Mr. Rawles,
Please add my comments regarding Lt. Vernon Baker. I have owned a small ranch about half way between St. Maries and Potlatch, Idaho for the last decade. Lt. Baker was highly respected in St. Maries, and throughout the rest of Benewah County, Idaho. This last summer the whole town came together to raise funds to pay all the expenses for his widow and a companion to attend Lt. Baker’s internment at Arlington National Cemetery. The folks in town were proud to do it.
I don’t know where Alex B. is geographically so I can’t speak to his circumstances. I have been temporarily living on the wrong side of the Big Muddy for the last six years. What I can tell you is that where I come from we value a man or woman on the basis of how they keep their word, and how they treat others. That’s why our whole community leaped into action within hours of hearing about Lt. Baker’s demise and his widow’s need. I have seen that same spirit in Oklahoma where I have friends, but I have never once seen that spirit in the six years I have lived in the Eastern United States. At the company where I used to work for the last six years (I am now retired ) I was never able to raise more than $300 for the local food bank in the whole month between Thanksgiving and Christmas, despite the company employing almost 600 people.
I think that Alex will find that in the West and in the South – in the agricultural areas – race is less a factor that it once was, and that a great many of the locals are open hearted and respond readily to people of good character. We have lots of room in the West for folks who want to live and worship in freedom. – James J., Behind Enemy Lines