Regular reader (Hi Jeff!) will recall that I often have written favorably about my old boss, U.S. Senator Michael Bennet. Bennet is, as I have repeatedly said, a dedicated public servant. This may lead you to think that I am going to, yet again, say nice things about my former boss.

Which, of course, brings me to Governor Polis …

See what I did there? It’s a bait and switch. Because today I’m going to talk about some good things being done by another guy, in keeping with my oft-repeated theme that most of the time, our government can do good things and is (mostly) run by well-meaning and good folks. But today, I’m not talking about Bennet (sorry, boss).

Nearly a year ago, I wrote a column about the then-Trump administration’s shameful policy of separating children from their parents at our southern border. In that column, I noted a recent visit I made to the site of one of our nation’s greatest shames, the Granada War Relocation Camp, better known as Camp Amache. In that appalling place, our nation once locked up thousands of Americans from 1942 to 1945. Their crime? They were Asian-Americans. The internment of Japanese Americans during WWII was a crime against humanity, regardless of any supposed good intentions behind the action. 

Since that column last June, my wife and I again visited the Amache site near Granada in southeast Colorado. One cannot help but be touched by the utter remoteness of that now-mostly empty plain. As I wrote earlier, “A water tower and a single guard tower stand vigil over what stands as one of our nation’s most shameful episodes. The winds seem to whisper, “never again.”

As recently reported in Colorado Politics, Gov. Polis has sent a letter to the National Park Service, asking that agency to support efforts to include Camp Amache in the national park system. Polis understands that the record of our nation’s history must include not only the righteous, the good, and the honorable, but also the stains on our national character. The internment camps of the 1940s are such a stain and their history must be our history as well. As Polis noted, “Preserving and protecting the Amache site presents a valuable opportunity to better our country, our state, our history and most importantly our future in the spirit of justice, equity and inclusion.” 

I love our national park system and have tried to visit quite a few of these wonderful jewels. But it is long past due for our full history to be included, as has been done before when the NPS included the Sand Creek Massacre site and others. Our national tapestry is rich and wide. But it is best viewed in its entirety, with the great deeds and with the terrible mistakes. 

I encourage you, dear readers, to find the time to visit that empty and echoing now-grassy plain and ponder the cement foundations of the old barracks, and to think about our fellow citizens imprisoned there for the crime of looking different. 

Currently, the entrance to Amache is easy to miss. There are a couple of small signs along Highway 50, about a mile and a half west of Granada. You drive on a dirt road past the homes of current residents of the area, and slowly ascend to the windswept site, once covering over 10,000 acres. Stop at the entry kiosks to see pictures of the camp in operation, and drive the roads that once led to barracks, a post office, schools, stores, and baseball fields. 

And while those last items seem typical and benign, recall please that all those typically “American” places were within a barbed wire fence, with guard towers and soldiers with machine guns. All to keep other Americans locked up due to the racist and despicable policies of that era. One might ask how far we have come from those days, given what is still happening in our great nation, but those musings must await a future column.

I applaud Gov. Polis for supporting the promotion of Camp Amache to the National Park System, and I hope his efforts are successful. Currently, a small museum in Granada is open most days, but it is not located on the site itself. While an important start, that small space is not enough. It is fitting and proper that this part of our history be fully included in our national dialogue. Please find the time this summer to visit Camp Amache and listen to the lonely wind. There are stories there that must be told. There are voices we need to hear.