My father: scholar and construction worker

This morning my dad and I got up early and moved a bunch of garbage out of this apartment complex that he recently finished repairing from top to bottom by himself. Dad has really warped my views on age since, at 66, he's working 50 or so hours a week in a physically demanding job. He's doing all of this, by the way, to pay for about half of my 120K in Willamette costs and to put my sister, who will be starting her junior year at Oregon State in a month, through school. The man is my hero.

Along the way, I asked him about the proposed flag burning amendment. His opinion seemed qualified to me since he represented both the stereotypical liberal and conservative extremes, having received a masters degree and served in the Korean War. I actually expected him to come down on the side of banning it since he's been getting more conservative lately, but to my surprise, dad said that "outlawing flag burning would make a mockery of my service under that flag...I fought for the civil liberties that it represents." Well said, old man.