Living Alone, Free, and Happy

As the last of her family Ms. Cheryl Burkert reflects on her eclectic life hopeful of being able to leave her mark before the end. Yet upon meeting her one will see a vibrant, joyful, and adventurous girl who refuses to give into age. She constantly keeps a naturally cheerful attitude despite all that she has witnessed over the years and even the troubling time that awaits her. “I probably had more experiences than I had planned and it helped me grow.”

A Military Brat

        Cheri’s family may have been unusually small in her time but they were what she describes as the old Happy Days program. Her mother was an excellent homemaker and her father was an Officer in the chemical core of the Army. Being a single child Cheri grew up shy and somewhat unsocial but she enjoyed the attention and support she received from her parents. As a form of birth control in that time, her mother had an ovary removed but even as a military family having more children would have been too difficult for her parents. 

        Her father attempted to keep their lifestyle as casual as possible but Cheri was always ready for a change from Kansas. “If I didn’t really like the place I knew we were gonna leave it. I liked variety, I liked the idea of seeing what was going on in different areas. Even in this country you have to adjust to the cultures a bit.” Cheri had always been high strung and a worrier so traveling through different states and beginning school in Maryland uneasy. She was afraid of standing out in a neighborhood where all the children played and grew up together and all the families knew each other. It was an unusual setting in which she could not relate because she ended up on her own each time her family moved on. Still she always knew that things wouldn’t remain difficult. “You have to try to make yourself part of the community as you go along.” 

        Time in Alabama is unforgettable for Cheri since it was the first time she experienced segregation and witnessed the beginnings of Martin Luther King Jr. Most of her schooling was interracial but here Cheri was forced to attend a white middle school. The heavy racism was a world Cheri could not understand coming from an open-minded family. She was always aware of the military personnel on school grounds and was afraid of how the black students would perceive her but was luckily only encountered once because of her race. Feeling as though the world was moving slowly Cheri cannot really describe her time there because it feels as if she is reading it from a book. Then Cheri said with a wild laugh, “I was so glad dad was only stationed there one year. I still can’t understand all that.” 

        Being an only child in oftentimes strict military families, makes Cheri happy that she was able to have leniency that allowed her to have exciting teenage years. It was a time that was all about the cars and she loved everything about it. The popular kick it spots were always at the drive-through and drive-in theatres—anywhere they could enjoy the ride and show it off to everyone. As a shy kid with no siblings to help push her forward, cars were always one thing that Cheri could hold on to. Cheri often went with her friends to a dirt field where kids would race over hills while always trying to avoid the cops who regularly patrolled there. “Sometimes I thought ‘why am I just sitting here’ but I really liked those things because it was the only time in my entire life that I could be kind of wild.” Cheri looked deeply pleased as she described the times when she would get in a Chevy and rev it all the way up a hill just to feel the jump to the bottom of the other side. 

Trying to Grow Up

            The unpredictable lifestyles and inconsistent locations Cheri had to adapt to with a father in the military stuck with her as she left home. It took a while for Cheri to find her way still this happy woman feels very fortunate that she was able to have a supportive family that never forced her choices and supported her free lifestyle. “I didn’t want to get married, I didn’t want to settle down, and my mom never pushed me. I just wasn’t a real social person,” says Cheri, “I think it was my restlessness inside that I had to get away from the crowd.” 

        Since her Senior year in high school she had been working at the army exchange on base which she stayed at for several years. After an unhappy semester in the dorms of Kansas State University she moved on to work as an administrative secretary for Mountain States Telephone Company after her father decided to permanently move to Colorado in 1965. A year later she decided to return to school while working part time as a pharmacy filler. Unable to become focused on her future Cheri was jumping around temporary jobs and delaying school until she could find something meaningful to do. She always knew that she loved to write when her professors assigned essays in class because it was a place where she could go off on her own and be able to finally focus herself. Finally in 1970 she graduated from the University of Colorado with a Bachelor’s in Journalism. In 1972 Cheri’s father encouraged her to apply to the county of Denver where she ended up working with the commission on community relations. 

        “Most of my heavy duty writing was there.” Here she constantly worked with campaigns, wrote press releases, and attended community meetings which she later turned into articles discussing the dangers of gangs in poor parts of Denver, the schools, youth core, the police, desegregation, and the many more things she encountered. Cheri enjoyed the single lifestyle of a writer in which she could do her craft while exploring the world around her as she constantly did while a military brat. People were usually very nice to her and cooperative when she was investigating but being part of a community improvement organization there were several threats to the building.  Cheri remembers one incident where they were bombed but didn’t think it was anything serious. It was still the beginning of desegregation and people were armed for protection. 

        “I had to learn everything on my own, there wasn’t anybody there to explain things to me and for a long time I was just jumping around trying to see what I could.” Even while at a serious position in her writing her smart-aleck attitude almost caused her trouble when she answered a phone that was ringing for the Indian Community representative who was not in one day. When the man on the other end claimed to be the Brad Pitt of her time, Marlon Brando, she truly couldn’t believe it. “I came so close to saying ‘well this is Elizabeth Taylor’ and I’m so glad I didn’t say that. I can only imagine how the boss would have clobbered me.” 

