DETROIT – Here's a photo of my father, Roy Spencer, when he was in Navy boot camp in his hometown of San Diego. He served aboard the heavy cruiser USS Toledo during the Korean War. In his youth he worked in my grandfather's butcher shop. When he got out of the Navy he went to work for Oscar Mayer and spent his life working in the food industry to support my mother and siblings and me.
Dad also loved music and was a band director. I remember him in our living room playing records of John Phillip Souza marches. I don't think I'd ever heard a stereo's volume turned up that loud!
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My father was extremely patriotic and would fly the American flag in our front yard. To this day I have a strong love of country – a passion I developed from growing up with dad. He died years ago, and I often think he'd be horrified to see our modern political climate. Guys like him realized that America belongs to all its citizens, and no one U-S political party can truly claim it's more patriotic than the rest. I guess you have to fight along side other Americans from every state to understand that Republicans AND Democrats deserve to be respected as "patriots." That's a hard won piece of wisdom my father
-- by example – passed to me.