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Going Home
| Article
# : |
11716 |
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Section : |
LIFE
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| Issue
Date : |
2 / 1994 |
4,802 Words |
| Author
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Armstrong Williams and Alan Keyes
Armstrong Williams hosts "The Right Side With Armstrong
Williams," a radio talk show. He has appeared on the "Oprah
Winfrey Show," "Today Show," and other television programs and
contributes to USA Today and other papers. He is CEO of the
Graham Williams Group, an international public relations
firm. Alan Keyes is a nationally syndicated columnist and
author of the forthcoming book "Masters of the Dream: The
Strength and Betrayal of Black America." He has served as U.S.
ambassador to the UN Economic and Social Council and in other
diplomatic capacities and is past president of Citizens
Against Government Waste.
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Allen Keyes: Im sure that over the years youve encountered, as I have, people who approach you with the knee-jerk assumption that its somehow not rational for a black person to be a conservative. Do you think that assumption is justified?
Armstrong Williams: Of course, its not. Im a third-generation Republican. My parents experienced the same knee-jerk reactions, the name calling. Its unfortunate that my position is labeled conservative because I just see it as a right way to live.
My position is a strong belief in God and traditional values: a belief that what you sow youre going to reap; that you should do unto others as you would have them do unto you; that you should go to church; that theres no such thing as safe sex--sex should be saved for marriage. People under the age of, Ill say, twenty, are still developing and their emotions are explosive, but the body is your temple.
Keyes: Did you ever find yourself in college, or whatever, questioning any of that?
Williams: No, I was very close to my parents. You look at your parents, at their value system. For my parents, it was more than just rhetoric, it was an example. Whatever you tell your child, youve got to live it because the child only understands examples in the final analysis.
I was accustomed to ridicule from African Americans who saw a black conservative as absurd, but I realized from the way my parents lived the incredible rewards that they had gotten from their life-style. There were even relatives who used to look at my father as a "whitey lover." Even when I was a young kid, they would say that, because there was nothing about the things that he had been able to accomplish that would indicate that he was black. During that time, being black, as you so eloquently said recently, meant you had to be poor, looking for welfare, or working for somebody else. My father represented none of those things, so they said he was a sellout.
Keyes: What did he do?
Williams: He prayed. Really lie never became angry. That was the most amazing thing.
Keyes: I mean, how did he make a living?
Williams: He was a
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