The whole point of free speech is not to make ideas exempt from criticism but to expose them to it.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

1972 flood was color blind

Larry Kurtz seems to want to invade other posts to rant about how horrible Rapid City has been to native Americans and seems to want to tie the 1972 flood into what he appears to believe was a conspiracy to cost native American lives.

The 1972 flood was color blind. Mother Nature, on that night, killed indiscriminately. It is true that an area that once was callously called by bigots of the time "teepee town" was Rapid City's slum, located on both sides of Rapid Creek, north of Omaha, was washed away claiming the lives of many native Americans.

Every mayor in my memory, LaCroix, Carlisle, McLaughlin, Munson, Shaw and Hanks have made tangible efforts to reach out to native Americans and improve race relations in Rapid City. Every single one of them.

No person in Rapid City is forced for any reason including poverty or skin color, to live in the squalor that was present in 1972.

So, Larry here is a post on your topic.

5 comments:

larry kurtz said...

Don't necessarily own the flood conspiracy part, but thanks, Mike. Let's see who shows up.

larry kurtz said...

The essay from Melvin Martin.

larry kurtz said...

Rapid City Public Library Research Librarian Lisa directed me to this document.

Donna said...

238 people were killed that night- another 3057 were injured. 770 permanent homes and 565 mobile homes were destoyed completely. 2034 more houses and 785 additional mobile homes were damaged. That's allot of people that were homeless. I cannot even remotely swallow that this night was somehow worse for the Native Americans than it was for anyone else. Give me a break. It is those types of statements and accusations that do more harm to race relations than most anything else can do.

Deirdre said...

Take everything Larry Kurtz says with at least 2 grains of salt. His rants are frequently as full of BS as the rest of him. I think he likes to think of himself as a "journalist" who stirs the pot. In reading his blog it is clear he sees what he wants to see, and then finds a conspiracy therein. He talks like the moral high ground guy, but he is not. I mean the guy thinks Ted Kosinski was on the right track for crying in the night. There is currently a warrent out for his arrest. He can't hide behind his false internet persona forever.