Horizons of Heroes Read online

  Cameron had exhausted his four-year funding of his G.I. Bill on undergraduate and law school. He faced depleted funding for his final three quarters. He wrote to the VA about how proud he was to serve his country and how thankful he was for the significant education that the G.I. Bill had afforded him. “Funding for three quarters is all I need. I don’t believe that the founders of the G.I. Bill program would have wanted a G.I., like me, who had has obtained a B. A. degree and almost obtained a law degree to be removed from his program due to funding. Your extension will help me earn my juris doctor degree where I will become a lawyer earning a large salary which will result in paying more taxes. I will no doubt pay an accelerated rate of higher taxes with the three quarters of funding that you would provide. I submit that I will no doubt pay for this extension in higher taxes within one to two years and I will also be paying much more in taxes as I advance in my legal career. It would also be a bad statistic for the V.A. to see a G.I. not graduate. Achieving greatness following military service, without this degree could doom me forever? Lastly, as a veteran, I fought daily serving our country overseas to help preserve freedom and our American way of life. Please take a moment and approve my request for an extension of my G.I. Bill. Thank you.”

  Cameron had never heard of a veteran receiving an extension on his GI Bill, but he was mistaken. Cameron’s VA checks continued uninterrupted. With his persuasive letter and the resulting checks, Cameron knew he was on track to be a successful lawyer.

  Michelle was accepted into NU shortly thereafter.

  “Hi Michelle,” said Cameron. “I have some really good news. The NU law school placement office helped me secure an internship position with the city’s prosecutor’s office for part of my second year of law school and over the summer.”

  In this position, Cameron would write memorandums to assist the attorneys in court. He also had an opportunity to talk with city attorneys about case law and their legal careers. Every story was different. Cameron knew that if he was fortunate enough to graduate, he would eventually need to make a difficult decision on the direction he would take on his legal career.

  Cameron studied diligently during his second year of law school and his grades reflected the renewed effort improving to a 3.5 GPA.

  Michelle also received a 3.5 GPA for her sophomore year at NU.

  About a week later, Cameron received a call from Michelle’s father. “Can we talk?”

  “Certainly,” said Cameron.

  “Cameron, we haven’t seen you in a while, you are welcome to come by anytime.”

  Cameron thanked him and said he would.

  “Michelle says you did well in your second year of law school and are moving on to your third year. Congratulations Cameron. Would you be interested in working a three months’ federal internship position starting in two weeks?”

  “Yes sir.”

  “I’m going to have Michelle drop off an application that I would like you to fill it out. It’s a position in my department. You won’t be working directly for me but for the entire department. You would be drafting memorandums on federal projects.” Cameron was shocked. He always sensed that Michelle’s dad liked him, but for him to offer Cameron a job was amazing.

  Cameron wondered why Michelle’s father found and then offered him a job. Her father was a wonderful, loving man. It had been nine months since Michelle and Cameron were together with no hint of a break up. Maybe, just maybe her parents were taking a second, third or even a fourth look at Cameron.

  Cameron followed up and quickly submitted the application and started work two weeks later.

  The people in the office were wonderful. They all welcomed Cameron with huge smiles, so he knew that Michelle’s father had told them that he was dating his daughter. Twelve people in the department would now take their turns trying to figure out if Cameron would be okay to possibly marry Michelle. Cameron wrote memorandums on meaningful subjects with the goal of advancing the public good. By the end of the third month, all thumbs were pointing up. Cameron really liked his co-workers, and had so much fun bantering on issues where every day seemed like a college discourse as opposed to work.

  Cameron was really grateful for this internship position as it helped finance several months of his third year of law school.

  Michelle and Cameron ate together and studied together every chance they could. They both did well in school.

  Cameron’s father gave him a call to see if he wanted fly down to Westport, Washington to go salmon fishing.

  “Absolutely,” said Cam.

  On the morning of the flight, Cameron drove over to his father’s house, then his father drove to Boeing Field. Dan Price, loved flying and maintained his own plane since getting out of the Air Force in World War II. He had owned several planes over the years, including one of his favorites, the piper cub know as the Henry Ford of aviation which was simple to operate. The plane took off after receiving proper clearance from the tower. Dan flew the piper cub on a straight path to Westport. The airport at Westport was fogged in so Dan flew the plane 10 miles out over the ocean where the fog had lifted. He then flew under the fog until they neared the Westport runway. They were now flying about two to four feet above the ocean. “Darn son, we are not going to make it.” His father banked the plane hard to the left flying up through the clouds and back out over the ocean into the clouds. Seeing a break in the clouds, he decided to do a beach landing. “Son, if I can see, I can put this plane down on a tree.” Dan managed to miss the driftwood on the beach and landed the plane perfectly.

  They hitchhiked to their salmon charter boat.

  Cameron told his father about Michelle. “She’s wonderful, dad.”

  “I would like to meet her,” said Cameron’s father.

  It was an excellent fishing day with Dan and Cameron both catching their limit of salmon.

