A Shared Father

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He believed that words can wound, that even in the harsh, muckraking world of politics, it simply isn't right to insult another person. He believed that this country's greatness came from its collective heart, from its history of being a "melting pot" and that the dark passages of our history came when we lost sight of our own heart. He had no tolerance for racism. He was raised in a home where people were never judged by the color of their skin. He was raised in a home where everyone was considered a child of God, and he carried that belief with him throughout his life.

Politics aside, I think most Americans long for those qualities in a president, particularly in these uncertain times.

When we were in Washington, D.C., for my father's service, I was taken on a tour of the White House. I hadn't been there since he was president, and in those years I couldn't appreciate it--I was too blinded by my own saga of being a very reluctant First Daughter.

But four years ago, in June, I finally understood the reverence my father felt for that building—for its history, its memories, its significance. To walk through the White House and really absorb the environment is to remember that this country was founded on the idea of respect for life, truth and freedom. It was also founded out of rebellion, but that did not diminish the dignity the Founding Fathers brought to the task.

My father's dignity didn't die four years ago, and neither did our longing for it. The anniversary of his death may best be marked by reflecting on how he lived his life.

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Posted By: dougom @ 08/20/2008 11:40:39 PM

Oh Good lord.

"My father would be perplexed by the overabundance of meanness in the political field. And he would be deeply saddened by it." Two words: Lee Atwater.

Compassion? AIDS. Goodness and dignity? Iran-Contra. Reagan sent Donald Rumsfeld to Iraq to give presents and compliments to Saddam Hussein. He vetoed economic sanctions against the South African apartheid regime. He enabled decades of union-busting with his firing of the air-traffic controllers. He presided over a huge increase in economic disparity. And on and on and on.

I realize that the continuing work in canonizing Reagan and All His Works continues unabated, but even by the typical standards of right-wing hagiography, Ms. Davis' article is pretty absurd.
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Posted By: Gerald Fnord @ 08/20/2008 7:33:54 PM

I loved my father, but he had his faults. I sympathise with Ms Davis, but is she really talking about the man who publicly hoped for food poisoning in the soup kitchens set up by the Hearsts in an attempt to meet their daughter's kidnappers' demands?; I hope she's not remembering fondly that part of the man who, though he didn't want to feel like he was a racist, dined out on the Cadillac-driving "welfare queen" who might have existed in a couple instances, but who was completely unrepresentative of women on welfare---but a very convenient way of saying "black" without really saying it. This was a man who announced his presidential run of 1980 in Philadelphia, Mississippi, with a speech replete with the rhetoric of "states' rights" (important, but often a code word for segregation) but nary a mention of the murder of good men for the crime of registering black people to vote which was perpetrated not ten miles from where he was speaking?

Perhaps this, and the famous "bloodbath" comment, were the fringes of his personality. Perhaps he was not a mean or bigoted man...but he profited from the politics of bigotry and meanness.---his apparent niceness was often a matter of having others around more suited to the nasty stuff. When you've nurtured the likes of Ailes and Atwater , why bother doing it yourself?

Still, he is dead, and I gather that he was a good father to you, and I hope you will get some measure of solace as you remember what was best about him.
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Posted By: Gerald Fnord @ 08/20/2008 7:32:44 PM

I loved my father, but he had his faults. I sympathise with Ms Davis, but is she really talking about the man who publicly hoped for food poisoning in the soup kitchens set up by the Hearsts in an attempt to meet their daughter's kidnappers' demands?; I hope she's not remembering fondly that part of the man who, though he didn't want to feel like he was a racist, dined out on the Cadillac-driving "welfare queen" who might have existed in a couple instances, but who was completely unrepresentative of women on welfare---but a very convenient way of saying "black" without really saying it. This was a man who announced his presidential run of 1980 in Philadelphia, Mississippi, with a speech replete with the rhetoric of "states' rights" (important, but often a code word for segregation) but nary a mention of the murder of good men for the crime of registering black people to vote which was perpetrated not ten miles from where he was speaking?

Perhaps this, and the famous "bloodbath" comment, were the fringes of his personality. Perhaps he was not a mean or bigoted man...but he profited from the politics of bigotry and meanness.---his apparent niceness was often a matter of having others around more suited to the nasty stuff. When you've nurtured the likes of Ailes and Atwater , why bother doing it yourself?

Still, he is dead, and I gather that he was a good father to you, and I hope you will get some measure of solace as you remember what was best about him.