[conspire] Leadership

[Rick Moen]

I wanted to spend a moment talking about a President, since the USA
currently doesn't have one.  In this case, it'll be a man who wasn't yet
the President, but became among the greatest of them when he ascended to
office.  Refreshingly, this story also involves respect for our military
and for our war dead.

Private Felix Z. Longoria, Jr. of Three Rivers, Texas
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Z._Longoria_Jr.) had gone through
the WWII European war, getting the Purple Heart in Brest, France, and then
was shipped around the world to the Pacific war.  He was fighting on
Luzon Island in the Phillipines with a US Army infantry unit in June,
1945.  His platoon was ambushed by an Imperial Japanese machine gunner,
and Private Longoria was among those killed.  It took several years
following the end of the war for his remains to be found, identified,
and sent home for burial, arriving near the end of 1948.

When they went to make funeral arrangements back home in Three Rivers,
Felix's beloved wife Beatriz and daughter Adelita were shocked to 
hear Tom Kennedy, the director of Three Rivers's _only_ funeral home,
Rice Funeral Home, say "We never made a practice of letting Mexicans use
the chapel, and we don't want to start now."

The young widow didn't know what to do, and cried her heart out to her
sister Sara Moreno.  Miss Moreno mentioned this horror to a friend, Dr.
Hector P. Garcia, who had recently co-founded a veterans group called
American GI Forum.  Dr. Garcia and a reporter, George Groh, of the
_Corpus Christi Caller_, telephoned Kennedy to hear an explanation of
why they refused to help the family of an American hero.  He would not
back down:  "The whites might get angry."  He was willing, at most, to
set up a wake at the Longoria home, which was in a segregated
neighbourhood for Hispanics.  And someone in the American GI Forum had
an idea:  Let's see if our newly elected Senator can help.

This was Texas's freshman Senator Lyndon B. Johnson.  Dr. Garcia
happened to mention the situation to local Congressman John E. Lyle,
whom he met when they were both serving together in Italy.  Lyle was
friends with young Senator Johnson.

_This_ is what leadership looks like, in case people have forgotten.  
Senator Johnson's response:

  I deeply regret that the prejudice of some individuals extends even
  beyond this life.  I have no authority over civilian funeral homes,
  nor does the Federal government.  However, I have today made
  arrangements to have Felix Longoria reburied with full military 
  honors in Arlington National Cemetery ... where the honored dead 
  of our nation's wars rest.  This injustice and prejudice is deplorable. 
  I am happy .. in seeing that this Texas hero is laid to rest with 
  the honor and dignity his service deserves."

Senator Johnson, of course, attended the ceremony -- you know, the way a
leader would without hesitation.
https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/2161949arlington-virginiathe-body-of-felix-longoria-a-texas-gi-of-picture-id515219346?s=594x594