One summer day my father sent me to buy wire and fencing for our farm in Marion County, South Carolina. At 16, I liked nothing better than getting behind the wheel of our Chevy pickup, but this time there was a damper on my spirits. My father had told me I‘d have to ask for credit at the store.
Sixteen is a prideful age, when a young man wants respect, not charity. It was 1976, and the ugly shadow of racism was still a fact of life. I‘d seen my friends ask for credit and then stand, head down, while a patronizing store owner questioned whether they were "good for it." I knew black youths just like me who were watched like thieves by the store clerk each time they went into a grocery.
My family was honest. We paid our debts. But before harvest, cash was short. Would the store owner trust us?
At Davis Brothers General Store, Buck Davis stood behind the register, talking to a middle-aged farmer. Buck was a tall, weathered man in a red hunting shirt and khaki pants, and I nodded as I passed him on my way to the hardware aisle. When I brought my purchases to the register, I said carefully, "I need to put this on credit."
The farmer gave me an amused, cynical look. But Buck‘s face didn‘t change. "Sure," he said easily. "Your daddy is always good for it." He turned to the other man. "This here is one of James Williams‘s sons."
The farmer nodded in a neighborly way. I was filled with pride. James Williams‘s son. Those three words had opened a door to an adu1t‘s respect and trust.
That day I discovered that a good name could bestow a capital of good will of immense value. The good name my father and mother had earned brought our whole family the respect of our neighbors. Everyone knew what to expect from a Williams: a decent person who kept his word and respected himself too much to do wrong.
We children -- eight brothers and two sisters – could enjoy that good name,unearned, unless and until we did something to lose it. Compromising it would hurt not only the transgressor but also those we loved and those who loved us.
We had a stake in one another -- and in ourselves.
A good name, and the responsibility that came with it, forced us children to bebetter than we otherwise might be. We wanted to be thought of as good people,and by acting like good people for long enough, we became pretty decent citizens.
The desire to keep the respect of a good name propelled me to become the first in our family to go to university. Eventually, it gave me the initiative to start my own successful public relations firm in Washington, D.C..
I thought about the power of a good name when I heard General Colin Powell say that America needs to restore a sense of shame in its neighborhoods. He‘s right.If pride in a good name keeps families and neighborhoods straight, a sense of shame is the reverse side of that coin.
Doing drugs, abusing alcohol, stealing, getting a young woman pregnant out of wedlock -- today, none of these behaviors is the deep embarrassment it should Be. Nearly one out of three births in America is to an unwed mother. Many of these children will grow up without the security and guidance of a caring father and mother committed to each other.
Once the social ties and mutual obligations of the family disintegrate, communities fall apart. Politicians may boast that crime is falling, but while the population has increased only 40 percent since 1960, violent crime in America has increased a staggering 550 percent -- and we‘ve become used to it. Teen drag abuse is rising again. No neighborhood is immune. In one North Carolina county, police arrested 73 students from 12 secondary schools for dealing drags, some of them right in the class room.
Cultural influences such as television and movies portray mostly a world in which respect goes to the most violent. Life is considered cheap.
Meanwhile, the Small signs of civility and respect that sustain civilization are vanishing from schools, stores and streets. Phrases like "yes, madam," "no, sir," "thank you" and "please" show self-respect and respect for others. Yet, encouraged by the pervasive profanity on television and in music, kids don‘t
think twice about aggressive and vulgar language.
Many of today‘s kids have failed because their sense of shame has failed. They were born into families with poor reputations, not caring about keeping a good name.
Today, when I‘m back home, I receive respect because of the good name passed on as my father‘s patrimony and upheld to this day by me and my siblings. People like Buck Davis came to know of my success in the world. But it was my family‘s good name that paved the way.
Keeping a good name is rewarded not only by outsiders‘ esteem but when those who know you best put their confidence in you. In the last months of his life
Daddy, typically, worried more about my mother than about his illness. He wanted to spare her the grief of watching him die at home. So he came to me.
By then I was living and working in Washington, D. C.. When Daddy arrived from South Carolina, I had him admitted to a nearby hospital. For two months, I spent every day sitting by his bedside. Both of us knew he had little time left.
When he was not in too much pain to talk, he would ask about the family. He wanted to be sure he had met his responsibilities in this world. On the last day, I was there with him as he passed away.
My daddy had never been rich or powerful. But in his dying, he gave me a last gift: his faith that I was the man he had wanted me to be. By trusting me to care for him at the moment of his passing, he showed not only his love, but hispride and confidence in me.
After all, I was James Williams‘s son -- a Williams of Marion, South Carolina and a Williams would do right.