        Cheri unintentionally became a genuine writer that I know many people admired. Her writing was solid, typical journalism that opened eyes into the Denver community for the good and bad that it was. In her work she was able to meet celebrities, politicians, and revolutionary activists of her time such as the Chicago Seven—a serious conspiracy/activist group. "I just wish I could have been more hard to them about putting my byline on all my work, that really gets me," said Cheryl almost grinding her teeth. After four years of difficult work Cheri says she became tired of the job but this was also the time that her father, in his fifties, suffered a heart attack and passed. “It felt like everything was coming down on top of me, I couldn’t seem to get a handle.” She quit the commission of Denver and soon after continued to the University of Denver for her Master’s.

The Wild Life

        After happily reminiscing on her early years Cheri shouts “You know thank god there are such things as temporary jobs.” The temporary lifestyle kept Cheri busy while on the lengthy path to finding herself. Cheri didn’t have much experience in one area so her frequently changing jobs kept her doing unusual things she wasn’t used to. After spending many years with her boss and the commission of Denver she was able to take a lot of the support he gave her and apply it within herself to try things she wasn’t familiar with. However as a foolish girl she may not have always known the effect of her actions. When she took a temporary job with Information Handling Services in Englewood as a simple indexer she never expected to become a product specialist where she traveled to New York, Los Angeles, Miami, and New Mexico while she had a horrible hatred of flying. Seeing what each city had to offer reminded her of exploring the places of the U.S. as a kid. Now she was able to witness the horrible smog in L.A or the awful humidity of Florida. Even in New York her associate there showed her the crazy New Yorker lifestyle. After a speeding cab ride back to the hotel late in the night, the associate still had enough energy to drag Cheri to crash a dinner party where they pretended to be friends of an elite guest. With big eyes Cheri describes it as something she would have never done saying, “Man I cannot believe New Yorkers really are this crazy.”

        Other times during her travels she would run into the trouble of having to buy an extra ticket for her monster block of a computer when it would not fit in the upper compartments. While necessary for her work, she despised having to spend the extra money to double strap it since she was never sure of allowing it in the bottom of the plane with the baggage.  Continental stewardesses were always nice about the issue while others she would not utter the expressions that described them. Once, on a business trip to Florida Cheri’s dreary coworker pulled into a gas station in large black community that had recently been having many riots. Cheri was unbelievably scared, ranting, and sweating that she acted in a way she had never acted before. After a long drive of cursing she was finally relieved. A week later when Cheri was happily back home, that entire neighborhood suddenly blew up with a wild riot. Knowing that something similar could have happened while she was there Cheri was scared for her life. “I just can’t believe it. It’s one of those things that makes you wonder how you end up coming out of it ok.”

        The years when she lived in Denver Cheri familiar with the lifestyle after studying the city for so long that serious dangers didn’t seem to serious around her and oftentimes left her front door unlocked. While her mother was busy gardening and Cheri was washing her hair in the basement there was someone on the main floor quietly pulling things out and when Cheri went upstairs she thought she had somehow gotten into someone else’s home. “That just scared the peewad out of me.” On another occasion Cheri had the feeling that something was going on outside and when she looked out to see two men with a duffel bag circling her house she called 911. After the respondent told her to flash her flood lights she saw them rush to their zippy car and screech off. Cheri explains, “You think you’re relatively safe in this world but you’re not, not really. Those are lessons you learn.”

Just one month after moving into her current home in 2000 a man ran his truck into the side of her townhome that doesn’t even sit on a corner. Cheri describes her anger since there was absolutely no reason for him to have done that she says, “There’s a lot of people out there that are just crazy and they don’t seem to care what they do.” Sadly it took Cheryl a couple of years and a lot of her saving to fix up her home after the incident. By this time Cheri’s mother had become very ill and was slowly deteriorating so Cheri spent all her time with her now that she was retired. Because of the reality of her mother passing Cheri would never leave her mother alone but couldn’t always do everything with her. Her neighbor and close friend Ruth helped a lot when Cheri needed any kind of help. Ruth says that even with her mother deteriorating Cheryl was as lively as she had always been. “Compared to me she still feels and acts very young, even when horrible things happen to her.”  

Growing Old

        After everything she has endured Cheri seems most happy to have had such a free young life without having to settle down and be able to experience the strange people of the U.S. Although Cheryl never expected that she would worry so much of the short future ahead of her. She worries that after the fun time she had quickly spending her savings after retiring young she will need to find work and gets scared having to think about what could happen if she cannot make anymore payments especially since she has no more family left. 

        With her age she can only last part of the day before she becomes too tired and needs to relax before starting again. On the bright side Cheri always spends part of her day doing what she has always enjoyed—writing.  It’s now the happiest part of her life because she can sit down and disappear from the world. She explains that whether it is about the dog, the cat, or what she sees through the window it feels good to get something special out of her. “If I had a different life I wish that I could have been a really great writer.” 

