Keep US generous by electing Clinton

By Harry Kogan

Thursday, Oct. 27, 2016 | 2 a.m.

I turned 100 years old this year. My first vote for a president was cast in 1936, and I have voted in every election since. This year, I am going to cast what could be my last vote for Hillary Clinton.

My reasons for voting for Clinton are rooted in a century of experience watching human beings and seeing how they act. And I believe the mark of a life well-lived is to help other people succeed, not to have an obsessive concern about bottom lines and bank accounts.

I was born in 1916 in abject poverty to Russian immigrant parents who came to this country in the hull of a coal ship. They were fleeing the dictatorship of the czar who didn’t care a thing for ordinary people. We had no money for shoes, so I went to school barefoot after having only a cup of hot water for breakfast. The rabbi who taught me Bible lessons was so poor that he slept on a dirt basement floor. My mother had to beg soup bones from the butcher.

We pulled ourselves up through hard work and education. Through the generosity of the public school system, I got first-rate instruction at Central High School in Philadelphia. In addition to Greek, Latin and French, I learned lessons in accountability and honor — courtesy of the taxpayers of Pennsylvania. Then I went into the refrigeration business, Kogan Brothers, where we executed contracts with a handshake and a promise. Having been a painfully shy child, I always remembered the public speaking classes in my high school that taught me to stand tall and tell the truth.

I understand people might want to vote for Donald Trump because he is “a successful businessman.” But he conducts his affairs in a way that I consider dishonest and even fraudulent. I believe good ethics and making a living are not in contradiction.

Here is what the real purpose of business success means to me: After I made a successful investment in Florida Power and Light — 10,000 shares bought and sold at the right time — I bought a duplex for my parents so they would not have to live in a basement any longer. I also was able to dedicate my time in retirement to raising money for the Jewish Federation and for handicapped children through the Variety club.

This for me was the culmination of what people call the American dream, which should be about making us all stronger rather than just making me stronger.

The Republican nominee has very little understanding of what this important principle really means. In all his actions and deeds, he looks only out for himself and not for others. I also fear that his personal insecurities will put us on the path to a dictatorship that might succeed because of the human tendency to “look the other way.” We already have seen too many Republicans look the other way on the obnoxiousness of Trump this last year.

I see a different impulse in Clinton. When you get past the distorted media stories about it, the foundation she built with her husband has helped millions of people in the developing world make a better life for themselves. She is no radical, but a consummate moderate. She will not make America into a paradise, but she will certainly work toward helping the least fortunate create a decent, safe and healthy existence. She also will pay attention to the excesses of the capital markets that created the avoidable crashes of 1929 and 2008. I was once numbered among the “poorest of the poor” of this nation, and I understand how important this is.

You probably will not be surprised to learn that the first presidential vote I mentioned in 1936 was for Franklin D. Roosevelt. His great genius was to understand that all people — no matter how lowly they may be — have a basic desire to work and provide for their families. Without this, they rot inside. FDR used the beneficent power of government to give them basic guarantees and lift them out of their helplessness.

If Trump is elected, I see a future of meanness, selfishness and no credible plan for the good citizens among us who are trapped in the kind of poverty that once choked my family.

I have been coming to Las Vegas since the days when the Strip was a dirt road and there were still hitching posts for horses outside the saloons. Ten years ago, I made it my permanent home. I love this city and its people, and we are now close to this gigantic national choice we are about to make.

In 100 years, I have learned that helping people is at the center of a good life and the real reason we are here on this planet. I do not see this impulse in the current GOP nominee. I will vote for Clinton and feel terrific about it, and I hope — even if you are a die-hard Republican — that you might consider doing this, as well, because I truly believe the future of our country as a good and generous place depends upon your choice.

Harry Kogan, a retired air conditioning executive, is a resident of Las Vegas.