Requiem for a pair of everyday heroes

0 Comments | Insight on the News, August 17, 1998 | by Paul M. Rodriguez

Her name is Freedom. And today she weeps. Just as the hands of artisans black and white forged her silent features to challenge every dawn, hands black and white now lie still in the great rotunda hall below her.

Jacob J. "J.J." Chestnut and John M. Gibson -- remember their names -- are united with two others in the history of the U.S. Capitol -- Philip Reid and Clark Mills. This is a time to remember Reid and Mills as well.

In the 1860s, when the U.S. government paid Mills $1.25 per day for the services of Reid, a slave, few could have imagined what their joint labor, the magnificent statue called Freedom, would witness from atop the Great Dome of the Capitol. Even in 1998, below her majestic feet where mighty men and women walk, a crucible of ideas, cultures and values continues to refine and temper our national identity and Americans pause yet again to contemplate the price of eternal vigilance.

It is not black and white that we see but the red of their blood, the white of their purity and the blue of their dreams converging in the flags across two caskets. As we mourn these brave men, we are one people, one nation in grief, set to bury two more of our sons. The shining city on a hill is creped with sadness.

I knew Officers Chestnut and Gibson, proud men who carried badges of the United States Capitol Police. They were not black or white but part of that thin blue line that stands between all we value and the dark forces of madness and evil that lie in aberration even at Freedom's feet.

Few among you probably knew either man. It does not matter. They knew you -- maybe not your name but perhaps your face. Each day, thousands of you walked past them in unconscious safety as they watched and protected your pilgrimage.

They saw in the passage of their time on duty the authentic character of our people. In halls echoing with your footsteps, they were the faceless defenders of the institutions of a democratic republic many like them have died to protect. They guarded the priceless treasure at Freedom's feet. They gave of their lives defending it and you -- the everyday Joe and Jill they saw hushed in the Capitol with love of this country; people from every walk of life, rich and poor, black and white, Christian and Jew and Muslim. The sane and the insane.

Both were family men, each with several children. Both were responsible citizens in the quiet ways of good people -- each from a different background working together for a common goal in a dangerous world. They were constant sources of reassurance in the tumultuous rough-and-tumble at the gates of Congress.

Our paths crossed often during the years. In my business you get to know lawmen and lawmakers, elevator operators and food-service cooks, the powerful and the wanna-bes.

In the strange arena of the political capital of the world, these two men were the genuine articles, defenders of values as old as our republic and therefore savvy critics when warranted. They knew more than they were willing to share and, often, this reporter was wiser for having observed their sudden reticence. There even were times when I could not print what I learned, for at the republic's door the guard and the newsman are brothers.

It was the same 130 years ago when other Chestnuts and Gibsons defended us, defended the rights of a Philip Reid or a Clark Mills. Then, one was a slave; the other a slave owner given $350.40 by the government for freeing his fellow artisan. But both Reid and Mills stoked the furnaces and forged the metals that became Freedom, our ultimate guardian. It's still that way. If you doubt it, think of Chestnut and Gibson. Weep for them. Then weep for us all.

To honor Chestnut and Gibson, try living as they did -- not as black or white but as Americans sworn to protect liberty sweet and fragile and precious. It's called duty to God and country. Officer Jacob Chestnut and Special Agent John Gibson, rest in peace. Know that your sacrifices will be honored every day free Americans of every color and kind walk the halls of Congress -- as surely as Freedom greets the dawn.