Openly gay Missoula police officer in the limelight

[davidinalameda]

http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2006/05/23/news/local/news03.txt

Leaving City Hall earlier this month, Missoula Police Sgt. Scott Oak stopped short of his parked truck, grimaced and then turned to go back inside.

A three-letter word, “G-A-Y,” was scratched in block letters on the rear-quarter panel of his pickup, and Oak had to report the incident to his own supervisor.

“That was 1,800 bucks worth of damage,” he says, mildly irritated. “They did it right out of view of the camera, too.”

[Peace Patriot]

1. Scapegoaters are always, always cowards. They were cowards when they

lynched black Americans. They were cowards when they invaded the ever small lands to which Native Americans were confined, and then slaughtered virtually the entire population. They were cowards when they gassed Jews, Gypsies, gays and dissenters in Germany. They were cowards when they secretly circulated filthy pamphlets against JFK because he was Catholic. And they're cowards now--as they "sieg heil" their leader and beat up on, last year, gays, this year, Mexicans. What a sorry lot this tiny minority is that worships Bush. Cowards and snivelers, every one of them--just like the cowards they take their signals from.

But I think Sgt. Oaks has their number:

"An openly gay cop, Oak knows how these things go. And as liaison officer to Missoula's gay and lesbian community, he also knows that anti-gay harassment can get a lot worse.

"But cowardly vandals excluded, at 6-foot-3 and 220 pounds, most people don't bother Oak, who patrols Missoula's streets on a motorcycle and won't hide his reputation as a good cop and a hard worker. As a law enforcement officer in Missoula and Great Falls, and as a cadet in the U.S. Air Force, Oak earned the respect of Montana's law enforcement community."

Heart of oak, I'd say.

He reminds me of what a beautiful idea America is, and how it always, in the end, passes through these seizures of bigotry--that we are not alone in the world in suffering--and becomes a better country--because of the IDEA that we represent, that all human beings are equal.

You shouldn't have to be 6-foot-3 and 220 pounds to be safe from the lynchers and the witchburners and the ethnic cleansers. And we all know that. Even the cowards know it. That's why they sneak around, and why their leaders cloak their ugly bigotry in phrases like "Christian marriage" and "immigration control."

The idea of America will win, in the end, because we know what the evil of scapegoating does. We've seen it turned every which way--against the Irish, against Swedes!, against blacks and browns, against Mormons, against Jews, against the Chinese, against the Japanese, against Native Americans, against the Okies, against communists, against pinkos, against Arabs, against whole countries (France, Venezuela), against "liberals," against woman, against women's doctors, against hippies, against the homeless, time and time and time again. We're the greatest "melting pot" the world has ever known, and so we've seen it all.

And so here, we determined to make a haven for all the oppressed people in the world, on the basis of this idea of equality. The "Great Experiment." And we've created it as much out of the failures and difficulties of this great idea, as out of its successes. When I was a girl, if I'd lived in a southern state, John Conyers could not have eaten at the same restaurant with me, could not have drunk water out of the same drinking fountain, could not have lived in the same neighborhood, could not have attended the same schools, and could only have spoken to me as an equal at the risk of being lynched. Today, he is the greatest living member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

That's the idea of America.

Sgt. Oak knows this. We all do. We--the living inheritors of this truly great idea--SHALL overcome.

[triakis36]

2. That was beautiful

:patriot::applause:

[xchrom]

3. very cool -- and we are everywhere.

[MuseRider]

4. Thank goodness that is true.

As hard as it is and as scary as it is (I am assuming) I see more and more people coming out. Every time I get to know someone in that often hard process we surround them with support but most times I find that they do not need what we are offering. It seems at a personal level, one on one or in a small community of people everyone goes, you ARE? Huh? OK, and that is about it. Every time that happens you are one step closer to equality. They are pushing back hard now but I really truly think we are winning this. And thank goodness for you all, my life would be so much less without my friends who are GLBT. If that sounds a little over the edge I'm sorry but it could not be truer or more heartfelt.