Were shoes thrown at Bush or at the President? I remember something from long ago:

[DonEBrook]

I was a lowly 1st Lt. in the USAF at what was then Ent AFB in Colorado Springs and it must have been
1968 because it was just after Bobby Kennedy was killed in California. My friend Charles and I were
walking down the street that went by the BX; I forget the street name but we often went down that way
to go to Happy Hour at the Antlers Plaza (free artichokes where I first ate and learned to love them!)

Charlie was a recently-promoted Captain and thus outranked me, something he often gleefully mentioned since I
had outranked -him- in college ROTC a few years earlier. He was also one of the most purely 'black' people
I had ever seen much less known. I mean his skin coloration - he was not tan, brown, mauve, beige, gray or
anything else but about as close to ebony as any man I've ever seen. He looked just like Dr. Royce Worthington
from Heinlein's "Magic Inc." if that helps. His eyes could be calming if things weren't going well or
terrifying if he wasn't pleased with something. Charlie (or Charles as he preferred to be called by those who
didn't know him well) could frighten any ordinary human more with a calculated smile than most men could do with
their most practiced "war face". I got "that look" only a couple of times in the years we were friends...
and I was very glad we -were- friends.

Anyway, we were just walking down this street when an enlisted man popped out onto the sidewalk from a store,
maybe 20 yards in front of us. I guess he was an E2 certainly not an NCO but the moment he saw us, he started
to run across the street but there was traffic and he couldn't get into the road. I wondered what the hell
then I noticed he looked almost panicked at seeing us coming close to him. "What's wrong with that guy?", I
wondered aloud but mostly to myself and Charlie heard me...he said "I've seen that guy before, I think he just
doesn't want to salute me...he always runs to the other side of the street."

I said "Let's nab him and find out"...I called the guy over and just asked him "Are you trying to avoid us?"
Sure enough, "I don't salute negroes" he said. (The back story of how he got into the USAF, as I learned
later, was a bit convoluted but not really interesting enough to detail here)

As he stood there, probably expecting to be chewed out or maybe Article Fifteened, I reached up and took
Charlie's hat off and held it up next to mine. I said "My friend here, as a person, doesn't care if you're
an idiot or a bigot...and actually neither do I - so you don't have to salute HIM but you are goddamned well
obligated to recognize his rank so how about you salute his hat and my hat out on this here sidewalk?

The kid looked like he'd seen a ghost. We just stood there, nobody said a word...it seemed like a long
time but surely couldn't have been more than 20 or 30 seconds. I could see he wanted to say something and as I
found out later both Charlie and I were enjoying the moment -way- too much. :D Finally the airman looked
at Charlie and said "Captain, I really am sorry, if you will put your hat back on, I'll salute it...and you,
Sir."

You know how those Colorado Springs streets can be really dusty...I got some in my eye right then and it was
still there in 1993 when I got the news Charlie had lost his battle with cancer.

-30-

[BrklynLiberal]

1. The hatred is aimed at George Bush, the so-called man.

Even at its worst, people did not blame all Americans for what its government did.

I admire the courage of the shoe-thrower.

[DonEBrook]

2. I'll acknowledge his courage ... but I won't admire it.

And so there we are. :shrug: