From edrants.com — dr. mabuse’s house of fun:

9. Aside from the new career move, name five things about your father that make you proud.

Off the top of my head:

• He is an excellent grandfather.
  
• He (a man raised in the predominantly white and culturally in-grown state of South Dakota) responded to the news that my sister was dating a black man by saying “Well, the Bible says to love everyone, and I suppose I’ll have to just work this out on my own.” He did.
  
• He’s never acted violently to my mother.
  
• When I bad-mouthed my mom (once, just once) in my mid-teens, he knocked my flat on my ass, and informed me that he would not hear me speak that way about his wife. Not ‘your mother’: his wife. I never forgot that — my Dad’s not an openly emotional guy, but his ties run right down to the core of him.
  
• He’s has never failed to support any of my interests, or been less than completely sure in my success.
  

This one’s for free: one time, when I was in high school, working on the annual one-act play that we took to State competitions, several of the cast members snuck out of the hotel at the regional eliminations. Dad was on the school board at the time, and there was much humming and hawing and talk of denying the cast the priviledge of competing at the State level that we’d qualified for — there were over a dozen kids involved in the play, and 2 had snuck out, unbeknowst to the rest.

The conclusion seemed forgone — everyone agreed with the easy solution. My dad, who is not an orator, spoke. He talked for 20 minutes. No one interrupted him. When he was done, the board voted unanimously to punished the two kids seperately and let us go to State.