“In the gates of eternity the black hand and the white hold each other with an equal clasp.” — Harriet Beecher Stowe

Austin grew up as a melting pot, for times an uncomfortable melting pot according to Mr. Richardson, a former Austin High School teacher. That was in the early Hormel Days and they came here for work and one could say that has continued on until this day. In those first days there were the Swedes, Germans, the Irish and probably Norwegians and I suspect Polish families and a few Bohemians. Austin was a melting pot, a pot that heated over from time to time.

For me, a son of or grandson of Bohemians/Norwegians there was now a unity of people without the help of a Human Rights Commission.

I remember when Jerry Austin joined our sixth-grade class at Banfield. He had darker skin and Miss Frost invited me to acquaint him with Banfield. I thought he moved here from Texas but maybe not. He had a cowboy look about him without the hat. I think he might have had just a good tan and he moved here when winter prevented “tans” for us northerners.

There was Sunni Wong; I may be misspelling his name. His family owned Wong’s Café on Main Street. He was a close friend of my cousin Ed’s. Sunni was in our class.

When we boarded the bus here and again in Faribault going to the cities for our pre-induction I think all the inductee’s were white. That would not be the case today. There is no draft.

It wasn’t until I got to Schofield Barracks in Hawaii that I began to run into “people of color” of course it seemed the white did their best to turn brown. A couple of them, Mad Dog Dawson and Joe #$@& the Ragman got fried on Waikiki Beach. They were bed ridden for three or four days. It was difficult to watch them take their necessary walks to the latrine taking these very slow steps.

Sgt. Mac Fadden and I slept on the lanai on the outer edge of the barracks. He looked like Bill Cosby and was just as funny. The first black person I got to know. He was the colonel’s drive. On our boat cruise to Vietnam he was the one who re-drew the cartoon from the Honolulu Advertiser of the statue of liberty leaning up against a bar in Saigon with the bartender asking, “What’s a nice lady like you doing in a place like this?”

Diversity was part of the Army. I worked for two black sergeants and Major Dinkins the Operation Officer. The Executive Officer, Major Artis, who was also black, helped me out of a bind with a pending Article 15.

I can’t forget Ray Nakomoto, a Japanese/Hawaiian, and a good friend.

Now as I look at Austin, it’s changed. It was nice to see students of various ethic groups accepting their diplomas at graduation and listening to the loudest audience cheers of proud parents and family in the bleachers. I see the diversity as a plus for the community, however there are still difficulties adjusting to the community. Probably kind have like it was in my grandparent’s day when the residents were of the same color as I mentioned earlier.

I was told the other day of all the free lunches to the kids in a “rainbow of colors.” Humans have the tendency I was told to blame others for what’s happening to them. And there is some friction between people of color who come here to work —“newcomers.” There are different groups of newcomers and different positions in the job market. I’m told that 44 percent of our illegals come from Canada. That was a surprise to me.

For quite some time I wanted to serve on the Human Rights Commission and it happened, unfortunately too much time is spent sitting around some tables in one of the library conference rooms not really discussing human rights issues.

Near the beginning of the meeting people from the community are invited to stop in and share their concerns. Concerns use to be raised at the end of the meeting and I think now we are suggesting one or the other.

I would like to invite you to come visit especially if you have a community concern. You probably have a better sense of those concerns then we do. We are willing to listen. If interested call Trishi Wiechmann at 437-9942.