My dad died in September, less than two months before his 92nd birthday. He was a husband, a father, a veteran and a Christian. He was also a Democrat.
In recent years, I have read comments by people arguing that one cannot be a Democrat and a Christian. That view is as shallow as the premise that one cannot be a Republican and a Christian. Still, some people buy into both false judgments.
Al Hale, the man I called Daddy, was baptized as a boy in the Blue Bayou near Nashville in Howard County. He was a faithful member of the Church of Christ. If you know anything about the Church of Christ, you know it is what some call fundamentalist, a term to which I do not subscribe. Add to that, he worshipped with the church's more conservative congregations after a split in the 1950s and 1960s.
Daddy was a barber and a part-time preacher. He delivered sermons in Marked Tree, where he lived most of his life, in addition to Caraway, Trumann and Riverdale. He preached in the days before PowerPoint. Chalkboards were the norm then, and my mother, a teacher and artist, would turn a white bed sheet into a huge illustrated poster outlining his sermons. He'd hang that on the wall behind the podium--once a common practice in some churches.
When he was able, he regularly attended services, twice on Sunday and once on Wednesday. When we went camping, he looked for a church to attend.
Daddy didn't drink anything stronger than caffeinated coffee. He long understood that some politicians campaign on values but do not practice them. To him, adultery, theft and lies were as egregious with God as were race-based hate and hypocrisy. He was not politically correct on some issues such as homosexuality, but he never refused to cut a gay man's or an adulterer's hair, and he felt we should be kind to all people, even those with whom we disagree.
He served in the Navy near the end of World War II and at one point was stationed on the USS Nevada battleship. He wore a Nevada cap until the day before he became critically ill in August. A picture of my father wearing that cap hangs at the Veterans Administration hospital in Little Rock.
After the war, Daddy joined the Star Barber Shop in Marked Tree. He cut and styled hair--men's and women's--until he retired at age 80. He neither smoked nor drank but developed breathing issues late in life, likely due to the cigarette smoke from many customers in his small shop, later renamed Al Hale Family Hair Center.
Daddy was as faithful checking my 2001 Chevy Lumina as he was attending church services. For years, I'd park my car outside my Conway office. I'd later find that he had moved it to another space but first had filled up the gas tank and checked the oil.
As he lay in intensive care, he told my daughter, "We'll check out your car next week."
He wanted to be sure all three of his grandchildren finished college and left instructions that my daughter, his youngest grandchild, be given $100 a month to help with expenses after his death.
He served on the Marked Tree City Council, where he made friends with rich and poor, black and white, Methodists and Pentecosts, Democrats and Republicans.
I'm not sure but believe he voted for Republican Richard Nixon in 1972. Later, my dad said he had not known then that Nixon's opponent, Democrat George McGovern, had served so honorably during World War II, having flown 35 combat missions and receiving numerous honors. Nixon, of course, later resigned during the Watergate scandal.
Still, Daddy did not hate Nixon or any president. He knew Nixon accomplished some good, opening up relations with China, for instance. Without that action, he knew I would not have my daughter who was adopted from that country; nor he, his only granddaughter.
Rightly or wrongly, he blamed Republican Herbert Hoover for the Great Depression but admired Democrat Franklin Roosevelt for finally lifting Americans out of it and for starting Social Security. He believed Jimmy Carter, a Democrat, was a good man despite the last tumultuous year of his presidency. Daddy didn't vote for Republicans George H.W. Bush or George W. Bush but thought they were good people who respected the presidency. Daddy admired Barack Obama, a Democrat. He could see Obama was a family man, a moral man, a leader.
Even as glaucoma weakened Daddy's eyesight, he remained a faithful newspaper and Bible reader, using a magnifying glass to see small print.
He read the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette daily and tried, not so successfully, to read it on an iPad after the paper went digital. I occasionally bought a print copy and took it to him.
Daddy didn't spend much time on the sports and feature sections but read the state, national and international news. He always looked for Sunday's Perspective section. He listened to CNN, Fox and MSNBC, getting a taste of various political perspectives. The last time he held a newspaper was the Sunday before he died on a Wednesday.
Daddy was bluntly spoken and in his younger days had a short temper. He wasn't shy about stating his opinions. Days before he died, he was watching CNN when President Donald Trump appeared on the screen, Daddy grumbled to a nurse that he hated "Trump's wig" and shared his not-so-favorable opinion of Trump himself. I suggested Daddy avoid politics in the hospital, but he didn't listen to me then or probably most of the time. Fortunately, the nurse agreed with him.
Daddy was already pondering who might challenge Trump in 2020. He liked Elizabeth Warren but thought Joe Biden had a better chance. I can't help but wonder what he would be thinking now with the impeachment inquiry taking off.
But mostly, I wonder what he'd think of this column. Daddy was, after all, my biggest fan.
Email Debra Hale-Shelton at dhaleshelton@gmail.com.
Editorial on 10/27/2019