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PAGE 4 | THE VILLAGER • June 4, 2020
Mixing civil rights and civil disobedience I ask myself sitting down to write this column, “What do I really know about “Civil Rights?” I grew up in far N.W. Colorado where we had not a single African American resident. In fact, as a youth I saw a “Blue Law” sign hanging on the wall of the ancient rock structured city hall stating that no person of color could spend the night in Craig. We had one Jewish family, a World War II veteran, who became my lifelong friend and dentist. We had a very welcomed Mexican/American community with many of the men engaged in the sheep and wool industry; Craig being the largest wool shipping city in America. We also had a vibrant and successful Greek community growing out of early Greek immigrants coming to Northwest Colorado because of that sheep industry. They worked as sheep herders and then rising through decades of. hard work to become prosperous landowners. Many of the Greek families still reside in Craig and built a Greek Orthodox Church. Some of the Greek family descendants live in Greenwood Village like Helen Kourlis Brady and family. Retired Supreme Court
Justice Rebecca Love Kourlis is married to Helen’s brother Tom who still ranches near Craig. We all attended Craig schools and got along famously well; Mexican, Irish, Greek, we were just kids and we played sports together and dated each other. I can’t remember one racial incident in my Moffat County school years. In later years the sign came down in city hall and African/American families were welcome; few have come, then or now. The area is remote, lack of jobs, and long winters. Only the Mexicans, Irish and Greeks were tough enough to survive the weather and economy. I never saw any race issues at Colorado State University. The African American athletes were highly revered and respected. They would hold center stage in the student union every morning, joined by many students for coffee and fellowship. I do not remember many girls of color on campus. Entering the Army at Fort Knox, KY was my first real experience with southern men and prejudice. The first week of armor school we were bused to a gymnasium for inoculation. I had 35 class-
mates in AOB 3, none colored, and all from the South, except the “Yankee” from Colorado, me. As we entered the large gym there were many draft recruits in long lines awaiting shots for an assortment of diseases that we might encounter. I spotted a very short line and made a beeline for it. A black corpsman was administering the shots. Made no difference to me, and within minutes I was back with my group where several classmates from Louisiana grabbed me and said, “Are you crazy letting that black man touch you?” Wow, welcome to the south and prejudice... My next adventure was as a 2nd Lt. range officer on active duty. I had a unit of largely career African/ American non-commissioned officers under my command running tank firing ranges. We got along famously well and never had a single issue. Some had served in World War ll, and Korea. They helped me do my job and we trained hundreds of tank crews in machine guns and tank 105 cannons. I’m sure some ended up in Vietnam in 1961. We come to today and the racial tensions exploding across America. I’m certainly not a racist, anything but.
I’m appalled at the murder of George Floyd. Justice will be served. I’m also appalled at the lack of leadership shown by the Minnesota Governor and Mayor to prevent their city from being vandalized. They brought in the state troopers and the national guard way too late after the fact with buildings and people’s livelihoods destroyed. That is not civil disobedience, but anarchy that poisons race relations, and could be the calculated intent of the outsiders who rushed to spread the violence and incite racial hatred, not civil disobedience. I admire our many black leaders, athletes, business leaders, soldiers, and teachers. We have come a long, long way, from the Blue Law signage and the civil rights era. Maybe not far enough, but America did elect the first black president and we may have a black woman on the ballot for vice-president come November. It would seem that some of the anger was the lock down over the coronavirus and the loss of livelihood and jobs. America is angry right now and we should be over many issues’ past and present. I found it ironic that the vandals still had masks on as they looted the stores.
The Villager
Office: 8933 East Union Ave. • Suite 230 Greenwood Village, CO 80111-1357 Phone: (303) 773-8313 Fax: (303) 773-8456 A legal newspaper of general circulation in Arapahoe County, Colorado. (USPS 431-010) Published weekly by the Villager Publishing Co., Inc. Available for home or office delivery by U.S. Mail for $52 per year. Single copies available for $1 per issue. PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID AT ENGLEWOOD, CO. A Colorado Statutory Publication CRS (197324-70 et al). Postmaster: Send address changes to The Villager, 8933 East Union Ave., Suite #230, Greenwood Village, Colorado 80111-1357 Deadlines: Display Advertising, Legal Notices, press releases, letters to the editor, 4:00 p.m. Friday. Classified Advertising, noon Monday.