        One would never know that Cheri has lived through many incidents because her happy attitude and silly laugh after every word makes you believe that all her dreams came true. Even with her heart condition and suffering a heart attack a couple of years ago, she is hopeful that something will turn out well for her. She says, “I have kind of disappeared deliberately but I have friends who I know will help if I need it. ” Cheri constantly worries about who will take care of her legacy and all the things she will be leaving behind including her parent’s treasured belongings. She hopes that her very close friend she has known for years will be able to handle her last requests although she has not yet brought it up to her since her friend is also growing old and has a large family that she still looks out for. 

        “I can’t tell you why but I like things about his place,” says Cheryl about her current situation. She explains how it is true that after all her years of living she learned everything she needed to. She especially learned to trust her inner feelings because those instincts usually end up saving her. Once Cheri was followed for miles by a man to the middle of nowhere and once she almost flew through the front windshield of her car and she explains, “When scary things happen to you….you suddenly become aware and you don’t let those things happen to you again.” 

        After a lifetime of events Cheri tries to be more careful but sometimes even that is not enough. The only time when anyone would ever see Cheryl more quiet and gloomy is when she describes the horrific event that occurred only a few doors down. When one neighbor shot and killed another neighbor and his innocent daughter over parking disputes it affected Cheryl although she can’t really express why. “I think in this day and age due to all the things people have access to, you can live wherever and those people can take you down. You just do the best you can and pay attention. I’ve lost my nerve in some way but you can’t just keep moving when stuff like this happens. You learn to stand against it.”

By: Jessica Espinosa

“Lest We Forget”

A Story of a Marine and His Journey from Combat      

By Jonie McGhee

The dreams, they never really go away. The anger is kept at bay as the pain of loss begins to lose its grip with the arrival of another day. Forgetting is not an option and moving on has its reward that sometimes hangs on a guilty pin.

The memory of a soldier, who has fought in combat, watched friends die right next to him, got pushed behind enemy lines, was injured and then discharged, is a story worth telling. This story is about Chad Honor (not his real name), a marine and a dedicated defender of the weak.

One day after Memorial Day this year I found myself sitting across the table from an extraordinary young man who has so graciously agreed to tell me about some of his life’s highs and lows.  To allow me to probe into the time that he spent in the U.S. Marine Corps as a sniper and as a tactical member of Breaking Chains – a non profit organization that rescues young women from human trafficking. We switched places in age as I become like an inexperienced child listening to an elder as his eyes reflected a lifetime of violence, pain and evil.

We tried to leave the present story, the main subject at hand and visit the past or the “in the beginning”, but it was difficult to unengaged.  I was able to pull out a few bits of the "earlier years" information, but it seemed that with every new experience revealed another story was waiting to escape.

Cherokee Voices 

Chad was raised on a Cherokee reservation until he was 6 years old.  His mother and father divorced when he was very young. He stated that the Cherokee language was the only language that he heard and spoke as a child along with some broken English.  Chad did not have a lot to say about growing up on the reservation as it seemed that his memory began when he moved to Colorado. At the age of 7 he gained a new step- father and started school.

Attending a public school after having lived on a reservation and knowing very little English became a battle for him in the classroom and everywhere else.  Very early on Chad warred with other students, teachers and an inability to “fit in” causing the onset of an inner struggle that would set the stage for rebellion, anger and years of turbulence.  He soon learned that if he acted out and disrupted the class most of the teachers would just want him to get out and to move on. This was his mode of operation until graduation.

The Key to the Lock Inside of Me 

Chad was angry and ready to fight at any time and he did.  After constantly getting into trouble, in 2003 he found himself as an enlisted U.S. Marine, about a year or so out of high school. He immediately felt relief.  He said as he made a wrist turning gesture “it was like the key to the lock inside of me”. He met others who were like him, who soon became good friends. He used the adjectives “wild, crazy and ruthless.” to describe them.

After basic training and boot camp Chad qualified to be a sniper.  He said that it was just the adrenalin fix that he needed.  His company was already stationed near Baghdad when President Bush gave the initial orders for war.

"Entering into combat in Iraq was surreal" he said, like a dream, but he soon had to wake up and start shooting.  He experienced roadside bombs, RPGs (Rocket Propelled Grenades) and was once thrown 70 feet from a truck that he was riding in by an IED (Improvised Explosive Device).  Bullets grazed his head more than once and several of his troop members died right next to him. “I’m really in war now” he remembered thinking. Chad was also assigned to “painting buildings” a term used to describe aiming a laser at a building so that the air forces could easily identify and destroy the target.

Even in the midst of so much violence and death, Chad discovered that he liked being apart of bringing order to those who longed for change and cooperated with the U.S. military.  He said that meeting with the tribal members to discuss making improvements to the villages was very gratifying and many of the villagers showed so much appreciation to them for being there.

Survival on the Other Side 

Then a well known and publicized event occurred that caused his time in the marines to be shortened and traumatic. Chad and his squad members found themselves behind enemy lines and in order to stay alive, they had to stay hidden.  To survive and to remain unseen everything that they ate had to be eaten raw. They ate prairie dogs, fish and drank water from the very unclean Tigris River. Once they were rescued they were immediately sent back home for medical attention.  They were of the first marines to return home, in 2004.

