Confidential File

Fear, Ignorance Hard to Defeat

This is a very unlikely story about a minister whom everybody feared.

He
was a kind, friendly man — a dedicated worker for his church. In fact,
his dedication was so great that he spent 31 years as a missionary in
Burma.

But that's not where his story begins. The people in Burma trusted and loved him.

It
wasn't until after he came back to the United States, to the community
of Glendale, in 1946, that he became a victim of man's ignorance and
superstition and fear.

In one terrifying day, about a year after
his return here, he was forced to get out of his home, resign his job
as director of missions for his church, and head for the state line as
fast as he could.

His alternative was to wait for the authorities to come knocking on his front door to lead him off and lock him up.

The reason for his flight was a small red spot which appeared days earlier on his ankle.

On the day he fled, the spot was diagnosed by a doctor as Hansen's disease — leprosy.

And it branded him as a dangerous public menace — a man who must immediately be isolated, removed from society.

Today,
I met the minister whom everybody feared. He's 71 years old now,
retired, and back in the city of Glendale. His name is Clarence Olmstead.

He filled me in on what has happened since the day he ran scared for the Arizona border.

Drove to U.S. Leprosarium

"My wife was with me," he said, "and we drove straight to the U.S. Public Health Service Leprosarium in Louisiana. It's in Carville."

There,
he related, the doctors didn't share the fear which gripped the
"enlightened" state of California. They immediately granted him
permission to drive his car to a brother's home in Illinois, suggesting
that he return in about a week.

He did return. And he spent most
of the next two years undergoing treatment — until doctors established
that his case was arrested.

Then he was released into society again.

With a touch of bitterness in his voice, the Rev. Mr. Olmstead told me, "When I arrived at Carville, the doctors agreed with me that if it weren't for the public's
fear and the social stigma attached to Hansen's disease, I could just
as easily have been treated in my own home and continued a normal
existence. I could have been a breadwinner for my family.

Just Few, Simple Precautions

"The
disease," he continued, "is the least communicable of all communicable
diseases. With a few simple precautions, even when the disease is
active, you can protect others."

But even when his case was proven arrested, Mr. Olmstead
found out that society wasn't ready to accept a leper. (The term leper
still makes the minister cringe. "The connotation is bad," he says.
"It's a very nasty, vile word.")

"However, he told me, "since I was at Carville,
there has been much improvement in public attitudes. California is just
one of several states which have liberalized their isolation laws
regarding Hansen's disease victims.

"If people could only be
made aware of the pointlessness of herding leprosy victims out of
society, if they only understood the hardship andheartbreak these separations are causing…"

His voice faded.

At 71, he's been around long enough to understand that progress is a slow process.