I recently returned from one of the greatest trips I’ve been lucky enough to take. I was in Europe and on Normandy Beach on June 6, the anniversary of the Allies coming ashore.
The day that I left, The Denver Post announced that it had terminated a good friend of mine, Terry Frei. He was a sports columnist who had been named Colorado Sportswriter of the Year four times, and now was out of work for tweeting that it made him “uncomfortable” that Takuma Sato, a Japanese driver had won the Indy 500 on Memorial Day. Terry told me his tweet came after visiting Fort Logan to put flowers on the grave of his father Jerry Frei. His father had spent four years between his sophomore and junior years at Wisconsin flying P38 fighter planes in the South Pacific. He flew 67 missions, 300 combat hours. In fact, Terry’s book Third Down And A War To Go is a great read about men and women in the Second World War.
On June 6, I was at Pegasus Bridge, a very important site on the way to the key village of Sainte Mere Eglise. There had been a mandate from the British military to hold that bridge on the morning of the D-Day landings. We arrived in a very beautiful and comfortable Mercedes Benz bus. I was standing there watching parades and speaking with old British veterans who had been there on that terrible day, including the man pictured here, a 94-year-old British Pathfinder. And then I noticed a very expensive Porsche, its turbo whining, crossing the bridge. Lots of tourists gather on those days. And I thought of Terry. I knew he had been fired as we left the United States.
Now, how about a show of hands in our reading audience. How many people know about Ferdinand Porsche? Beloved Porsche cars, Volkswagens, of course, the people’s car. But how many of you know about Tiger I and Tiger II tanks? And, of course, the Royal Tiger tank? The Panzer VIII Maus and you all remember the V-1 flying bomb. Freddie was a member of the Nazi Party and also the SS. How quickly we’re allowed to forget that and condemn Terry Frei. I should remind you that the Porsche family didn’t have any problem employing “slave labor.” After it was over, he did a couple of years in prison but what the hey. Forgive and forget is what I always say. But not when it comes to Terry?
So there I was on Pegasus Bridge arriving in a Mercedes watching a Porsche cross and having exactly the same thoughts Terry Frei had. At this point do you think Chuck Bonniwell should fire me or better yet throw the switch on the award-winning morning show on KNUS? Just so you know, Dr. Porsche was arrested, did 22 months and went back to making money in 1950 when he introduced the Porsche sports car. That apparently was lost on The Denver Post who has no problem taking ads for Mercedes cars and trucks.
If we’re going back in history to attempt to control the future watch your step. Fake history is more dangerous that fake news. This month’s “Running Dog” award goes to The Denver Post columnist Diane Carman. She said Colorado should remove its monuments to genocide. Fascinating. She names second Territorial Governor John Evans who founded the University of Denver, William Byers, founder of the Rocky Mountain News, Kit Carson, George Custer and Sir George Gore. Oh aghast! Oh the humanity! Again she keeps her job at the Post and Terry is gone. Diane, what you should do, as well as the other managers at The Denver Post, is give everything you ever earned, back. Are you really any different than those cavalry soldiers and militiamen who did those terrible things? You’re just living off what they did — you, Mac Tully, the entire bunch. Give everything you have in Colorado back to the tribes. Because you made Terry Frei give his back.
Those who do not know the past are doomed to repeat it. Except at The Denver Post.
And by the way, after over 30 years of working at The Denver Post he woke up one morning to find out a racist had been writing columns at The Denver Post and he had to go. And The Denver Post allowed Terry to dangle in the wind and be destroyed by other newspapers and media outlets across the country. Horrible things were said about one of the nicest guys I know.
I’d like to add one thing. We’ve written columns about Brandon Marshall and the lies he told about what the police allegedly did to him in Florida. A month or two ago Terry was in my radio show studio and I brought up Marshall. He asked me off air not to continue that line of questioning. So here’s the conclusion. Terry gave to the Post what it would not give to him. Loyalty, trust and the benefit of the doubt.
Think about it.
— Peter Boyles