UW's apology to the Black 14

There’s an art to making a sincere apology. Most are not very good at it. Clueless politicians and disingenuous corporations find themselves in more trouble, making a clumsy attempt saying something like, “I’m sorry if you were offended by my offensive behavior.”

Tom Burman could teach them what a genuine apology sounds like.

Tom Burman was a three-year-old when football coach Lloyd Eaton created a stain on Wyoming that lasted half a century. That stain was ignored for nearly four decades before Tom became UW’s Athletic Director in 2006.

Tom was vaguely aware of the Black 14 incident but not many of the underlying facts. He listened to those who had been around in 1969. Some were uncomfortable with what Eaton did to those 14 young men so long ago.

In a brief interview Burman granted me last week, he said he started thinking about what it must have been like for those black kids. The 60s were intense. Civil rights protests blazed across the country. These student athletes were rightly concerned about the racially-discriminatory policies of the Mormon church.

Indeed, Mormons were concerned enough themselves that those policies were reformed a few years after these 14 lost their college careers for raising the subject to their authoritarian coach.

For merely asking to be heard, they were kicked off the team, losing scholarships and other opportunities while being ridiculed by teammates, much of the UW fan base, and many of Wyoming’s political leaders.

The more UW’s new AD learned, the more convicted he became. The University had to make it right.

In 2016, Tom learned the University of Central Florida was hosting these former Wyoming football players in a ceremony honoring civil rights heroes. He traveled to Florida to meet them. Nearly half of the 14 attended the ceremony and were pleasantly surprised that someone from UW had made the trip.

On the long flight home, Tom made up his mind. UW needed to re-establish a relationship with the Black 14. Tom started making regular contact with them. It wasn’t long before there were monthly conference calls and frank conversations. The University had a lot of work to do to establish trust between the school and these men. Tom Burman was determined to make that happen.

And he did. Gradually. Mel Hamilton, Tony McGee, and John Griffin were among the first to come to believe the AD’s sincerity. Their confidence caused others to believe. They were invited to a 2018 basketball game at the Arena Auditorium. Well-founded concerns about whether Wyoming folks would welcome them quickly disappeared when the crowd gave them a standing ovation as they stood courtside. That opened the door to what happened this month.

The surviving members of the Black 14 spent several days on campus. They held a panel discussion, visited classrooms teaching young students about their history, a plaque honoring them was unveiled, and they were celebrated during halftime at the UW-Idaho game.

It was a Friday night dinner where Burman read an apology that should be archived alongside some of the most important papers in the history of the Equality State.

Standing before most of the surviving members of the Black 14, Burman read a letter signed by him and former UW president Laurie Nichols. They called the story of the 1969 incident “heart-wrenching,” and spoke of how important it is that UW reflect on it. Burman acknowledged these young men had been deprived of a college experience that should have been “one of the best of a young person’s life.”

Burman applauded them for “rising above” what happened to lead productive lives, while remaining “faithful to your convictions.”

Burman asked, “Please accept this sincere apology from the University of Wyoming for the unfair way you were treated and for the hardships that treatment caused you.”

The moment gave meaning to UW’s slogan, “What the world needs is more Cowboys.” What the world really needs is more Cowboys like Tom Burman and the members of the legendary Black 14.

Wyoming...a bit like the ladies of the night

WTH is wrong with our elected officials? First, they welcome a private, for-profit corporation plans to build a concentration camp for asylum seekers in Evanston. Now, some legislators are maneuvering the political process to allow the storage of radioactive, used fuel from nuclear reactors in Wyoming. 

These folks come around every two years asking for your vote. They always promise to “diversify” Wyoming’s economy and now we know. This is the best they can do?

These are the farmers Jesus talked about. You remember how they sowed seeds? Erratically, like they had no idea what they were doing. Some seeds fell along the path and birds came and ate them. Others fell on rocky places with shallow soil. When the sun shined on them, they withered. Other seeds fell among thorns and produced nothing.

Neither a concentration camp in Evanston nor turning Wyoming into a graveyard for radioactive nuclear fuel will produce anything but an evil harvest.

Why is it that some elected officials are willing to devalue themselves and our state with them? Honestly, since the day the railroads and mining companies first came a-knocking, Wyoming has always been a bit like the ladies of the night who frequented those railroad and mining towns. Like them, our politicians believe we can’t make a go of it unless we sell body and soul.

Anyone who comes through the door waving a few bucks and promising a good time is welcome regardless of how drunk they are or how crazy they appear.

Marketing oneself that way will attract customers. Those hook-ups may well produce offspring. But it might be offspring the parent won’t be proud to show off and say, “Doesn’t he look just like his father.” Indeed, the father won’t hang around to help raise that child.

