Page 68 - How We Lead Matters

Love, Honor, & ?

Not too long after becoming Minneapolis police chief, Tony Bouza arrested
his wife.
In the 1980s, anti–nuclear weaponry passions ran high. Erica Bouza,
along with hundreds of others, had made very public their plans to stage a
protest at the headquarters site of the defense contractor Honeywell, timed
to disrupt the company’s annual shareholders meeting.
As the story goes, Tony asked her at breakfast what she was going to do
that day. She answered that she planned to protest at Honeywell. She then
asked him what he was going to do that day. “I guess I’m going to arrest you,”
he replied.
That same year, I was the chair of the annual United Way campaign in
Minneapolis and coincidentally found myself sharing a podium with Tony at
a fund-raising event the day after the incident. His was a passionate and cred-
ible voice in describing the city’s needs, but the news of the previous day was
obviously on everyone’s mind.
Immediately after the conclusion of his compelling speech, a member
of the audience asked him how he could possibly arrest his own wife.
“She is very impressionable,” he said with a wink. “I never should have
taken her to see the movie Gandhi.”

Marilyn Carlson Nelson 51