I’ve
known David Murray
for about two decades. I first met him when he was editor of Speechwriter’s
Newsletter for Ragan Communications, and I
met him in person in Washington, D.C., at the Speechwriters Conference at the
Mayflower Hotel.
By
any definition today, David and I should not even be speaking to each other. We
sit on opposite sides of the great divide in American politics – he leans hard to
the liberal side, and I don’t. He lives in Chicago, where the cemeteries used
to vote but no longer have any need to. I no longer write speeches for my
day-to-day job (I do occasionally freelance, though), and he’s editor of Vital
Speeches of the Day, which in speechwriting circles is the top of the heap.
But
we are friends, and we respect each other, bound by a mutual love for words and
well-written (and well-spoken) speeches. David taught me that liberals love their
children just as much as conservatives do, that family is important, that doing
good and fine work is what you do because who really wants to be known for
anything else.
That
David and I are friends proves that civility is still possible in America. Even
if he has weird politics.
On
Wednesday, David posted
an article on his blog about a book he’s co-authored with Lt. Col. Mark Weber
of the Minnesota National Guard. I had no idea he was doing something like
this. The book is entitled Tell My Sons, and it is about what a dying father
wants his sons to know.
Lt.
Col. Mark Weber is dying of cancer. And David has helped write his story.
The
video below is of Weber and his son singing “Tell My Father” at a banquet in
St. Paul, Minnesota. It’s a Civil War era song, and when I watched it I
completely lost it.
I
bought the book. It’s available through Amazon
Kindle now and will be available in print later in
December. I watched the video again. And I watched it again.
I
thank my friend David Murray for doing the good work of helping write this
book.