  They took a taxi back to the beach where they left the piper cub. There on the beach near the plane was a sheriff who no doubt wondered why the plane was on the beach and why it appeared abandoned. Dan sensed that the sheriff would find some way of giving him a ticket or confiscating his plane. The sheriff had walked way down to where the plane wheels had first hit the beach. “Let’s go, son.” They both rapidly walked to the plane and sat in their seats. Cameron had never remembered his dad starting an engine so quick and taking off. From up above, they saw the sheriff scratching his head.

  A few weeks later, Cameron’s father invited Cam and Michelle to go on a plane ride. His father wore a light blue jumpsuit and Michelle wore jeans and a colorful sweater, and Cameron wore jeans and an African long sleeve shirt. His father instantly approved of Michelle. “She is a very nice girl,” he would say later.

  Michelle had never flown in a small plane before and was a little nervous.

  “Just remember, my dad is one of the greatest pilots that has ever flown an airplane, so you have nothing to worry about. He was an ace Tuskegee pilot in World War II.”

  Michelle smiled at Cameron and whispered, “Does that mean he will do loop de loops and fly upside down?” asked Michelle with a tense smile filled with nervousness.

  They flew from Seattle to Shelton where they had lunch. It was a glorious day with the sun shining through the panoramic views from above.

  Safely back in Seattle, Michelle said, “okay Cameron, your dad is a wonderful pilot.”

  Sitting near the kitchen table in Cameron’s apartment, Cam stood grasping Michelle’s hand and said “I have a cold, I have a sore throat, my eyes are burning, I think I am dying.”

  Well she said, “If you get some good rest, take an aspirin, and eat some chicken noodle soup, maybe you won’t feel so bad in the morning.

  “Michelle, is that any way to talk to your future husband?”

  “What,” asked Michelle.

  Cameron showed Michelle an antique gold wedding ring with a very nice sparkling diamond.

  Tears of joy flowed down Michelle’s cheeks.

  “Yes, Cameron, I will
marry you!

  One week later, Cameron met with Michelle’s father for lunch. He told her father what a wonderful person he was and he thanked him for the job and allowing him to be a part of his family. “I would like to marry Michelle when I graduate from school, so I am asking for your blessing to marry your daughter.”

  “Yes Cameron you have our blessing and both Michelle’s mom and I welcome you officially to our family.”

  Cameron would wait to tell Michelle how so many tears of joy flowed from both her father and his faces.

  The next time Cameron talked to Big El he said, “ I think I might graduate from law school in less than a year. If I do, I’d like you to be the best man in our wedding. I asked Michelle if she would marry me and she said yes.”

  “Yeah,” said Big El. “We are going to have a big party for your wedding.”

  The third year of law school was about to begin. It should be noted that the attrition rate had reduced Cameron’s class of 180 down to 92.

  Cameron took Michelle to the law library one afternoon. He showed her the many law books that he was required to read and how he planned to attack them. Interestingly, Cameron discovered that no matter how much he tried to impress Michelle, nothing really impressed her. She loved Cameron. Certainly, she was impressed that her boyfriend was a third-year law student, but if he had been a third-year astronomer, teacher, or singer, she would’ve loved Cameron. Cameron indeed was a very lucky guy.

  Michelle’s parents invited Cameron to join them on a camping retreat near Kalaloch Lodge, Washington. They set up tents and cooked over open fires and had delicious stews and biscuits. They played sand golf where they utilized a small rock for a golf ball and hit it with a thin piece of driftwood. Holes were dug up at various distances a part. It was very competitive. Back at the open fires everyone enjoyed the s’mores. While it started out to be a very sunny day, by evening snow had begun to fall and melted channels of water flowed through the base of the tent soaking everyone. No one slept that night. Yet it was a time no one will ever forget, as it was so much fun.

  Cameron certainly wanted to graduate with his class but he would have to make up for the credits he dropped in his first year to attend Big El’s wedding. He looked at his credits going into his third and last quarter where he realized he would have to take 24 credits to graduate with his class. Considering that 15 credits was a full-time load for law students and 18 credits was considered a heavy load, 24 credits was insane, impossible, and no one had ever attempted to take so many credits in one quarter. That was the good news. The bad news was that looking at the academic brochure, it had a clause that said, anyone wishing to take more than 18 credits, may need to discuss it with the Dean of law school.

  Cameron accepted the 24-credit challenge. But for the impossible class load demands on his time, he barely remembered one day to the next. It was all a blur with those long nights in NU law school’s library.

  A giant cobra leaped at Cameron trying to strike him in the face with its lethal fangs. The hood on the back of its neck spread wide with anger. It lifted its head high off the ground inches from Cameron’s face and hissed. Huge beads of sweat rolled down Cameron’s face. In an instant, Cameron was running down an alley in Angeles City in the Philippines where he was being chased by Hux who had butterfly knives in their fists. They lunged their knives at Cameron. The cobra stood in front of him preventing him from escaping. Just as the snake and the Hux were about to strike, Cameron woke up swinging his arms. He had been haunted by a variation of this nightmare since the Philippines. Cameron would come to understand it was a form of PTSD or post-traumatic stress disorder from his activities during the Vietnam War. The most common denominator that brought forth the reoccurring nightmares was stress.

