I don’t know the extremes to which one can go to be called a pacifist, so I don’t label myself one but do join the majority that eschews violence. I don’t like witnessing people fighting in anger, and I’m sure I’m not alone in that. I remember way back to my elementary school years when the occasional fight would break out, usually on the playground and always accompanied by a half-dozen voices proclaiming the fisticuffs. When you heard, “Fight, fight, fight,” you dropped whatever you were doing and ran to a rapidly growing circle of spectators forming around the two combatants. As boys, it was as if the times demanded we be part of these skirmishes, but I was never comfortable with the whole spectacle; especially on those occasions when blood was drawn. I still get queasy around human-on-human violence even after some years witnessing fights when working at juvenile hall and later as an officer at the prison. During my prison years, I saw or was involved in enough violence, always bloody, to last a lifetime.
Looking back on my years at KCHS, I saw a handful of fights; maybe seven or eight in those four years. Those were campus fights, usually at after-school functions, and there was always one or two incidents every year at the Fair. But I have noticed in the past few years what seems to me to be an increase in fighting, even accounting for the increase in population. And that information comes via our very own newspaper.
I read most of the paper, public notices and police reports among the lot. Here are a couple entries from 2025 KC police reports: Dec. 5 3:54 p.m. Fight on school grounds on Broadway St.; Dec. 9 10:40 a.m. Fight on school grounds on Broadway St.; Dec. 10 10:58 a.m. and 12:01 p.m. Fight on school grounds on Broadway St. I have noticed over the past decade how often those words are found in the report; 50 years ago that would have been called a spate of student violence and would have been addressed at school board meetings, in the papers, on the radio and across back fences. It could be the percentage of fights among students, which could mean girls as well as boys, are in line with percentages of 50-plus years ago just adjusted for population increase; but I doubt it.
So, what are the seeds of these fights? A quick police report does not give details, motives for instance, and when students are involved, there is a cloak of silence around details like age, sex and why this person got into a brouhaha with a fellow student, or whomever, on the campus, usually during school hours. I’m sure the City and the PD are working along side school administration and trustees to address this youth violence issue before we lose some lads to a system where violence is the norm.
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This middle section of today’s column is a rant, so you can skip below to the next section if you want. Mount Rushmore. I’ve been there, in the summer of 1964, and like most young boys with my background I was impressed by its size and detail. That was when I was 12 years old and my knowledge of American history was limited to mostly what white people wrote. When I was 19 years old, I read the book “Black Elk Speaks” and so began further investigation on my part, which has led to my present belief.
I do not, as others have proposed and some have applauded, support the idea that Donald J. Trump’s image should be added to the monument. What I do support is the removal of those images that are there now; images which should never been sculpted there in the first place. A brief look at history will reveal the U.S. government violated the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie, which granted permanent ownership of the Black Hills, Lakota name Paha Sape, to the Arapaho, Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne; this included the sacred mountain Thunkasila Sakpe, the Six Grandfathers in our tongue. When the government allowed Lt. Col. G.A. Custer to lead an exhibition into the sacred lands, where gold was discovered, it was a direct violation of Lakota rights, which resulted in the Sioux Wars of 1876; a war lost in 1880 at Wounded Knee.
By 1884, the Black Hills was overrun with white settlers and mining companies, one of which sent a New York attorney to the area, his name was Charles E. Rushmore. The rest is history; bad history. For comparison, imagine how southerners would feel if Dr. King’s image was sculpted onto Stone Mountain or how well a portrait of Martin Luther adorning the Vatican would go over with Catholics. Or the face of a convicted felon and racist carved into a mountain considered holy by the original inhabitants of the land. Personally, I would rather see the four images there now blown into rubble and let the Lakota do what they will with their mountain. But maybe that’s just me.
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I recently saw a video posted by a man who along with six others were driving along Jolon Road on their way to do some fishing at Lake San Antonio when they were stopped by a military police vehicle and hauled in. The man made, and posted, the video from his seat on an airplane parked on the tarmac at the Tijuana airport, where he and his six compadres were waiting to be sent to their home states in Mexico. So, it seems to me given the man’s testimony, the fort is helping round up and deport immigrants. I have been given some information about this issue and will address it in a future column because this city has a very good working relationship with Fort Hunter Liggett and these types of actions can cause ripples that can turn into waves.
Take care. Peace.
