Guardian examples

Benjamin Franklin (ESTJ) – A man of many talents, he was highly influential in determining the type of society America would become. When he wasn’t busy as an inventor or scientist, he was writing and publishing neatly turned phrases like: “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise” and “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”

Franklin’s sayings became well-known proverbs, preaching values of hard work, honesty, thrift, charity, community spirit, education, self-control, and common sense. His commitment to practice these values and pass them on helped shape the character of the new nation we now call the United States of America.

When he was only 20 years old, Ben made a list of virtues to develop his own character, including: moderation, cleanliness, silence, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, order, resolution, tranquility, chastity, and humility. He later wrote in his autobiography that he was “a better and happier man than I otherwise should have been had I not attempted it.”

Franklin was a true public servant, creating self-governing and self-sustaining institutions that served society. For example, he helped establish the first subscription library in America. It wasn’t free, but it allowed people to purchase the right to use the library. The money went into buying more books, creating a system that could sustain itself and go on forever.

Besides the Library Company of Philadelphia, Ben Franklin helped establish many institutions that still exist today. His saying, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” was Ben Franklin’s observation about the benefits of preventing fires instead of fighting fires. The strict fire and building codes we have today didn’t exist in the 1700s, and most houses were built of wood and heated by open fireplaces. Franklin’s sense of caution was aroused when he saw the lack of fire-fighting power in Philadelphia, so he raised public awareness of the danger and then organized the Union Fire Company, the first in the city.

When someone’s house was damaged by fire, the owners were often financially devastated. Franklin helped establish America’s first property insurance company, the Philadelphia Contributionship for the Insurance of Houses from Loss by Fire.

He also helped create the American Philosophical Society, the first institution devoted to science in North America. He believed so strongly in the pursuit of knowledge by all people, that he founded an academy, serving as its president for the first five years. Today it is known as the University of Pennsylvania. If all of that weren’t enough, Benjamin Franklin also created the bill that founded Pennsylvania Hospital, America’s oldest hospital.

Jimmy Stewart (ISTJ) – Known for his decency and strength of character, those qualities are apparent in the roles he played. In his early Hollywood years, Jimmy starred in You Can’t Take It With You (1938), Destry Rides Again (1939), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), and The Mortal Storm (1940). During that time, he also logged over 400 hours of flight time as a pilot.

He was the first Hollywood star to join in the fight against Hitler. Initially rejected by the Army for being too thin, he worked hard to add the required weight and successfully enlisted as a private with the Air Corps. By the time he left active duty in 1945, Colonel James Stewart had flown more than 20 combat missions over Germany and helped lead a thousand-plane bombing raid on Berlin.

After the war, he joined the Air Force reserves, attaining the rank of Brigadier General in 1959.

During his annual two weeks of active duty in 1966, Jimmy requested a combat assignment and participated in a bombing strike over Vietnam, where his son had recently died.

He retired from the Air Force Reserve in 1968 and added a Distinguished Service Medal to his other well-earned military decorations.

A producer once asked him how he wanted to be remembered. Jimmy, in the simple, direct manner that was his trademark, answered: “A guy who believed in hard work, decent values, love of country, love of family, love of community and love of God.”

Father Flanagan (ESFJ) – Father Edward Flanagan had been running a shelter for homeless men when he realized that little lasting good was taking place.

When he asked the men what he could do to help, many of them said that it was too late for them, they had already made the bad decisions that set them on their present course. Seeking a more permanent solution, Father Flanagan wanted to give younger versions of those men the chance to become stable citizens, loving Christians, and good family men.

He believed that there was no such thing as a bad boy and that troubled boys needed nothing more than love, care, and protection. With permission from his bishop and a $90 loan from a friend, Father Flanagan rented a house in 1917 and opened it to boys who had been abandoned or were orphaned, for boys who had been hurt or abused and had no one to care for them.

Soon the courts were sending him boys who had nowhere else to go. Other boys found their own way to the house or were brought by family members. When the number of residents outgrew the capacity of the house, he established what would become “Boys Town,” a 1,300 acre campus dedicated to rehabilitating boys between the ages of 10 and 16. They received an education and learned a trade in Boys Town, which grew to be a community with its own boy-mayor, schools, chapel, post office, gymnasium, and other facilities. This institution still exists today, welcoming girls and families in need as well as boys.

Walter Cronkite (ISFJ) – He was known as “the most trusted man in America.”

Well-known for his quiet reserve as the anchorman and managing editor of The CBS Evening News, Cronkite first gained national recognition for his battlefield reporting of World War II. After covering the Nuremberg trials that prosecuted Nazi leadership for war crimes, he joined CBS News in its new television division.

In 1963, he convinced executives to double the length of the CBS Evening News to 30 minutes, and more importantly, to give him a title that indicated he had the authority to decide what to include in each broadcast. This marked the beginning of a new era in news programs, allowing in-depth coverage as well as creating a national sense of community:

• He introduced America to the space race and covered each milestone, explaining its historical importance.

• He broke the devastating news to the American public that President Kennedy had been shot and killed in Dallas. One of the reasons Cronkite gained so much trust was that he was cautious, announcing the President’s death only after receiving official confirmation. He wanted no part of shortcuts or sensationalism to boost ratings: he believed that the highest calling in news was to get the facts straight and report them impartially. He also gained America’s respect because he got choked up with emotion as the unthinkable loss of a charismatic President sank in as a horrible reality.

• He was “boots on the ground” during the Vietnam War, showing the suffering endured by local peasants from actions committed by U.S. troops. His sense of decency wanted this harsh truth to be known to the American people.

• After the Tet Offensive, he interviewed front line soldiers and General Abrams to get the truth about the war in Vietnam. Abrams told Cronkite that America could not win the war and ought to find a dignified way out.

• When President Nixon’s administration blamed the news media for the public protests against U.S. military operations in Cambodia, they made it clear that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued the licenses the news media needed to operate. This was more than an idle threat against CBS or any other publisher/broadcaster of the news, and Walter Cronkite explained and defended the real issue—the right of the public to receive truthful, untainted news.

• Cronkite bravely summed up his findings in a candid television broadcast to the American people: “We have been too often disappointed by the optimism of the American leaders, both in Vietnam and Washington, to have faith any longer in the silver linings they find in the darkest clouds.”

• It was Cronkite who recognized the importance of Woodward’s and Bernstein’s news articles about the burglars at the Watergate Hotel and brought them to national attention. In response, White House representative Charles Colson threatened to destroy CBS and took away their FCC license to broadcast. Fortunately, the truth prevailed and 48 top Nixon officials were found guilty of various crimes and abuses of power. Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned and, facing impeachment, President Nixon resigned a year later.

• He also emphasized the need for true negotiations instead of dictating terms of peace, which would only be temporary at best: “For it seems now more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate. This summer’s almost certain standoff will either end in real give-and-take negotiations or terrible escalation. And for every means we have to escalate, the enemy can match us. And that applies to invasion of the North, the use of nuclear weapons, or the mere commitment of 100, or 200, or 300 thousand more American troops to the battle. And with each escalation, the world comes closer to the brink of cosmic disaster.”

• He was trusted by both Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and Israeli prime minister Menachin Begin and asked to act as liaison between the two men. This laid the foundation for breaking a 30-year stalemate in the Middle East and led to the 1978 Camp David agreements for peace.