The soldier’s instinct told him to run like hell away from the ammunition dump he knew was just beyond the warehouse building he was passing when he heard the whine of the incoming 122mm Viet Cong rocket. A direct hit ignited a massive explosion, the force of which disintegrated the warehouse he was running from. As the shock wave hit, he was tossed like a rag doll into the air and then … nothing.

When he came to, he was in the underground hospital located on the base. The USMC base was Dong Ha, about five miles from the DMZ. The hospital was chaotic. Men were jammed in with incredible injuries, missing limbs, fractures, shrapnel wounds. Hospital personnel were doing everything they could to stabilize the most severely injured, but time was critical.

As soon as he figured out where he was and why, he quickly looked himself over to see if anything was missing. Luckily, nothing was, so he painfully forced himself to sit up. His arms and chest hurt. Seeing that he was so much better off than most of those around him, he staggered to his feet and left so his bed could be used by someone who needed it more.

Later he would find eyewitnesses who had seen him blown 150 yards through the air with his arms wrenched behind before he hit, skidding another 25 yards before slamming into the concrete rim of a bunker. To this day he has been plagued with pain and discomfort.

That man was, and is, community activist Paul Ripp. I got to know Paul during the last election campaign. He was the “clean sweep” man, often seen with a symbolic broom, standing across the street from the Civic Center during the election runoff. Because I like to understand what motivates people, to see things from their perspective, I have over the months taken the time to visit with Paul to see why he wants to rock the boat and not just “go along to get along” as so many people do.

I have found Paul intelligent, well-traveled, honest, and, most importantly, highly conscientious. This springs from his extreme admiration for his father, Professor John Paul Ripp, who founded the Alabama Consumers Association in the 1960s. Over the years, Professor Ripp saved the citizens of Alabama multiple millions in his quest for fairness in arguing the reasons for rate hikes and other charges levied on the public.

Paul said he would never know whom he would meet when he dropped by his parents’ home. Walter Cronkite, Morley Safer and Ralph Nader were just a few of the folks he found drinking coffee with his dad at the kitchen table. Professor Ripp died while addressing the Homewood City Council protesting unfair cable rate increases in 1992.

Paul himself has continued to make waves by his aggressive questioning of many of the permitting and building practices at the new Publix site. He has reason, for he lives directly across from the development and from the beginning has developed documentation nearly 2 inches thick on the seemingly incongruous and inconsistent policies that have dogged this development in the press for months.

It is easy from a distance to dismiss people who seem too pushy or constantly ask troubling questions as “nuts” or “kooks,” but I believe that those who operate under that assumption, especially those to whom he has directed his questions, would be well advised to rethink such a conclusion.

Dean Mosher, a Fairhope resident for 35 years, has chaired numerous committees and boards. He currently serves as vice president of the Fairhope Single Tax Corp. and is a professional artist known worldwide for his epic historical paintings.