Everything appeared to be medically sound at first, but Chad started to have some internal issues and bleeding. He lost 45 pounds in 2 weeks. Eating raw animals and drinking the contaminated water in Iraq caused a severe problem within his digestive system.  After treatment he became medically discharged after only one year of service.  It was just too soon to stop and there was still so much pent up anger and energy in him.

Chad stayed in touch with several of his combat buddies, in particular his best friend Andy.  Andy wanted to start up a security company and wanted Chad to be a partner with him, but the plans fell through and they parted ways for a while. When they met up again, Andy had become a Christian and his whole life had changed.

Chad was no stranger to the Christian faith since his step father was a very devoted Christian and had raised Chad as apart of his faith since he and Chad’s mother were married, and when you are in combat in war the old say that “there are no atheist in the fox hole” is especially true when you are behind enemy lines.

Even though Andy was a different person in many ways he was still involved in exciting and innovative activities. This time he introduced Chad to a non-profit, Christian organization called “Breaking Chains” that would literally rescue children from sex trafficking in Latin America.

“Judge, Jury and Executioner” 

Andy was training for operation “attack and extract” and Chad jumped on board for a chance to exert physical strength while rescuing innocent victims. The war was on again and this time it was against crime lords and drug cartels.

Chad said that the plan of attack was that they would set up operation in a city and pretended to be American men or “Johns” looking for a night of pleasure.  Once the location of the females was given to them they would show up “fully armed and dangerous”. They were like a SWAT team for victims of sex trafficking who would grab the girls and take them to a safe location for induction into “loving homes where they can receive medical and psychological treatment.”

After so many rescue operations Chad became increasingly aggressive towards the perpetrators. He said seeing the abuse towards the children “wore on him and he became their judge, jury and executioner”.  He wanted to do more than just break in and rescue the girls; he wanted to punish the men that he found hurting them, but having grown in his own faith, he struggled with a God who would forgive these men.  It became a conundrum for him.   

Many of the girls were like empty corpses without any emotion.  One such victim told them that she didn't know how to cry anymore. He said that they rescued a 4 year who was being "groomed" for the business.  Chad said the worst case and moment for him during these rescue raids was when they broke in on a man raping a 7 year old girl. He was beside himself with rage and beat the man up pretty good.  He knew then that it was time to move on.

Thoughts of Peace and Not of Evil…(Jeremiah 29:11)

Chad said that it took him 5 years after he returned home from Iraq to see his first counselor and since that time he has seen many of them. But the one counselor that helped him to break through the anger was a Christian man who allowed him to just be angry, to let him release everything and not try to force him to keep it all hidden.

“We (other veterans) all deal with the PTSD the best way we can. Some of my friends committed suicide. I have 16 anniversary dates of the deaths of my friends that I remember.” 

Chad said that he still has some anger and he dreams about some things from the past, but he is in a good place now.  He is working with his step-father and attending school for his BA and currently has a grade point average of over 3.0, something that he is so proud of given the struggles that he had in grade school.

When asked what his ultimate dream is, he answered “I would love to ride around the country on my bike (he rides a Harley that he built) to help other war veterans” an answer that shows that his heart is still in the place of rescuing others. 

How to Build a [Good] Corporate Lobbyist

Straining to make out the words on the other end of the line, it wasn’t just the din of the bachelor party which was now in full swing that was getting in the way. The caller, Ved Nanda, the renowned International Law professor had a notoriously heavy Indian accent. There was an important job for the recent DU law grad but it would mean leaving everything behind.

The year was 1981 and although Lyle Williamson still wasn’t convinced he wanted to be a lawyer he had always had a keen interest in government. Little did he know, the road he was on would lead to a career in one of the most misunderstood and yet integral parts of the democratic process, a corporate lobbyist.

It’s hard to imagine that anyone would actually choose to become a lobbyist for a large corporation. Gallup's 2012 poll of the public's views of professional honesty and ethics rate lobbyists as having the second to worst, lower than car salesmen or telemarketers and only slightly better than members of Congress. 

Despite the prevailing perception of their profession, many lobbyists work in the public interest, regardless of whether they advocate for big business or for social issues. More generally, they help many Americans exercise their constitutional right outlined in the First Amendment to "petition the government." 

Political scientists have long recognized the legitimate uses of lobbying in a democracy. Lobbying, as an accepted and legal process, allows the voice of citizen groups, associations, labor unions, corporations and others to be heard in the political arena.

Lobbyists also play an important role in breaking down complicated issues and presenting the most pertinent information to legislators, staff members or committees in short documents or in quick one-on-one exchanges. This exchange of ideas and positions inform the extensive research and evidence that is required for good legislation. As the issues addressed by lawmakers increase in complexity, lawmakers must increasingly rely on corporate and industry lobbyists for information.

Tom Dixon of the Office of Consumer Counsel at the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA), explains the role of lobbyists like this:

“First of all, lobbyists are advocates; they have a position. They’re not there to come up with a general broad discussion of [an issue], and they have a position to take on [either] pending legislation or they may be involved in drafting legislation for legislators to act upon.

“State and Federal legislators don’t have the knowledge of every single piece of legislation that might appear in front of them so lobbyists attempt to advocate and educate. Recognizing their roles to advocate for a particular position, the education they provide is also going to be for that purpose and, realistically, the quality of the lobbyist and the value of the lobbyist [lies in] the lobbyist’s integrity and honesty.”

