Happy Father’s Day to all you fathers and/or children of fathers.
Let me tell you a little about my dad, Joe Franken. Joe spoke German until he was 5 years old because his parents came to America from Germany. (That’s why I’m not freaked out about immigration.)
My Dad’s dad, Otto, died of tuberculosis when Joe was 16. So, Dad dropped out of high school in 10th grade and never graduated.
He tried to be an entrepreneur, moving us from New Jersey to Minnesota in the middle of winter when I was 4. My first memory was being blown off a second floor balcony, terrified for an instant until I was saved by a soft snowbank that was just inches below.
Growing up in New York, Joe Franken became a Republican, because the corrupt Democratic machine, Tammany Hall, ran the city.
But Dad became a Democrat in 1964 when Barry Goldwater became the presidential nominee. Goldwater had voted against the Civil Rights Act. One of my most vivid memories from childhood was when my Dad pointed to a TV newscast of a southern sheriff ordering his deputies to beat Black demonstrators with batons and siccing dogs on them, and saying, “No Jew can be for that!”
Later Dad became a Wellstone Democrat, campaigning for him in nursing homes with a theater troupe. That’s grassroots politics!
So, now you have a bit of an idea of how I became me. Now I’m a dad and a Democrat, and I try to give my children and grandchildren the same values that I got from my Dad and my Mom.
That’s what Midwest Values PAC is all about. The kind of values I got from Wellstone and Humphrey.
I grew up a middle-class kid in suburban Minneapolis and believed I could become whatever I wanted to be and contribute to my country and the world. I’ve tried my best and will continue to do so.
I hope you can contribute to MVP and help us help Democrats win throughout the country, deliver another term for Joe Biden, and give him a Democratic House and Senate.
Thanks, and happy Father’s Day!
Al
P.S. If your dad is a Republican, he may not be proud that you donated to MVP. My advice — don’t tell him. At least not on Father’s Day.
