LIKE the rest of his generation, my father, who’s 92, went to War when
Pearl Harbor got bombed. He served in several Pacific landings: Saipan, Tinian,
Iwo Jima. When the fighting ended, he came home, got married, and went to work
as a union electrician.
In 1952, he was in Paducah, Ky., working on a huge lab that was part of the
Oak Ridge nuclear research project. That required a federal security clearance.
Back then, red-baiting Sen. Joseph McCarthy, R-Wisc., was in his heyday,
claiming that communists were infiltrating our government. It was also the bad
old days of segregated schools and segregated jobs.
The federal government had mandated equal hiring, which meant several black
men got hired as laborers.
Part of their work was to dig ditches for the huge banks of electrical
piping.
The electricians didn’t like that. The union steward told the men, “If they
send a black man to work with you, just hold your nose and walk away. We won’t
work with black people.”
Dad was an honest, decent man, who really believed “all men are created
equal.”
He was also outspoken. He refused to go along, saying, “President Truman says
we need to work with these people.”
So he broke solidarity and worked with them.
As the crew’s token northerner, he was already looked on as strange. After
willingly working with black people, he was downright hated.
Months later, he got called into the superintendant’s office. Two FBI men and
a local police officer wanted to talk to him. He was accused of being a
communist and his security clearance was in jeopardy.
It turned out, the FBI had a file on him. He’d opened his mouth on other
jobs, even before the war. One thing led to another and he wound up being fired
as a security risk. He went to the union for help, but their business agent,
basically, told him to get out of the local. They didn’t want communists around.
The funny thing is Dad never was a communist, never even considered it. He was
just a farm boy who believed in freedom and equality and said what he thought,
even if people didn’t like it.
I’ve seen the FBI file on him. It’s so inaccurate, it would make you laugh if
the result hadn’t been so serious. He lost several jobs over the years because
of it, and was never able to hold a federal job again.
In the 1980’s, he finally got a letter from the FBI saying there had never
been a reason to consider him a security risk. He was retired by then, so the
letter came thirty years too late.
Sadly, he wasn’t the only one. Tens of thousands of loyal Americans were
investigated the same way during the “red scare” years. Thousands lost their
jobs and reputations, same as Dad.
My question is, “Who were the real anti-Americans?” A man who worked hard,
fought for his country, and spoke out for equal rights? Or the people who
falsely accused him and got him repeatedly fired?
Nowadays, I read pundits who say that sort of thing never happened. But I
watched it happen. It was hard to watch, but it had to be a lot harder for the
one going through it.
What’s really discouraging is that nowadays we seem to be doing it again. For
example, we have people who knowingly, falsely accuse one presidential candidate
of being Islamic.
Which shouldn’t be a problem anyway, we’re supposed to have freedom of
religion.
But let’s face it, in our times, a Muslim has about as much chance of being
elected president as I do of slam dunking over D.J. White.
If someone wants to vote against the guy because of his politics or policies
or even his speaking style, fine. But frankly, as Americans, shouldn’t slime
politics be beneath us?
We have a government that once again seems willing to spy on innocent people.
Under the so-called Patriot Act, our government has issued over 140,000
“security letters,” secretly seeking private information without warrants — even
information our laws forbid them to have.
And people who don’t approve of that, are accused of supporting terrorism. Or
worse.
With my father, I saw where that kind of secret file-keeping and name-calling
can lead. As Americans, isn’t that beneath us, too?
The Rev. Dennis McCarty is a Unitarian Universalist minister in Columbus.
His opinions are his own, and not necessarily shared by members of his church.
He can be reached by e-mail at
columnists@therepublic.com.