Well Read

WELL READ By: Hon. Chuck Cerny

Knox County General Sessions Court, Div. II

PUBLIC IMAGE AND TRUE SELVES

Consider any person who is in a visible, public endeavor. Entertainer, athlete, business icon, hero, politician or even “flashy lawyer”, all persons in “public life” have a public persona, which may or may not be consistent with the reality of who they truly are. John Duncan and Bill Haslam have written books. Both Duncan and Haslam’s books allow some insight into their true selves. Let me suggest to you that each of them is consistent when comparing their public image and their true selves. Although I will concede at the outset: I know them, and I am a fan of both.

Congressman Duncan, in “From Batboy

to Congressman: Thirty Years in the US

House, ” has given us a fun, folksy recitation of events from his experience in the House of Representatives, and from his life. “Every job I ever had, even as a batboy, helped me later in life and certainly helped in my work in Congress by enabling me to relate to people from all walks of life. And, as you will read in this book, every job gave me strange, funny, unusual stories.”1

When I read these stories, I could hear Congressman Duncan’s voice as if he were speaking to the crowd at Lincoln Day Dinner. I’m sure that is because many of the stories have been part of his speeches!

The book is an enjoyable, easy read, but even when dealing with mostly lighthearted anecdotes, actions speak louder than words: the Congressman has signaled his concern about one vote in his career by placing the story on page xix, after the Foreword and before Chapter One. “The Vote”2 is an explanation of a time that Duncan voted according to his convictions and against the demands of party leadership, and against the popular sentiment at the time. Hindsight has vindicated Duncan.

But most of the book is not about difficult, controversial votes. Some of the best anecdotes are recollections of events and people many of us (lawyers) are familiar with: Zane Daniel, Ray Jenkins, Howard Baker, Jake and C. H. Butcher, James Earl Ray and Bob Jolly. And of course, Lynn Duncan, Jimmy’s first wife, is mentioned with great fondness. When Congressman Duncan was unable to give a scheduled speech due to illness, he sent Lynn. “She was very pleased when the Sunday Knoxville News Sentinel ran a little story the next day quoting Senator Baker as saying her speech was the best speech he ever heard me give.”3

John Duncan’s book is enjoyable and often funny and is certainly worth your time. And he would chuckle himself if I point out that it wasn’t long and won’t take much time to read, anyway!

Bill Haslam has taken on a phenomenon that we all have experience with, directly or indirectly: political conversation in this country is increasingly mean spirited and vicious. In “Faithful Presence: The Promise and the Peril of Faith in the Public Square, ” he starts with a painful reality that we all know well: “But we are not only divided; we are mad about it, and we cannot believe that the other side thinks the way they do… one in six Americans had stopped talking to a family member or a close friend because of the 2016 election.”4

Haslam uses the terminology “the public square” to refer to any civic involvement, whether a person runs for office or informs themselves and votes or engages in political discourse. He advocates for greater involvement in “the public square” by persons of faith, even though he concedes that “…there is increasing resentment from people who feel that religion has too large a role in our public life.”5 Haslam is a Christian who has clearly made efforts to be familiar with the Scriptures. He quotes C. S. Lewis to support the notion that “… God reveals political ends in the Bible, but he is not specific about the means to achieve those ends. We are supposed to feed the hungry, but we are not told how we should provide the meal. We are supposed to pursue justice, provide for widows and orphans, and fight oppression, but we are not told about the best form of government to do all of that.”6 He quotes the prophet Jeremiah to support the idea that people of faith should pray for and positively contribute to the community in which they live and actively “…seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.”7

Perhaps the most important aspect of Governor Haslam’s argument that persons of faith should maintain a “faithful presence” in the “public square” is the fact that he is not shy about confronting failures on the part of persons who lay claim to being “Christians.” He spends a good deal of the book calling persons of faith in the public square to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly. And humility requires remembering that we should “do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit… Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”8

Haslam has not taken on a new concept. As early as John Adams’ speech in 1798, and probably before, our founders recognized that a people attempting self-government must be a “…moral and religious people.”9 But he has taken a fresh and relevant look at how our moral failings have made our political discourse so caustic, contentious and unpleasant, and what should happen to make things better.

Both Duncan and Haslam have written books which arguably give us an opportunity to compare their public and actual personas. Give these books your time and see if you share my opinion that there is admirable consistency between the public and private aspect in each of their lives.

1 John J. Duncan, Jr., From Batboy to Congressman: Thirty Years in the US

House, xi (The University of Tennessee Press: Knoxville, Tennessee, 2021). 2 Id. at xix. 3 Id. at 47. 4 Bill Haslam, Faithful Presence: The Promise and The Peril of Faith in the

Public Square, 3 (Nelson Books: Nashville, Tennessee, 2021). 5 Id. at 5. 6 Id. at 41. 7 Id. at 162, quoting Jeremiah 29:4-7. 8 Id. at 82, quoting Philippians 2:3-4. 9 Id. at 117, quoting The Works of John Adams, vol. 9, p. 229 (Boston: Little, Brown, 1854).