The Spark

Lyle Williamson didn’t set out to become a lobbyist. Growing up in Cleveland in the politically charged Vietnam era, Williamson’s interest in government was peaked in high school. Ten years his elder, his sister Daph and her husband were involved in a church-related project to address issues of racial integration. Williamson was recruited to interview recent home buyers to determine the extent of racial steering.

“It was surprising and enlightening – well, maybe not so surprising – I don’t remember the final outcome but clearly some people wanted to be away from black people and that was part of their mission in moving to that community. So, I was involved for a couple of months – not a political campaign but a very volatile political issue.”

It was this experience that inspired a strong interest in social justice issues and, in particular, the legislative process. Williamson chose to pursue undergraduate studies at the University of Colorado. At the time, Boulder proved to be a hotbed of political activism although Williamson readily admits it was his love for snow skiing that was the “primary driving force” behind his choice of schools. As a student, Williamson volunteered for Gary Hart’s race for the US Senate in 1974.

To Williamson, Hart was “a bright star in the Democratic Party… so, being around him was a bit of an inspiring thing. He and [US Senator] Sam Nunn were among the two Democrats who weren’t just anti-war or anti-military; they were there to make things better and I was impressed with that.”

After graduation, Williamson found himself unsure of his next step but knew he wasn’t ready for work. Today, he admires the unwavering determination of his only child, Casey, to become a doctor. 

“Casey’s been so driven on what he wants to do since high school that I think, ‘Well, you’re going to change your mind. You can’t really stay on this route’ but, he is.” He quickly adds, 

“He sure didn’t get that from me.”

Williamson’s calm humility and disarming honesty are quite evident. The antithesis of a hard-boiled attorney, Williamson easily laughs at his early nonchalance with regard to applying to law school.

“A lot of it was I wasn’t sure what else to do. Honestly. So, I suppose if I hadn’t gotten into law school I’d have probably looked into some graduate program. I wasn’t ready to go to work and I wasn’t a business guy ever. I got in at Case Western Reserve (Cleveland) and at DU law but I didn’t get in to CU’s law school. I never aspired to be an attorney. I liked politics so I kind of thought the education would be good.”

The decision to attend the University of Denver Law School proved to be fortuitous for Williamson. It’s there he met Claire Weigand, Williamson’s future and current wife of 28 years.  Claire was also a law student at DU and they shared an interest in fine wine, social justice and international law. When the time came to take the bar exam Claire passed but Lyle did not. Given the chance to gracefully exit from the conversation with his ego intact, Williamson instead pokes fun at himself.

“Well, no.” he responded quickly to the suggestion that most candidates for the bar fail the first time around. “Our class had a pretty high pass rate that year to tell you the truth. You can look that up.” The self-deprecating chuckle that accompanies his last statement is sincerely delightful.

“So, all my other friends passed it - Claire passed it – but I didn’t think a minute about taking it again. I didn’t really care so, what shall I do?”

The year was 1980 and Gary Hart was seeking a second term as US Senator for the State of Colorado. Williamson was hired by the campaign and solidified the relationships that would last to this day. 

“I have an amazing core of friends I made during that campaign all those years ago. We’re still close friends. We have helped each other get positions – helped our kids get positions – it’s just one of those courtesy things you do with people. Going through a campaign like that or any kind of race like that, it’s not for the money.”

Claire added, “It’s amazing how many people work on campaign, after campaign, after campaign.”

The race ended with Hart narrowly winning re-election to the Senate and Williamson was again out of a job and looking for work. A neighbor was a construction foreman and out of desperation the slightly built Williamson took a job on a downtown high rise.

 “I started that job – almost killed myself hauling wheel barrows of concrete around – but then we went on strike a couple of weeks after I started. I really was struggling with what to do when Ved called with this job so I said, ‘Of course, I’ll try.’ So, it worked out pretty well, I guess. I made it.”

Palau

It’s not often that a job offer starts with the words “We have this island we want to send you to” but that was exactly the offer made by Professor Nanda over the phone as Williamson played host at a buddy’s bachelor party. 

The Palau island chain consists of about 200 islands located in the western Pacific Ocean and lies 528 miles southeast of the Philippines. Seized by the United States from Japan during World War II, Palau became a UN trusteeship administered by the US in 1947.

By 1981 Palau had become the Republic of Palau, an independent state with a constitutional government modeled on the United States. Williamson arrived on the island shortly after the constitution was signed. The newly formed government sought out the assistance of American attorneys to advise them and to help draft legislation.

“My thought was they offered a two-year contract, round trip airfare, housing. It wasn’t a lot of money but certainly more than I was making at the time.” 

Lyle persuaded Claire to come with him. They weren’t sure what to expect but it seemed like a good idea at the time. 

Williamson remembers sitting down with his boss, the Speaker of the House, on his first day there.

“While I’m sitting there I told him my girlfriend is going to come over and he said, ‘What does she do?’ I told him she was a lawyer and he said she should work so he calls the Palauan guy who was the head of the High Court of the Trusteeship and tells him, ‘I have your law clerk coming.’

