Andy and Jack. Older brother and younger brother. My dad and my uncle. You couldn’t keep them apart for long, and you should have seen them when they were together. They bickered. They squabbled. They debated. Jack extolled the unmatched virtues of Lincolnton. Dad replied with the unparalleled qualities of Asheboro. Jack contended no athletic program could match UNC’s. Dad was just as devoted to and vocal about the unequalled quality of athletics at Duke. They were a sight (and a sound) to behold.
For all their ongoing debates, Dad and Jack could not be parted for long stretches. They were very much like two sides of the same coin. Each grew up as Baptists. Each lived their adult lives as Methodists. Each chose broadcast journalism as a career (Uncle Jack at WLON and Dad at WGWR, two small town radio stations that were to a great extent the primary information sources and the heartbeats of their communities). Each was the parent of an only child. Jack had an irrepressible sense of humor, and Dad was philosophical and a lover of the poets. When they were together, you could hear those worldviews merge into something rich and whole. Two sides – one coin.
Jack and Dad risked their lives for their country in World War II. My uncle was in the Marines and my dad in the Army Air Corps (now called the U.S. Air Force). Jack fought at Guam. Dad was a navigator aboard a C-47. They were devoted patriots who, like almost all other American patriots in that dark and tragic moment of world history, understood the danger of fascism. So, they put their lives on the line to defend our country (and the world) against it. They recognized that authoritarianism is the enemy of democracy (ultimately resulting in police states where no one is ever fundamentally safe). They realized that our nation was made great because it stands for “we the people,” not “we the subjects.” Their eyes became misty when singing The Star Spangled Banner and also when reading the words that adorn the Statue of Liberty (words that reveal the original intent of the American dream): “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door.” Dad and Jack were patriots. They risked it all to make our country “the land of the free.”
They also risked their lives to defend the freedom of self-rule for other sovereign nations. Our forces, you remember, fought on foreign grounds in Europe, Africa, Asia. Standing fast against the fascist regimes in Nazi Germany, Italy, and Japan in WWII was, for my dad and uncle, synonymous with protecting the rights of other nations to exist in freedom and not to be overrun, annexed, or dictated to by another country with a stronger military force. Dad and Jack laid it all on the line for the freedom of our people and of all people.
As noted, my father and my uncle were broadcast journalists. Each recognized, vigorously defended, and built his career on the principle of the First Amendment. They knew what reasonable people understand – that freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, freedom of press and pulpit, freedom to dissent, freedom to express without fear of repression or harm, are the fundamental freedoms without which all other freedoms are taken away. Our ancestors who constructed our constitutional democracy made that amendment the first one for a reason. Benjamin Franklin wrote: “Freedom of speech is a principal pillar of free government. When this support is taken away, the constitution of a free society is dissolved.”
In their line of work, my father and my uncle had to interview all sorts of people who represented widely differing ideologies. They also sometimes had to break stories that were discomforting to individuals who were making the news in undesirable ways. Dad used to phone those people to alert them that he would be releasing information on the air, always asking to hear their side of the story beforehand. He said that to serve the public properly, news stories should be accurate and the principals in those stories should be treated fairly. He believed that in the public forum it is everyone’s responsibility to be unfailingly honest, but also to be decent and civil (never intentionally demeaning or crude in language or intent). For all their humorous bickering, that was one thing my father and my uncle always took seriously and agreed upon.
In our world and in our country today, we need examples of what devotion to both nation and to freedom look like, examples of what honesty and honor mean, examples of commitment to the good of the people over and above the good of the party, examples of decency and civility, examples of respect for the dignity of all our personal neighbors and all our global ones, as well, examples of the principle that elected leaders are servants of the people and not vice versa, examples of both gentility and courage, both unyielding principle alongside patience with those whose ideas vary from our own, examples of people who do not use the Bible as a weapon but instead accept its Messiah as the Lord of Love and of their own lives. It’s indescribably important in the morass of our current culture to find those examples, to hear those voices. I am so thankful for my memories of Dad and Uncle Jack and all they taught about Kindness and Honor and Truth.