GISPS meetings now include

       “riparian entertainment”

          Commander Holmes found a new word recently, and like any quality user of any language, set out to use it in a meaningful way. The GISPS June, 2007 regular meeting was the beneficiary venue, and “riparian” was the word of the day. From the Latin word for (river)“bank”, the word “riparian” means, “of or related to the banks of a natural course of water”. The word was cleverly inserted in our agenda to proclaim a new feature, that of a little riparian entertainment at the end of each meeting.

         The first such entertainment was in the person of the Webmaster’s father, P/D/LC Jack Peters, an associate member of the GISPS and a full member of the Galveston Bay Squadron in Houston, Texas, now up for his 38th merit mark! The entertainment was comprised of a very polished oral presentation of a little known chapter in USPS history. That chapter took place when I had just passed the 12 week USPS course as a thirteen year-old who lived and breathed Power Squadron as a child in that home, in the Charlotte Squadron and District 27 events.

         The event was the moving of the USPS national headquarters from Park Ridge, N.J. to its present city of Raleigh, N.C. In the early 70’s, there was a strong movement by the ACLU against what it saw as any kind of exclusion. The USPS provided a great target with its then exclusion of women as members and based in an ACLU stronghold of New Jersey. Rising to the occasion to defend the USPS was a most colorful C/C Pou Bailey, a noted attorney and District Judge from North Carolina. Just as the judges of the Scriptures, he rose as the right person at the right time and led the defense.

         Presenting the core of his opinion on the issue, Judge Bailey was quoted as saying, “It is my recommendation to this body,... that the consideration for women in this organization,... be postponed until such time as can reasonably be determined,... by an impartial body,... that Hell has frozen over.”

         It was a conspicuously lonely job, as none of the other organizations of like or similar make-up or status even raised a finger in our support. The ACLU smelled blood with a likely precedent setting judgment against an abandoned USPS in the New Jersey courts. Seeing the handwriting on the wall and not willing to give in, C/C Bailey called on his home District 27 where he had the best connections. Jack Peters, then District 27 Secretary (and coincidentally married to a Park Ridge, NJ lady!) was called upon to go up and move all the national records from N.J. to a new home in North Carolina, out of the New Jersey court’s jurisdiction. A long drive later, Jack Peters was in his mother-in-laws home, a few blocks from the then national headquarters in Park Ridge, N.J. with a trailer she rented for him waiting in the driveway. The trailer was hooked up, and in the dark of night, everything important to the USPS was spirited out of New Jersey and soon resurfaced at their new home in Raliegh, N.C., just as the court was coming to take possession of all our assets and win their precedent. It was one of many times Attorney Bailey would snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, but it was one of a select few stories that never seem to make it to The Ensign.

         As you all know, the USPS was soon to elect (on its own volition!) to admit lady certificate holders as full members. It has never looked back, as it certainly shouldn’t on such a decision. It is interesting sometimes, however, to hear the rest of the story, a part of our heritage.

-Karl E. Peters, GISPS Webmaster