So, that’s how we got there.”

The small island nation of 13,000 people was beautiful… and primitive. 

Claire explains, “There was no real health care or electricity. I mean, it was off and on, no running water except for 6:00 to 9:00 in the morning and it wasn’t really potable – you couldn’t drink it.”

Lyle adds, “Here we are 1947 to 1990, for 25 years the US had been administering these island and there was no water system or sewer system. People were still using outhouses. We could have done better.”

The work the couple did on the island was invaluable both in terms of contributing to the formation of the legislative and judicial branches of the government and in terms of cutting their legal teeth in the process.

Acting as a laboratory, the small island country was quite progressive in its lawmaking. Their constitution prohibited firearms on the island and just the possession of a firearm carried a mandatory ten year prison term. 

They were also trying to redefine international waters which were customarily 3-5 miles along the coast. Palau wanted to manage 200 miles and wanted no nuclear vessels passing through – in the Constitution they had they called it ‘no nukes.’ 

Williamson spent his time working with the legislators to draft bills or write resolutions that would become law in the newly formed nation. Sometimes, he was also asked to write letters.

“One of my favorite Senators who was the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee would get angry at the US for something they would say or not say or not be responsive. He would say, “Lyle, write me a letter to the Ambassador of the, then, Soviet Union so we can enter negotiations with them.” So, I would have to write that for him, he was my boss, it was my job. It was kind of weird being an American. At the time, you didn’t know what would come out of it. The US could have cut us off at any time.

“It was a really fascinating time to be there. The way it was good for me, aside from being my first job, was the cultural experience. There were no more than 20 Americans on the island and maybe a dozen lawyer-types. There were Peace Corp there, too, but they had to live with local families. As government employees, we had a house and everyone would come stay with us – we were all about the same age. The isolation was tough.”

The Williamsons described the communication challenges while on the island. There were no TVs and no phones. Three days a week a Continental jet would come in from Guam and bring a thin newspaper with international and US news and one to two pages of sports. Four days a week, they couldn’t leave the island if they wanted to. After two and half years, Lyle and Claire were in their mid-twenties and it was time to get back in the real world and try to make a career.

Back in the USA

Claire remembers well the transition back to the United States.

“The transition coming back [from Palau] was weirder than going there. I’ll never forget how weird the supermarkets looked here.  I remember wandering down this whole aisle of just pet food. There were more choices in pet food here than anything you could buy [in Palau] to eat. The excess of choice seemed so unbelievable.

In Palau, there were no fresh vegetables, no lettuce or tomatoes, no fresh dairy – we only had canned milk because there was no refrigeration.”

Lyle remembers coming back to see MTV for the first time, “Oh my god – we sat in front of the TV for days watching music videos.”

The couple initially moved back to Colorado to be near family and were married within a couple of months. Afterward, they decided to take their newly acquired governmental experience to Washington DC.

Claire found a clerking job right away with the Department of Education but Lyle didn’t find anything for over a year.  He spent his time writing letters to congressional committees, non-governmental organizations and human rights groups trying to figure out what to do. Finally, he landed a position as instructor with the Close Up Foundation, a program that brings high school students to Washington DC for one week at the time to learn about government.

It was 1986 when the couple made the decision to move back to Colorado to buy a house and start a family. Lyle would move out first to get established while Claire kept her job in DC. Lyle started by making calls to a few of the friends he made while working on the Hart campaign. Hart was considering a second bid for the presidency and Tim Wirth’s Senate campaign was hiring.

As he prepared to accept the staff position on the Wirth campaign, another of Williamson’s friends from the 1980 race called with an opening for a lobbyist position in Denver with telecommunications company MCI. Within a week after starting his job with the Wirth campaign, MCI called and made an offer.

To this day, Williamson throws his hands up in exasperation, “Arrgh! So, I went the campaign people and said, ‘Well, this [job with MCI] is what I need, because I can bring Claire here, it’s a real job, and it’s the type of job you hope to get after this campaign is over so, I have to take it now.’ They were all really great about it.”

A Lobbyist is Born

According to the American Civil Liberties Union, the term “lobbying” originates from the early practice of attempting to influence legislators in the lobby outside of the legislative chambers before a vote. The function of any lobbyist or lobbying campaign is basically the same: Advocate, Educate, and Participate.

Today, MCI is now Verizon and Williamson has been a lobbyist at the State level for the company for more than 25 years. 

The Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States preserves the State’s right to regulate industry. It is Williamson’s job to influence and educate lawmakers as far as how the State laws should accommodate the new players in the phone business and, at the same time, changing the rules for the big monopolies. 

 “The industry has advanced enough and there’s pretty strong consensus between the cable companies and the wireless phone companies. The wire line companies like Century Link are probably most frustrated by lingering regulation, I would say, to give them some credit.”

When asked about the public’s perception of corporate lobbyists, Williamson takes the high road.

“How consumers are protected is a big deal and we are all saying, ‘Here’s how we think they’re best protected.’ The Public Utility Commission or the State’s consumer advocate would have a different view about how they think consumers are protected. My job is to present a progressive piece of legislation that satisfies the industry needs somewhat and keeps the regulators in the game, too.”

