Keep company that values integrity, patriotism

“Bad company ruins good morals.”

Those who know the Bible will recognize 1 Corinthians 15:33. Those who aren’t as well-versed on such things will know those words by their more contemporary usage:

“We are known by the company we keep.”

I was one of the record-setting viewers of the Democratic National Convention. It was electric and it was hopeful and it was a dramatic change from the yesterday-way of doing things. Simply put, it was an uplifting, purely American political moment.

I have also thought about the “company we keep” and what that really means.

For certain, I love keeping company with former President Bill Clinton who laid the challenge ahead of America in the kind of terms that all Americans can understand and, frankly, miss from those heady days of the Clinton administration. Remember way back then? When times were good, budgets were balanced and the national debt was shrinking, not growing.

I also love keeping company with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. She is one of my favorite people, and her speech at the convention was a powerful reminder of what could have been — and can yet be.

I would also like to keep company with Oprah Winfrey. While I don’t know her, I would sure like to because she brought the convention crowd to its feet just like she has done throughout her incredible career ­— bringing crowds to their feet and toward so much that is good in life.

And, sadly, I would like to keep company with Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg, the parents of Hersh, who after 325 days is still an innocent hostage of the Hamas terrorists in Gaza.

They talked about Hersh and the other hostages who are still captive to the Iran-backed murderers who wantonly kill Israelis and innocent Gazans to advance their own twisted agenda.

I want to keep their company because they represent that quintessential parental and American quality that loves and protects family above all else. Their pain was shared by the entirety of convention-goers who listened in silence, except for the loud chants of“bring them home,” while they shared in their pain.

But, most of all, I would like to keep company with Geoff Duncan.

For those of you who don’t know who he is, Duncan was the Republican lieutenant governor of Georgia in 2020. He, along with Georgia’s Gov. Brian Kemp, another Republican, was a critical part of the American guardrails of democracy who stood up to those who challenged the peaceful transfer of power and, ultimately, stained our democracy with the Donald Trump-led insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021.

Had Duncan and Kemp faltered from their oath to protect and preserve the Constitution, America could have been a very different and unrecognizable place right now.

I want to keep company with Duncan because of his actions back then and the words he spoke at the Democratic National Convention last week.

“I am a Republican,” he told the hall full of Democrats. “But tonight I stand here as an American. An American who cares more about the future of this country than the future of Donald Trump.” He explained that Trump’s efforts to violently overturn the 2020 election made him a direct threat to democracy and “disqualify him from ever, ever, ever stepping foot in the Oval Office again.”

He turned to the camera and spoke directly to the millions of people watching, especially Republicans who were “sick and tired of making excuses for Donald Trump.”

That’s when he made the case to his fellow Republicans.

“If you vote for Kamala Harris in 2024 you are not a Democrat, you are a patriot.”

He told the audience about his family motto which is “doing the right thing will never be the wrong thing.”

He was reminded of that motto by his son who had learned that fatherly lesson well. His son gave him a coaster they made in church camp one year. It had those words carved into it like they were carved into his young mind.

“Doing the right thing will never be the wrong thing.”

Anyone who can teach that lesson to his children is a person whose company I would like to keep because he is a courageous American patriot and father.

We should all want to keep company with a person like Geoff Duncan right about now, don’t you think?

Brian Greenspun is editor, publisher and owner of the Sun.