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 classmates 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.