Being Atticus

There’s a famous line at the end of the movie “To Kill a Mockingbird,” when Atticus Finch explains to his children why he defended the falsely accused TomRobinson of murder when by doing so it caused trouble for him at work and at home. He said, “I have to be the same in town downtown as at home,” as a way of explaining that what you believe in your heart you should not hesitate to express to the world, to do as you say.

It’s a great line with a wonderful message. Except that he didn’t say it in the book. There is a similar sentiment voiced in the novel earlier in the telling. Miss Maudie Atkinson, says, "Atticus Finch is the same in his house as he is on the public streets". This was Harper Lee’s way of saying Atticus was a man of integrity and moral consistency in all aspects of his life.

Consistency is the key to integrity and to acceptance. Atticus Finch was a man who strongly believed that all men are created equal and deserve equal treatment. In the American South in the early twentieth century, defending a black man was an unpopular move for an important person like Atticus, the town’s only lawyer. He knew he was risking his practice, his livelihood, maybe even his family by taking this case. But he believed what he believed and taught his children to do likewise. He could not tell them the ultimate goal is to treat everyone as one of our own, yet when the opportunity comes along not to put that into practice, take the easy path, and let Tom Robinson go without representation.

What about you? Do you say one thing and do another? Do you teach your children how to be good and decent and then be less than an apt example of that in your actions? Do you say one thing among the crowd while feeling another in your heart?

Although many of us are guilty of all three examples, that third one may be the hardest to admit. When we find ourselves among a group of people and allow our words and actions to parrot their views, whether we agree with them or not but especially when we do not, we lose control over our own lives. We have said to the world that our opinions, our thoughts, our decisions don’t matter. Only that we are seen as not causing trouble.

Another attribute that Atticus has is that he is a doer. He does not just lecture in either side of his life, in town or at home. He does, he works, he acts. He is the example of walking the talk, putting his beliefs into practice, being the best he can be. He epitomizes “do as I do.”

In a way, Atticus had it easy. He did not have to compete with TicToc and YouTube, SnapChat and ongoing messages from their friends to hold his children’s attention. He did however have to contend with them being exposed to real-life prejudice when they were out of his house. That’s another reason it was so important that he put his words into action. To blunt the effect that the public would have had on his son and daughter. Likewise, we should be shielding our children, and ourselves, from the baseless claims and false statements that pervades social media and today’s society.

Atticus was a true example of being the same person in town as at home, or who could say “do as I do” and see others benefit. We can learn at lot from him. We can use more of him. This time though, maybe a few nonfictional versions.