. Thanks for letting me crash your chili party ….

One of the people packed into this small space to hear Biden is a short woman with straight white hair. If there actually were 800 candidates and they came anywhere near Exeter, you could expect to see her in the crowd. She seems to be at every candidate event and political lecture. Her name is Ilse Andrews.

CUT: I certainly always knew from early childhood on the difference between dictatorship and a free country. And perhaps that’s why I’m now so fiercely interested in taking part in the democratic process because I don’t want it to get lost.

Ilse had a good education in dictatorship. She grew up in Nazi Germany. She lived in Munich when the war began.

CUT: “ 1939 I was ten years old. And I remember quite a bit from before but my memory is very clear from that year onward”

She remembers Hitler walking with his dogs in a quiet neighborhood and the expensive boots his men wore. She remembers her step-father, a political prisoner who died in a Nazi camp. And she remembers the bombing.

CUT: If the bombs fell nearby which they sometimes did, you could feel this terrifying gust of air pressure. And sometimes people died because their lungs burst when they were hit by this air pressure.

Life under the Nazis left Ilse with a passion for political freedom. Life under bombardment left her with a powerful aversion to war. She emigrated to America in the early 50’s and gradually became more politically active. Today, there is only one candidate who she fully trusts.

CUT: SFX drumming/applause .. crowd SFX held under

At a conference in Durham called Teaching Peace, a couple of hundred people mill around displays on Afghanistan and Darfur and preventing violence in schools. Ilse’s candidate, Ohio congressman Dennis Kucinich is there, talking to students. To cheer them on and to get their help.

CUT The young people of NH will have the chance to impact this election by supporting someone who is not just rejecting this war but war as an instrument of policy. To me it is inconsistent for anyone to come to you and say “I’m for peace” and then vote to keep the war going.

Kucinich wants a complete and immediate withdrawal of American forces from Iraq and the creation of an United Nations security force there. More broadly, he wants to take money away from military contractors and spend it on development in third world countries.

In Ilse’s mind , this is exactly what America needs.

CUT: As a naturalized citizen, I feel very strongly that this was meant to be a good country. And Americans in general are such good natured people. Such kind and generous people. Let them prevail instead of the military minded people.

Despite this quality of Americans, Ilse say most people generally accept the use of American force overseas. She refuses to criticize them. She says, it’s simply hard to know what war is if you haven’t sat in an air raid shelter.

For NHPR News, I’m Jon Greenberg.