Tom Dixon of DORA worked with Williamson for 15 years prior to retiring from Verizon in 2011. Now, as a member of the Office of Consumer Counsel, he has a balanced view of the process.

“Lyle is an effective advocate for a couple of reasons – one is, he knows the material. He gets himself well up to speed and he’s familiar with the position he as an advocate needs to take. He’s been doing this for years and the thing he has that makes him effective is, as I said, he has good integrity and honesty and people believe him. When it comes to legislators, he answers questions, if they want information he goes and gets it and gets back to them. That’s why. That’s why he’s been doing it for so long; he’s effective and he likes it.

Williamson looks at it this way:

“My earlier work – all of it prepared me better for what I do now – the work in Palau, I did a lot of drafting and I did a lot writing that used my legal background and still does – the education helped me in terms of analyzing and writing. I get help – Verizon’s a big boy company – but I can also critique what they’ve given me and that helps me.

When World's Collide

When World’s Collide

One man’s journey from the ravages of war

by Florence Yaeger

Today’s rolling Pennsylvania hills remind Emmerich Kizmann of his war-torn homeland of Czechoslovakia, the concentration camp in Nováky a not-so-distant memory where bodies were laughingly plowed over to become fertilizer.

That’s one of the memories that sticks most in his mind.

Unable to continue, he chokes up. His voice trails off as his gaze fixes on a distant neighbor’s trees. His gnarled hands wipe tears away in unison. Even with a slightly hunched back, Emmerich, now 81, has to duck down to make his way back through his Pennsylvania country home's doorframe. His grey hair newly shaven underneath a tweed cap, he squares his shoulders as the beige sweater tries to hide the lankiness underneath. Emmerich’s signature twinkle in his blue-grey eyes returns as he peers through the tortoise shell glasses that are almost too big for his face.

“I’m ok; a lot of people have had it harder than me,” he humbly asserts as he pushes his hands deep into his pants pockets. Even after decades in America, his thick Czech accent is hard to understand.

But Emmerich’s mantra has helped him through some dark days.

Emmerich's journey before arriving in the U.S.

Lost Childhood

The eastern Slovakia town of Spiśské Vlachy was a great place for a boy to grow up. After lots of hard work on the farm, there were balls to play with, brothers to rough and tumble with and sisters to annoy. The middle child of seven siblings, Emmerich was a stoic but lively boy.

That stoicism would serve him well.

While most 12-year-old boys today worry about whether they have the latest iGadget or the coolest shoes, 12-year-old Emmerich wondered if he’d live to see another day. Or what he did to warrant a hellish life in a concentration camp.

The family had already escaped to Sudetenland twice—once to hide from terrorists and another from the approaching Red Army. It was 1945, after World War II. The Russians had left and the family made their way by train back to their homeland in Slovakia. They got as far as Žilina, a small town in northwestern Slovakia near the Polish and Czech border. Suddenly, the train stopped and they were told to disembark.


“The bridge is out,” a guard yelled. “You can’t go any further.”

Confused, the nine family members, including mother and grandmother, soon realized they had been captured. Their sin? They were Carpathian Germans, of German descent, on Emmerich’s father’s side.

During the war, the Western Allies determined the reconstruction of Czechoslovakia. The Benes Decrees, named after exiled Czech president Edvard Benesch, laid the foundation for the deportation of millions of ethnic Hungarians and Germans from Czechoslovakia.

Individual Slovaks and Czechs guilty of Nazi support were condemned and ethnic Germans as a group were guilty by association.

Benesch issued 143 decrees, 15 of which were bent on dehumanizing Germans.  

Benes Decree No. 33 assured that fugitive Germans trying to return home to Slovakia were stripped of their citizenship, their property and—for many of them—their lives as they were forced into three primary internment camps.

Benes Decree No. 115 endorsed any “justified act of retribution” as fair game, including the rape and murder of children. Even today the perpetrators of these heinous acts do not require amnesty because the Benes decree is still valid and these acts are not considered crimes.

Train station in Spisske Vlachy

After getting off the train, the Kizmann’s were herded like cattle to nearby vacant air force base barracks where they spent the next two weeks getting “processed.” Then they were marched for days to a hard labor concentration camp in Nováky, a small town in the Prievidza district in western Slovakia. The children carried their grandmother, too sick and weak to walk on her own, on a mattress above their heads.

She died before they made it to Nováky, her withered body tossed by guards to the side of the dirt road like yesterdays garbage in front of her grandchildren.

Tears stream down Emmerich’s face again.

His older sister, Eva, pats his arm and says, “He was Oma’s favorite. They went everywhere together and she taught him to cook bean soup.” Brother and sister exchange glances and a sacred moment of silence.

Novaky labor camp

They endured 18 months of hell and the first year was the worst. Under terrorist rule, the camp originally housed mine workers then persecuted Jews and then Carpathian Germans. Sleeping quarters included straw to lie on and the clothes they had on for cover, along with fleas, lice and ticks. With no running water, the toilet facilities consisted of a 7’x20’ hole in the ground with a piece of wood across it out in the open for all to see. The thin pea water that passed for soup twice a day was barely enough to live on. Many didn’t.