  Maybe Cameron should not have taken so many credits, but he wanted to graduate with his class, and he was under a significant amount of stress.

  One class that Cameron vividly remembered was the Street Law Class that he taught at McNeil Island federal prison. He remembered riding on a boat from Steilacoom to the McNeil Island federal prison. When the prison gate shut and Cameron stood inside, he expected to hear absolute quiet, but it was not like that at all. He saw so many white and black men wearing the same blue green colored prison uniform. As Cameron looked closer at the men, he realized that he knew several black men from middle and high school. All were from broken homes, poor, and had given up on education. They had tried to survive by selling drugs but were caught and now were paying the price by serving time in prison. The men recognized Cameron and walked up to him. Cameron remembered them all, especially Terrence. Terrence stood about six feet five inches, dark skin, and was an all-star baseball player as a sophomore in high school. His powerful fastball had captured the eyes of many a pro scout and college coaches. He lost everything when he was caught selling drugs. Apparently, the quantity was so large, it earned him a special trip to this federal prison.

  They asked Cameron what he was doing in the joint.

  Cameron told them he was a third-year law student and would be teaching a street law class.

  They said, “Yes! You are going to find a way for us to get out of here!”

  The course was not designed to help prisoners get out of prison, rather it was designed to aid recently released prisoners to better cope with life and laws after prison.

  Following the end of the course, Cameron wrote Terrence, asking him to share his letter with other black inmates. It was a code for release from prison that he hoped their attorney’s might utilize on their behalf. Cameron promised to reveal this special code later.

  Final grades for third year law students were posted on the bulletin board. Each student had been given a designated class number and the corresponding grades for that number were shown on the board. Cameron, had received a perfect 4.0. Yes that was 4.0 in all 24 credits. The vision of graduating on time with his class was in sight.

  Not so fast, the Dean of law school wanted to see Cameron about his failure to obtain his approval on the extra credits that he took.

  “Dean, I received a 4.0 on those extra credits. So, this is not an issue of whether or not I received passing grades, this is an issue of whether or not I needed your permission to take the extra classes. Dean, let’s look at the academic brochure. The wording is ambiguous at best. It doesn’t say I must or I will or I have to obtain your permission it says merely that I may wish to discuss it with you. Dean the word may is like saying I could or could not discuss the extra courses with you. I considered the verbiage and believed it was a financial term to pay the university for the extension of time for the extra classes.”

  The Dean did not like Cam’s answer but he knew the wording was vague and given the 4.0 that Cameron received that quarter the law school might lose in court. So he said, I will grant you permission to graduate on time with your class, but I will put a star behind your name indicating that you graduated one quarter behind your class.

  Cameron smiled at the Dean and said, “have a nice day.”

  Of the 180 first year law students that started together, only 80 graduated. Of the six black students only three graduated, including Cam’s good friend Ray who graduated one quarter later.

  Cameron and Michelle’s entire family watched the graduation ceremony where Cameron walked down the parade ground wearing his black juris doctorate cap and gown (cappa clausa) with bell shaped sleeves along with purple bindings on the hood that designated law school graduate.

  From a 0.5 GPA in his first year of college, to a 4.0 in his final quarter of law school, how did Cameron do it? Cameron was raised poor by a single mother and a father who did not pay child support. He benefited by growing up in a neighborhood that was great for raising children and where getting shot or beaten did not exist. While there was certainly a class difference, Cameron benefited from a very caring white family, the Nelsons, who helped raise Cameron like one of their sons. This upbringing helped put Cameron on a positive economic track through paid y
ard, house, and dog walking jobs. Nelson’s parents communicated all the time with Cam that if he wanted to enhance his earning potential he needed to obtain a college education. The key to success, Cameron learned at a young age was to shatter this class barrier and the widening inequality it brings. Armed with this and the many lessons he learned from his war hero father, Cameron fought racism and he had won many major battles, but he knew racial tensions were still present in society.

  Looking back at his educational experience since Wilder College, there were so many ways to look at racism. Cameron likened it to a huge maze with many false twists and turns with a hundred-pound weight around one’s neck and a clock with a timer. Once time had elapsed, one can never escape the maze and thereby, become a statistic of a person with no education, no work skills, no job, no family, and a cell in prison. How does one navigate through life with all these obstacles? Self-actualization, excellent decisions, caring friends and associates help.

  Over the years, many people have fought to the death opposing slavery and racism. Cameron was certain that many whites have wondered why the entire black race didn’t form an alliance to harm all white people. Cameron first thought was that the U.S. was such a great country, its destruction was not going to happen. Second, Cameron read a study by the University of Washington, which indicated that all people are related from the first species of men and women in Africa. Cameron though this concept was amazing and wondered if the Ku Klux Klan would have wanted to hang blacks if they had known that they were hanging their relatives. Third, so many white slave owners interbred with slaves that blacks now have white blood lines. So, to harm blacks is like harming your family. Yet the color of one’s skin continues to promote racism, and a minority of blacks will harm all races.