SHOOTING CASTS LONG SHADOW

We've been told time and again that timing can make all the
difference, so we shouldn't be surprised at the anger with which the
initial request for 300 African-American veterans to go to Carver High
School was met.

Tina Cross, Carver's service learning coordinator, was asking for
black vets to tell students about their war experiences. Some white
veterans say the project is a slap in the face.

What is worse, the school project is now worming its way into the
shadows of the case of Kenneth B. Walker, an unarmed man fatally shot
by a Muscogee County sheriff's deputy after authorities said he failed
to comply with commands to show his hands. Walker and three other men
were stopped the night of Dec. 10 as part of a drug investigation. But
no drugs or weapons were found in the car.

Dragging this student project into the shooting tensions simply shows
that despite all we say and do, some of us still don't seem to respect
the differences of others. And there are differences. The differing
beliefs about the Walker case attest to that.

A recent letter to the editor advised that blacks could avoid being
killed by law enforcement during drug busts by ridding their
neighborhoods of drug dealers. According to another letter writer,
Walker was responsible for his own death.

Letters to the editor are not color-coded, but it seems highly
unlikely that either of the letter writers is black.

Various segments of the community are at odds with each other
regarding law enforcement's behavior in the Walker case; no wonder
there is disagreement about a call for stories from black veterans.

The project has been changed to include ALL veterans, but facts remain
the same.

Do the Tuskegee Airmen have the same war tales to tell as their white
counterparts?

In his in his autobiography, "My American Journey," Colin Powell
remembers the "awarding" of medals in Vietnam.

"... at one firebase the departing CO was awarded three Silver Stars,
the nation's third-highest medal for valor, plus a clutch of other
medals, after a tour lasting six months... . Awards were piled on to a
point where writing justifying citations were a minor art form. The
departing battalion commander's 'package,' a Silver Star, Legion of
Merit, and Air Medals just for logging helicopter time, became almost
standard issue."

Powell also described the flip side of the process. Master Sgt. Roy P.
Benavidez earned the Distinguished Service Cross, for valor in
Vietnam, "where in 1968 he saved the lives of eight trapped Special
Forces troops, in the course of which he was wounded nine times. Years
later, after additional evidence of his bravery was reviewed,
Benavidez's award was upgraded to the Medal of Honor. This highest
military award is traditionally presented by the President... But
President Carter never got around to pinning the medal on Benavidez."

There are different tales to be told because lives are different.
Experiences are different, and the way people experience life is
different. Anyone who denies that will never hear the whole story.