Just like those bankrupt coal companies leaving unpaid workers and unpaid taxes in their wake, operators of the immigrant prison in Evanston will bring shame to Wyoming and will one day, after Trump becomes history, close their doors and walk away. They’ll leave a local economy disheveled by their hiring practices, empty homes in foreclosure, and decaying buildings with no use but to serve as another monument to shortsighted politicians.

And when that first truck wreck spills hazardous materials along the streets of one of our communities or the storage sites leak radioactive poison into our water sources and otherwise threatens public safety, there will be no other sucker-state or federal agency willing to save us from ourselves. The nuclear power companies will abandon us like the one-night stand we agreed to be.

Some of you are old enough to remember a couple of earlier bad ideas some of our politicians glommed on to. Remember the coal slurry pipeline? A few out of state entrepreneurs suggested they build a pipeline from Wyoming to Texas and use our limited supply of underground water to move coal from here to there. A lot of politicians saw dollar signs and it took years to drive a stake through the heart of that water-sucking vampire.

Remember Project Wagon Wheel? El Paso Natural Gas Company came a-calling. They wanted to detonate nuclear bombs under the fragile geological formations in Northwest Wyoming in order to free natural gas reserves.

Wyoming historian Ann Noble of Pinedale wrote about it for wyohistory.org. “El Paso Natural Gas revealed that the initial experiment would involve five 100-kiloton devices detonated sequentially underground, a few minutes apart, in a single well at depths ranging from 9,220 feet to 11,570 feet.” 

As lunatic as that sounds today, a lot of legislators and other politicians including the governor were excited by the potential for “economic development.” It took a heroic grassroots campaign to stop the nuttiness.

It will now take another heroic grassroots campaign to stop the prison camp in Evanston and radioactive waste coming to Wyoming. Calling all heroes. Now is the time to show how much more you value Wyoming than do too many of those we elect to represent us. 

What Presbyterians expect of one another

Senators Mike Enzi and John Barrasso, and Donald Trump are Presbyterians. They proclaim membership in the Presbyterian Church USA.

Presbyterian congregations, “welcome all persons who trust in God’s grace in Jesus Christ and desire to become part of the fellowship and mission of the Church.” Failure to do so is considered “a rejection of Christ himself” and “a scandal to the Gospel.”

Thus, Misters Trump, Enzi, and Barrasso were welcomed as brothers in the faith. 

Just as congregations have responsibilities to members, members have responsibilities to congregations. As with any denomination, those wishing to join are asked to enter into a covenant with God and those who are already members.

A covenant is a Divinely established relationship based on mutual commitments and promises among the followers of God.  These three gentlemen likely went through the sacred process of establishing a covenant with fellow Presbyterians. That ritual would have included a profession of faith and testimony of commitment to Christ under the terms and expectations of all who declare themselves part of the same fellowship.

Section G-1.0304 of our Book of Order reads, “Membership in the Church is a joy and a privilege. It is also a commitment to participate in Christ’s mission.” As faithful Presbyterians, I’m sure they entered into the commitment freely and joyfully.

Each stood before a congregation that would have been proud to welcome new members of such renown. Like all aspiring congregants, they were asked by their pastor if they would make known to God their willingness to abide by the promises we Presbyterians make to one another. They would have been expected to respond, “With God’s help, I do.”

In that moment, the three committed themselves to a number of undertakings. They agreed to proclaim the good news in word and deed. The three swore to take part in the common life and worship of the community, to lift up others in prayer with mutual concern and active support. 

They agreed also to study scripture and the issues of Christian life and faith.

In addition, they would have promised to support the ministry of the church with time, money, and talent and to “demonstrate a new quality of life within and through the church.”

Then each also committed to respond to God’s activity in the world through service to others and by living responsibly in their personal, family, vocational, political, cultural, and social relationships.

This is the point at which our stories converge with the story told in the Gospel of Luke of the rich young ruler who asked Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus told him he must follow the commandments. Don’t kill anybody, don’t steal from them, don’t lie, and honor your mother and father.

“Bingo,” said the young man. “I’ve complied with those since childhood.” Jesus said, “Oh yes, there’s one other thing. Sell everything you own and give the money to the poor.” When Jesus imposed that requirement, the man walked away sad, because he was very rich and had no intention of doing what was necessary to inherit eternal life.

This is the point at which the Presbyterian covenant is akin to Jesus saying, “There is one other thing.” In addition to all those other promises we make to each other and to God, Presbyterian membership demands another commitment. We commit ourselves to be “working in the world for peace, justice, freedom, and human fulfillment.”

I am proud the Presbyterian commitment includes those lofty promises. The world needs people who live up to them. As political leaders in positions of power, God uses those words to assign the President and Senators Enzi and Barrasso unique responsibilities and opportunities to abide by that sacred commitment.

Whether you be a Presbyterian or other form of Christian or a Muslim, Buddhist, or Unitarian Universalist, a Democrat or a Republican, we can all pray our elected officials fulfill God’s hope expressed in the covenant by “working in the world for peace, justice, freedom, and human fulfillment.”