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Good business: It begins with a light

EDITOR’S NOTE: This column has been substantially modified from its initial appearance in June of 2017.

Joe and Josie Taraskiewicz always left a light on at their business — Joe’s super Service — on the top of the hill in Hillman.

Their business motto, ” We’re fishing for your business and service is our bait,” applied not only during normal business hours, but after closing, as well. Any time there was a knock on Joe’s door, someone would respond to reel in the catch — sell some gas — maybe a loaf of bread.

It was after closing on a warm summer evening in 1947 that the knock came. Stasia Hubert told me her sister, Millie, was the only one home at the time, but Millie knew the drill — she opened the door.

At the gas pumps, two cars were waiting. The occupants stepped out to thank her for opening and explained they were coming from Alpena, where they had worked a job earlier that evening. However, after its completion, no one would sell them gas, serve them food, or make arrangements for their lodging.

They had been told that, if they drove to Hillman and knocked on Joe’s door, someone there would help them. Millie told me she did what she had been taught to do: sold them what they needed of what she had — gas, canned meat, bread, peanut butter, milk. She received payment and thanked them — just as they had thanked her.

Millie Taraskiewicz, 15 years old, in her nightdress, had honored her parent’s commitment. She opened the door to strangers — a group of large, formidable, black strangers.

Young Millie Taraskiewicz had opened her door to the Harlem Globetrotters.

The prejudice the Globetrotters experienced in Alpena that night was, unfortunately, common. Crowds, all white folks, would come to watch the majesty of the Globetrotter’s play. But, when the game was over, the lights went out.

The Globetrotters weren’t served in Alpena, because serving a black man was bad for business.

We have all watched as a Minneapolis police officer put his knee on George Floyd’s neck and left it there, smothering his life as he was pleading. But, from that darkness, a light grew. Captured by a cellphone, it radiated across the nation through the politics of division.

Earlier, an NFL quarterback — Colin Kaepernick — took a knee protesting police brutality. President Donald Trump said Kaepernick should be fired for that. NFL owners agreed — a black man protesting during the national anthem was bad for business.

In the daylight, through peaceful demonstrators protesting unvanquished darkness, mounted police cleared a path using tear gas and rubber bullets. Down this path, President Trump walked to the front of a church, where he held up a Bible, the light of the world — in a photo op.

The Episcopal bishop was not pleased: “I’m outraged … they could use one of our churches as a prop.”

The Catholic archbishop of Washington condemned a similar of presidential dimming at a shrine honoring Pope John Paul II: “I feel it reprehensible that any Catholic facility would allow itself to be so egregiously misused and manipulated.”

The same year young Millie Taraskiewicz opened that door in Hillman, the Michigan Legislature passed a unique piece of singularly dark legislation. It created charter townships — a segregation tool.

Suburbs wanted “protection” from black people. A charter township gave them that. As stated by the Michigan Township Association, “A primary motivation for Townships to adopt the charter form of government is — to protect against annexation by a city.”

Flint’s obligations remained the same, but its borders froze, its property values shrank, its tax base declined — its schools suffered. Flint’s potential as a diverse, vibrant community was diminished. It became difficult to find a clean glass of water there.

We’ve used the charter township tool. With our small population getting smaller, we nevertheless maintain the substantial expense of two completely separate governments that have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars fighting each other. Over what? Water.

Darkness spreads in unanticipated ways.

At the top of the hill in Hillman, a light was left on over a door that opened. We need more lighted doors that open.

Not having them is bad for business.

Doug Pugh’s “Vignettes” runs weekly on Saturdays. He can be reached at pughda@gmail.com.

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