PUBLISHER & EDITOR Gerri Sweeney — x307 gerri@villagerpublishing.com PUBLISHER Robert Sweeney — x350 bsween1@aol.com VICE PRESIDENT/MARKETING Sharon Sweeney — x305 sharon@villagerpublishing.com CREATIVE MARKETING DIRECTOR Susan Sweeney Lanam 720-270-2018 susan@villagerpublishing.com LEGALS Becky Osterwald legal@villagerpublishing.com NEWS EDITOR gerri@villagerpublishing.com GOVERNMENTAL REPORTERS Freda Miklin fmiklin.villager@gmail.com 303-489-4900 • 303-773-8313 x365 Jessica Roe jessica@projournalists.com 303-588-9899 REPORTERS Robert Sweeney bsween1@aol.com STAFF WRITER Doris B. Truhlar dorisbtruhlar@gmail.com 720-934-4645 FASHION & LIFESTYLE Scottie Iverson swan@denverswan.com DESIGN/PRODUCTION MANAGER Tom McTighe production@villagerpublishing.com ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS Susan Lanam — 720-270-2018 Sharon Sweeney — 303-503-1388 sharon@villagerpublishing.com Linda Kehr — 303-881-9469 linda@villagerpublishing.com
It is with a note of sadness that we observe and honor the death of three very notable local citizens following the obituary last week of former Greenwood Village councilman Clark Upton. This week we received notice of the death of three more prominent and revered citizens. Judge Robert Fullerton was a preeminent Denver judge with family roots in Colorado going back to 1859. His full obituary is in this week’s newspaper. Among his many attributes he presided over the marriage of my youngest daughter over a decade ago and had a reputation as the “Marrying Judge,” according to his daughter Linda. His lovely wife Beverlee is one of our most successful realtors. I was in the Denver Lions Club with his brother Don for decades, but Bob was always too busy holding daily court. Another historic figure who left us May 23 was Bob
Tschirki who was superintendent of both Cherry Creek and Littleton school districts. He always had a smile on his face and enjoyed his lifetime career in education. He was awarded the “Colorado Superintendent of the Year” in 1988. His motto, “Make this a great day! ”Read his obituary in The Villager this week. The Ringsby Truck line delivered newsprint to my Craig newspaper for years owned and operated by the Ringsby family. Later in life I met Don and Karen Ringsby who both were very active in the local community. Don branched out from trucking and became president of Denver based Aspen Airways. Karen once wrote a column for this newspaper. Don was very active in the Colorado Consular Corp and served as a member and officer in that organization. He was a giant in commerce and industry passing away May 15. ***
I received a special treat this week in a manila envelope from Larry Brown, a new resident of Kingman, Kansas. Larry is a lifelong friend from Western Slope days when he worked for the Colorado River Water Conservation division based in Glenwood Springs. He would visit the newspaper as part of his river water territory of Yampa, White and Colorado rivers The family eventually ended up living in Littleton where Larry and I ate hotdogs and talked politics. They now reside in Kingman, KS. He just sent me a copy of the local Kingman-Courier with the following note. “My hometown newspaper has a feisty editor, the kind that was common 40 or 50 years ago. Rare today.” Best regards, Larry I enjoyed reading the local newspaper and agree that publisher Jason Jump is feisty, His lead front page story was taking the County Health Director to task for
keeping the Kingman Expo Center shut down with nary a case of coronavirus in the entire county. Jump quotes Thomas Jefferson’s saying, “I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery.” Larry still reads his other hometown paper, The Villager. *** We should do whatever we can to return to normal. Proceed with caution on all fronts. No one is forced to go anywhere. It is a matter of personal choice. The Kingman-Leader’s box on the front page says it very well: “It’s not the government’s job to protect my health. It is the government’s job to protect my RIGHTS! It’s my job to protect my health. When you trade liberty for safety you end up losing both.” ***
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Valerie LeVier — 303-358-1555 valerie@villagerpublishing.com Gerri Sweeney — x307 gerri@villagerpublishing.com Scottie Iverson swan@denverswan.com SUBSCRIPTIONS B.T. Galloway — x301 subscribe@villagerpublishing.com PHOTOGRAPHER Stefan Krusze — 303-717-8282 octaviangogoI@aol.com EDITORIAL COLUMNISTS Robert Sweeney — x350 bsween1@aol.com The Villager is an award-winning, locally owned, independent newspaper. All letters to the editor must be signed. The contributor’s name, hometown and phone number must also accompany all letters to the editor for verification, and we reserve the right to edit contributions for space. We attempt to verify all matters of fact but hold contributors liable for the content, accuracy and fairness of their contributions. All submissions become the property of The Villager and may be reused in any medium.
Reverend Martin Niemoller “In Germany, the Nazis first came for the communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me and by that time there was no one left to speak for me!”
2020 Member
QUOTE of the WEEK QUOTE the WEEK Wine isofconstant
proof that God loves us and loves to see us happy. – Benjamin Franklin
