Why wait so long to honor the Ballises?

I was very glad to see the laudatory piece about Land for Food and People you ran last week.

That was the organization, led by George and Maia Ballis, that tried to enforce the ownership-limit laws and keep Valley agriculture in the hands of family farmers. I came to know George and Maia well in their later “Sun Mountain Days,” and heard first hand from them the history of money and power trumping democracy.

So, much as I appreciated the article, I wondered why such a piece in praise and support of their work had not appeared back in the ’70s. Why do we so often honor our heroes only after their good fight has been squandered?

This story was originally published December 7, 2015 at 5:32 AM with the headline "Why wait so long to honor the Ballises?."