DUers, what did your dad do or say during your childhood that has influenced how you live

[Bluenorthwest]

77. Much. My Dad would have been the best DUer ever.

I've thought of him so many times reading here the last few weeks. Here's one example. Watergate hearings, 72. Our household is enthralled by the proceedings, Dad has waited years to see Nixon brought to task. Representative Barbara Jordan became his favorite, he was so grateful for her finally saying, and saying so well, the things he wanted said.
So Dad points out to me the fact that for Jordan to be sitting where she was, with the power to ask those questions, was harder for her than for her Congressional peers. I ask why. Dad says 'Look at the damn Congress. They are almost all men, and almost all white. To get where she is she had to fight harder than the men, harder than the white people, doors that would open to you she had to kick down or charm opened. The fact that she is there at all means she is smarter, better and more committed than the men. It means we should be very glad she put up with all she put up with in order to be sitting here speaking her mind and mine. So many people do not want women or black people to have such jobs and they try to obstruct them so when you see a woman like her, rest assured she is the smartest most talented person present, or she'd not be present, if they could deny her they would, but they can't because she's that damn good.'
People here still quibble over what to call that dynamic. Dad just said 'look at the damn Congress'. He did not know terms like 'white privilege' but he sure as fuck knew what he was looking at.
He was a white man in that time who told me this: When you grow up, you would make me proud if you were a person like Barbara Jordan'.
I told him this: I would rather be like you Dad.
This is what he said: You can be more and better than your Dad. You can be like her. Be like her, seek justice and take no shit from anyone.

I miss him every fucking day that I draw breath, and all I do if because of and for him.