Taking a Stand

I have no memory of the 1968 Olympics. Nor do I have clear memories of the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr and Bobby Kennedy that year. The subsequent riots and political unrest existed in a location far away from the desolation of the western plains where I found myself at that time. I think as a child who turned eleven that summer I had more immediate difficulties to deal with. My family, sans father, had moved back to North Dakota after two years in Colorado and one year in Nevada. It was depressing and weird. The four of us kids and our mother were staying with her parents and it was crowded and tense until mom found work and we found a house to rent. The recent peaceful protests and riots in the aftermath of George Floyd's murder by a self-righteous policeman have caused stories from previous tumultuous times to surface, taking me back to a time of less awareness of the world. I ran across this inspiring story a couple of days ago and believe it deserves the widest audience possible. I dare you to read it without tearing up. Peter Norman was a hero, just as his companions on the medal dais John Carlos and Tommie Smith were. To take a stand on an issue during your moment in the limelight takes tremendous courage. I applaud them.