Okay, I am a newspaper reader as many of you know and will be sad when the printed version goes away. The local paper, the Arizona Daily Star (a Lee Enterprises joint) has a series that appears on Saturday. Each Saturday, they feature a different local hike or recreation area. This series is very nice and has led me to some local gems over the years.
Well, last Saturday they featured the Gordon H. Recreation Area in the Coronado National Forest. I have driven by it many times, but never stopped there (always going somewhere else on the mountain).
This was an Honor Camp. From what I can tell, basically a prison labor camp with minimal security. Prisoners here helped build the Catalina Highway up Mount Lemmon. The interesting piece of its history is that it housed Japanese Americans who were rounded up during WWII, including the aforementioned Gordon H. who defied the internment and got his case all the way to the Supreme Court, where he lost. In those days, to add insult to injury, the government didn't transport you to your prison so he had to hitch hike to Tucson to serve his sentence.
Here are a couple of pics of the ruins.
I like seeing pieces of history (remember the Trinity Site...I visited Dachau when I was in Germany). We need to remember the injustices of the past or we may repeat them. Post 9/11, the U.S. went a little crazy and unjustly detaiedn some Muslim citizens. Fortunately, saner heads prevailed and for the most part, the ones who should not have been detained were released (with a couple of exceptions who are still somewhat questionable). Looking back, it is not so far fetched to wonder if we would have gone off the deep end if another attach occurred in the fall of 2001 and locked up thousands of our citizens simply for who they were and not for anything the did.
Which brings me to the question Hale, what do you think about the Immigration bill down there? I feel safe in asking that here as we are all pretty sane and can have a logical discussion.
ReplyDeleteWell, the law itself is a political stunt to get publicity and, um, it worked. It's pretty much unenforceable without racial profiling...or maybe we are going to go crazy and start intentionally asking grandmothers for ID just to even out the stats.
ReplyDeleteOur legislature has pretty much abdicated its responsibility to make the tough choices and pass a budget and is trying to get the voters to approve a (allegedly) temporary 1 cent per dollar increase in the sales tax which will raise about $1 billion per year while simultaneously pushing through $1 billion per year in tax cuts which. They needed a good diversion from what they are doing and boy, they found one!
Thanks Hale!
ReplyDeleteI just wish someone would come up with some kind of solution to this mess. But it's an election year so I very much doubt anything will get done.
Interesting piece of history, Hale...
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