Griscom: Where the focus belongs

Life is full of choices.

The act of reaching a decision results in a domino effect as others are brought into the mix.

Last week was a time to assess whether decisions reached more than 20 years earlier made a difference.

Two things brought this to mind. One was a phone call. The other was a local speaker. Both stemmed from the same catalyst.

The speaker was former Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne.

He served during the Bush administration as the overseer, among other things, of the national parks. He was here as the last of three speakers focused on celebrating the new Moccasin Bend unit of Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park.

As Mr. Kempthorne relayed to his audience the American history that is captured in the buildings and battlefields that dot the country, he also shared how he was tapped for the Interior job.

He was serving as governor of Idaho at the time, having been a United States senator from his home state.

He received a call from the White House, requesting that he come to Washington to meet with the president.

Checking his schedule, he found an opening in a week. The White House caller said, "How about tomorrow?"

After answering 20 questions, he was offered the Interior position by Mr. Bush.

When the president asks, as a citizen you respond.

He said yes.

The telephone call was from former Tennessee Sen. Howard Baker, who recounted the request from President Reagan to become chief of staff in the final two years of the president's second term.

Sen. Baker, having comfortably hung up his political shoes two years earlier, accepted the call from the president.

His point: "When the president asks, how do you say no?" He had turned down an earlier inquiry about directing the Central Intelligence Agency, but the CIA question was posed by a staff member, not the president.

The president asked him to serve as chief of staff, and he said yes.

The presidential call to national service often is disruptive and unplanned, but it is expected that it will receive a positive response.

The White House experience can be exhilarating and exhausting at the same time. But as Mr. Baker and Mr. Kempthorne

shared, when asked, how do you say no?

With the request should come a measure of humility, and, one hopes, a realization that for a brief time, an opportunity exists to be a participant in history.

Some will write chapters and others may be footnotes, but all leave an impression.

Last week, a local elected official asked why the point of being involved in the crafting of Mr. Reagan's speech in Berlin in 1987 when he called on Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the wall that separated East from West had not been more explicitly expressed.

The answer was quite simple.

When called to serve, you say yes.

When given an opportunity to participate in history, you do so with great humility.

And you never forget that you serve at the pleasure of the president.

It is never about you.

To reach Tom Griscom, call 423-757-6472 or e-mail tgriscom@timesfreepress.com.