Any one who knows me knows that I am far from being a Republican, further still away from what the media calls the Right Wing of the Republican Party. I am not overly impressed with the field of candidates that the Republicans have so far fielded in the race to be the Republican Standard Barer in 2012's Presidential Election.That said, I have watched some of the early debates (if you can call them that) and tracked the race closer than most people probably do. I'm a news junky, it is what I do, CNN running 24 hours a day here in my apartment. Waking up sometimes at three or four in the morning when a breaking story captures my attention while I lay sleeping. Coming into my apartment tonight after dinner with friends, I heard such a story, and am shocked beyond belief.
In the early years of his political career, Rick Perry began hosting fellow lawmakers, friends and supporters at his family’s secluded West Texas hunting camp, a place known by the name painted in block letters across a large, flat rock standing upright at its gated entrance.
“Niggerhead,” it read.
Some who had watched Perry’s political ascent recalled their reaction to the name on the rock and their worry that it could become a political liability for Perry.
“I remember the first time I went through that pasture and saw that,” said Ronnie Brooks, a retired game warden who began working in the region in 1981 and who said he guided three or four turkey shoots for Rick Perry when Perry was a state legislator between 1985 and 1990. “. . . It kind of offended me, truthfully.”
Brooks, who said he holds Perry “in the highest esteem,” said that at some point after Perry began bringing lawmakers to the camp, the rock was turned over. Brooks could not recall exactly when. He said he did not know who turned the rock over.
Another local who visited the property with Perry and the legislators in those years recalled seeing the rock with the name clearly visible.
“I thought, ‘This is going to embarrass Rick some day,’ ” said this person, who did not want to be named, fearing negative consequences from speaking on the subject.