夏日里的一天，父亲派我去为我们在南卡罗莱纳州马里恩县的农场买铁丝网和筑栅栏的材料。在我16岁的时候，我最喜欢开我们家的雪弗兰小货车了，但是这一次我却打不起精神来，因为，爸爸告诉我，我不得不在那家店里赊账。
十六岁是一个骄傲的年纪，十六岁的年轻人渴望尊重排斥施舍。那是1976年，那个丑陋的种族阴影仍然是生活中必须面对的一个事实。我曾亲眼看到我的朋友们在赊账时低头站着，傲慢的店主质疑这是否对他们有利。我所知道的像我一样的黑人青年每一次走进一家杂货铺时都会被店员当作小偷一样留心注意着。
我的家人是诚实的，我们也总是及时还债，但在丰收之前，资金是短缺的，所以店主会信任我们吗？
在戴维斯兄弟的百货商店，巴克戴维斯站在收银台后，和一个中年农民交谈。巴克身着红色狩猎服和卡其布裤子，是一个饱经风霜的高个子，我去五金货架时从他身边经过，冲他点了点头。当我带着要购买的东西去收银台时，小心翼翼地说：“我需要赊账。”
那个农民向我露出一个嘲弄又愤世嫉俗的表情，但是巴克的脸色并没有变，“当然可以，“他简单地说，”你爸爸总是能及时还钱。“而后他转头对那个农民说道：”这是詹姆斯威廉的儿子。“
那个农民友好地点点头。我充满了骄傲，詹姆斯威廉的儿子，这几个字打开了一扇通往成人尊重和信任的门。
那一天我发现了一个好的名声能赐予人们一笔价值巨大的信誉资本。我父亲和母亲赢得的好名声也使我们全家人都受到了邻居们的尊重。大家都知道威廉一家人：体面正派，恪守诺言，严于律己。
我们八个兄弟两个姐妹也能毫不费力地享受到好名声带来的好处，除非我们做了一些毁坏这好名声的举动。如果有人向不端的行为妥协而损害了它，不仅他本身会遭殃，还会连累我们所爱的人以及爱我们的人。
我们一荣俱荣，一损俱损。
一个好的名声与其随之而来的责任，要求我们这些孩子要做得更好。我们呢想要给人们好的印象，经过长期努力，我们终于成为了品德高尚的公民。
让好名声所得到的尊重永远保持，这一愿望促使我成为了家族里第一个考上大学的孩子，也赋予了我开拓创新的精神，我最终在华盛顿特区创办了一家属于自己的颇为成功的公关公司。
就在我对好名声的力量有所思考时，我听到柯林·鲍威尔将军说，我们需要在社区中恢复羞耻感。将军所言甚是，如果好名声的自豪感能让家人邻里坦诚相待，那么羞耻感则恰恰相反。
吸毒、酗酒、偷窃、未婚先孕--如今，这些行为没有一个不是应有的深深的尴尬。在美国几乎有三分之一的婴儿由未婚妈妈所生，这些孩子当中会的许多人将在一个毫无安全保障的环境中，一个没有慈爱父母相互承诺的指导下成长。
一旦社会联系和家庭之间的相互责任破裂，社区将分崩离析。政客们可能会吹嘘犯罪率在下降，但在1960年后人口近增加百分之四十的同时，美国的暴力犯罪率却增加了惊人的百分之五百五十，而我们已经习惯了。青年人吸毒率再次上升，没有街区能够幸免。在北卡罗莱纳州的一个县里，警方捕获了来自12所中学的 进行毒品交易的73名学生，他们有些就在教室里进行。
文化的影响，例如电视或电影里几乎都把世界描述成需要靠暴力才能赢得尊重的样子，生命便被视作是廉价的。
同时，象征着文明和尊敬的小标语正渐渐从学校商场和大街上消失。像“是的，夫人，” ，“不，先生”，“谢谢您”和“请”这些展示自我尊重和尊重他人的词语也消失了。然而，因为受到充斥着污秽与世俗的电视和音乐的鼓动，孩子们对那些挑衅、粗俗的语言都能脱口而出。
现如今，许多孩子因为缺乏羞耻感而经历失败，他们在声誉不好的家庭里出生，所以对维护好的声誉满不在乎。
今天，当我回到家中，因为父亲传下来、我和兄弟姐妹们共同维护得到的好名声而受到尊重。像巴克戴维斯这样的人逐渐明白我在这个世界上的成功，但我知道那是家庭的好名声已经为我铺好了路。
保持一个好名声不仅可以得到外人的尊重，还能让很了解你的人信任你。在父亲生命最后几个月，他关心我的母亲远胜于他的疾病，他不想让我母亲看着他在家中死去而悲痛，所以他来到了我这儿。
那时，我在华盛顿生活和工作，当父亲从南卡罗莱纳州赶到时，我把他送到附近的医院，我每天都陪在他的病床边，我们都知道他时日无多了。
当他不是那么痛的无法说话时，他总是询问家庭，他想确认他是否已经尽到了自己在这世上应尽的责任。在他临终的那天，是我陪他走完了生命的最后一程。
我父亲从来都不是很富有或很有权力，但在他即将过世的那段时间，他给我留下了最后一份礼物：就是他坚信我能成为他所期盼的、那样成功的人。他信任我，让我在他生命的最后一刻照顾他，他不仅向我表达了他的爱，还有他的骄傲和满怀的信心。
毕竟，我是詹姆斯威廉的儿子--来自南卡罗莱纳州马里恩县的威廉，一个正直诚信的威廉。