Being able to participate in community theater has been one of the great treasures of my life. It helps my creative, artistic side express itself, and provides a wonderful complement to my professional side - the important but rather stiff work of accounting.
This last weekend, I got to perform a role very close to my heart, Otto Frank, Anne Frank's father in The Dairy of Anne Frank. I did the play when I was a sophomore in high school (playing the part of the elderly dentist, Dussell), and even though I have done some sixty plays since then, it was one that has always stood out in my mind as a favorite. It was an extraordinarily meaningful play, and the cast was perfect, taking me to the world of the attic, as those special Jewish families tried to hide from the evil of the Nazis.
And the cast I have been privileged to work with this time have been just as extraordinary. Pierce County resident, Emily Beck, played Anne Frank, with exceptional talent, bringing her to life as a real girl whom you can't help but love and feel for. I have seen hundreds of actors in my day, and trust me when I say - this is one you need to watch out for. You will hear of her again.
We often look back at the horrors of that time and ask ourselves, "How did we allow that to happen? How did they not know to leave? Why could they not see what was coming?"
I think of Anne's most famous line, "In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart." A true and uplifting sentiment.
Mr. Frank, early in the play, tells Anne that their Dutch friends that are helping them hide, are at risk, too. That if they are discovered, as he tells Anne, "they could be deported too."
Deported. That is what Mr. Frank was concerned with when they first went into hiding. The uglier consequences that lay ahead seemed impossible to conceive at first. He was German himself, having fought as a soldier in World War One. He had roots in Amsterdam, as a successful businessman. Why pull up roots if you could wait it out? It was only over time that the uglier consequences became apparent.
I do believe in the basic goodness of people. Sometimes it is hard, but then I see something like the Pope's visit to America, and I am filled with hope and love that we will be to handle our growing crises in a compassionate and humane way.
But we also should use the story of The Diary of Anne Frank as a cautionary tale as well. We must never forget. We must be ever vigilant that these horrors do not get repeated.
When Hitler and his ilk emerged from the cesspools of German politics, they did so by talking about deporting millions, and about restoring the greatness of Germany. The starkness of The Final Solution came later.
So when we hear politicians whose only major articulated position is to "deport millions", our ears should perk up. When they vaguely say they plan on "making America great again", it should give us pause as to what they mean. And when they are asked their plans for getting rid of some group, like being asked "We need to get rid of the Muslims. How are you going to do it?" - and they answer back, "We're looking into it" the warning bells should be exploding in your head.
Politics and culture are interesting games of give and take. Not everything leads to the ugly extremism expressed and then brought to brutal reality by groups like the Nazis.
But sometimes they do. And we need to be aware of that.
Let us never forget. Both the innate goodness of mankind, and the cold hearted bigotry that can contaminate it.
May the light of Anne Frank's life never go out. May her spirit, her dreams and hopes, both her optimism and the warnings that emanate from her story, live on forever.
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