Able women were forced to do hard labor in the nearby forest. Disease ran rampant because they were forced into sexual acts with corpses.

A Type of Freedom

For a long time, Emmerich’s family did not know what happened to his father, Albert. Armed with pickaxes and pitchforks, Albert had stayed behind in Slovakia when the family escaped to Sudetenland to help guard their home and small community.

At one point, a high-ranking German army officer bribed Albert and several others with seeing their families in Sudetenland if they would serve in the German army. Legally, German armies could not draft ethnic Germans but they could take “volunteers.” The German army forced them to volunteer by bribing them with family time.

All over Europe, railroad tracks needed to be guarded. Terrorists would often put explosives under tracks to blow up bridges and trains. Protecting these tracks was Albert's job. Eventually, Albert became a prisoner in Croatia, in former Yugoslavia, where he was sent to guard warehouses and railroad tracks since he was considered too old to be part of the war effort.

Because the Croatian language is close to Slovakian, one night Albert overheard the guards’ plans for the prisoners to be executed the next morning. He spread the word in the prison camp, telling everyone they were going to be shot at daylight and to run in different directions to confuse the guards.

Even though the Croatian guards had machine guns, the prisoners figured some of them could make it. Albert and a few of the men ran north, over the border into Austria where they became prisoners of the British and were put to work as loggers. They knew that at least the British were not terrorists.

In mid-1946, the Swiss Red Cross arrived at Nováky’s concentration camp and, after seeing the deplorable conditions, the guards changed overnight. Conditions then improved slightly. Twice a day, they were given a ration of black coffee and a piece of dark bread. The pea soup thickened slightly and a few beans were added.

Emmerich was rented out to a farmer during the summer of 1946 for slave labor. His younger brother, Joe, had some typing ability from first-year high school typing class. This landed him a job (unpaid) as a typist in the camp where he tracked the names, ages and details of incoming prisoners.

That fall, the remaining family members were sent to Germany on a freight train, in boxcars. They were eventually reunited with Albert. Ironically, Joe’s meager typing skills and a secretly helpful captor led the family to the American bloc, where passage to America was easier than if they were in the Soviet bloc.

Coming to America

Germany was divided into four zones—Russian, French, English and American. Joe’s concentration camp boss told him about an upcoming freight train passage that would be going to the American zone. He encouraged Joe to round up his family and friends and hide on the freight train.

Once in the American zone, the family began paperwork with the American consulate to get to the United States. Emmerich had an aunt who left Slovakia in the 1920s to live in New York and the family made preparations to get to the U.S. in small groups to live with her.

Dreams of a new life in the land of the free were coming true.

In May 1950, siblings Emmerich, Joe and Eva found themselves on a boat bound for New York City. Emmerich’s older brother, Alois, had a spot discovered on his lung and was refused transport. In 1954, Albert arrived in New York and two years later, in 1956, Emmerich’s mother Vilma and youngest sister Theresia completed the family’s arrival in the United States.

But peaceful times were brief.

Emmerich was drafted into the Korean War where he served as a cook. For two years, he again experienced wartime.

But back in New York, December 31, 1956 was a memorable date. Emmerich enjoyed his first New Year’s Eve party and met a sultry French Moulin Rouge-esque dancer named Lola. Emmerich’s shyness was equaled by his best friend’s determination to find him a wife, even if that included his famous sister dancer.

They dated for a while. Emmerich saved up all his money to buy a three-year old convertible that looked brand new. He wanted to impress Lola and proudly surprised her one evening by rolling up to her dance studio.

“Why didn’t you get a brand new convertible?” she asked, puzzled.

When he explained he couldn’t afford a brand new car, she dropped him “like a hot potato.” Emmerich may have had his body and spirit broken before, but this was his first experience with a broken heart.

Can’t Remember Where or When

Two weeks after arriving in America in 1950, Emmerich met a New York socialite named Helen at a party with mutual family friends. Emmerich did not speak a word of English and could only nod at her.

Suddenly, he had a flashing thought that passed through his mind: “I’m going to marry a woman like that someday.”

It was an odd thought to have about a stranger, he mused. Yet she would drift into his awareness from time to time during the Korean War and he wondered how she was. Eventually, though, he forgot about her.

Nine years later, in 1959, they met at a New Year’s Eve party. They married. They had a son and a daughter and lived the American dream for 53 years.

And it wasn’t until a warm summer night in 1976, as they both reminisced about old times, did he realize she was the one he said he would marry someday.

Emmerich and Helen buried their son in 2011. A few months ago, Emmerich’s beloved Helen took her last breath in his arms as she whispered of angels bringing her flowers.

Same as it Ever Was

Historian Tomislav Sunic sums it up. “Altogether, 12-15 million Germans fled or were driven from their homes in what is perhaps the greatest ‘ethnic cleansing’ in history.” Both the West German government and the German Red Cross put the death toll at over 2.5 million people.

The genocide of ethnic Germans is one of the many “forgotten holocausts.” Yet, despite a life filled with death, devastation and heartache, Emmerich’s mantra remains “I’m ok; a lot of people have had it harder than me.”

And for that, and so many more reasons, my dad is my hero.

Emmerich enjoys a laugh with his family.

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