The Real US

The Real US

I am a 63 year old white, male attorney from and in Knoxville, TN. I was born in Knoxville, but moved around quite a bit before settling here again in 1977. I am in the process of retiring from active practice after 30 years. I have been married to the same woman for 35 years. She is a native Filipina. She came to the US and the University of Tennessee as a Fullbright Scholar in Mathematics in 1970. After marriage, she became a US citizen. She has worked for a US government contractor for over 35 years as a manager.

We have two children. A 29 year old male, professional photographer and a 25 year old female medical student.

I attended 11 schools during my primary school education. After graduation shortly before my 18th birthday, I joined the US Air Force. I served for slightly more than 4 years. For more than 3 years of this time I was stationed at Clark AB in the Republic of the Philippines. After my honorable discharge, I attended the University of Tennessee, Knoxville beginning in the Winter Quarter, 1970. Utilizing the GI bill, the money I saved while in the Air Force and what I earned while working, I was able to graduate by the end of the summer quarter, 1972. I graduated with High Honors and a B.S. in Political Science. I actually had sufficient hours for 4 majors, but I could only declare one major and one minor. The other potential majors were Anthropology, Sociology, and History. I was offered a research assistanceship and with it and the remaining GI bill, I was able to complete a Master's degree in Political Science. My thesis was, "The Integrative Function of the Philippine Legislature." After graduation at the end of 1974, I entered the US State Dept. and went to work at the US Embassy in Helsinki, Finland. After two years, I decided to attend law school at the University of Tennessee where I began in the summer of 1977 and graduated in December, 1979. I passed the TN bar in the spring of 1980, practiced with a small firm for a year, and then began my own, solo practice in Knoxville, in the spring of 1981.

I consider myself to be an independent and moderate. I am financially conservative, but more socially liberal than most people who call themselves conservative. I certainly have libertarian ideals, but do not think I am strickly libertarian either. I was born into a family of Baptists- A very fundamentalist version of Baptist. I recently became a Catholic after being impressed by the faith of my wife, my best friend (who is a yellow dog, Democrat), and good people who I later found out were Catholics. I do not agree with all the Church's position on social issues, but I like the emphasis it places on forgiveness (God knows I need it). Most of all, I am a man who loves my family, God, my country, my fellow citizens, and my fellow man - in that order.

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