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originally uploaded by russ.

Back in the late 1960 and early 1970s, the prosecutorial arm of the U.S. government institutionally regarded all who objected to our involvement in Vietnam as either potentially or accurately treasonous.

Sid Lezak,who served as U.S. attorney for Oregon from 1961 thru 1982, was not one of those people.

Personally opposed to the war, he did his duty, but found ways to soften the blow. For some war protesters, he argued for commensurate community service. One war protester who served a five month sentence received his law degree in 1982 thanks to intervention from Lesak.

In latter years, Lesak became active in causes ranging from reproductive freedom to fund-raising for legal services so that Oregon’s poor could be represented.

I, in fact, had a short conversation with Sid at a Planned Parenthood gathering a couple of years back.

A funny, charming and decent man, Sid passed on this Monday at the age of 81.

“He was a brave and brilliant man,a decorated World War II aviator, a strong opponent of the Vietnam War, and a U.S. attorney who served at the pleasure of five Presidents,” the Oregonian exclaims in an editorial today.

Those presidents included members of both parties. That makes Sid’s tenure even that much more notable.

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