DEOMI News Highlights
DEOMI News Highlights is a weekly compilation of published items and commentary with a focus on equal
opportunity, equal employment opportunity, diversity, culture, and human relations issues. DEOMI News
Highlights is also a management tool intended to serve the informational needs of equity professionals and senior
DOD officials in the continuing assessment of defense policies, programs, and actions. Further reproduction or
redistribution for private use or gain is subject to original copyright restrictions.
4th Female Sentinel Proud to Revere Tomb’s Unknown Soldiers [Martha C. Koester, NCO Journal, 22
February 2017]
 Sgt. Ruth Hanks has many memories to choose from when explaining why she cherishes her job as a tomb
guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.
 Perhaps it was when an honor flight of U.S. military veterans, either World War II or Korean War-era,
stopped to watch the changing of the guard at the tomb in the cemetery’s Memorial Amphitheater. Hanks
wondered if one of the veterans paying tribute that day had fought alongside one of the unknown soldiers.
 It wasn’t until 1994 that women were permitted to volunteer to become sentinels when the 289th Military
Police Company was attached to the Old Guard, according to the Society of the Honor Guard, Tomb of the
Unknowns. The MP branch is a combat support unit.
4th Female Sentinel Proud to Revere Tomb’s Unknown Soldiers
Legalizing same-sex marriage was associated with fewer youth suicide attempts, new study finds [Ben
Guarino, The Washington Post, 21 February 2017]
 In the past few years, public health experts have increasingly investigated the factors, such as mental illness
or substance abuse, behind why teenagers attempt suicide. More recently, researchers from Johns Hopkins
University and Harvard University asked a different sort of question: whether the legalization of same-sex
marriage could have an impact on suicide attempts in adolescents.
 The researchers examined the data from 762,678 students who answered [an annual Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention] survey between 1999 until January 2015. (That is, before the Supreme Court decision
in June 2015 that ruled same-sex marriage was a constitutional right that could not be denied across the U.S.)
The data reflected 32 states that legalized same-sex marriage between 2004 and 2015, as well as the 15 states
that did not.
 For gay, lesbian, and bisexual students in particular, the decrease [in the percentage of students who reported
a suicide attempt] was more pronounced [than for the overall population]. Rates of suicide attempts decreased
from 28.5 percent to 24.5 percent (a 14 percent reduction in suicide attempts). There was no change in states
that did not legalize same-sex marriage before January 2015.
Legalizing same-sex marriage was associated with fewer youth suicide attempts, new study finds
More Female, Minority Officers Join as Marine Corps Stresses Diversity [Hope Hodge Seck,
Military.com, 22 February 2017]
 The officer ranks of the Marine Corps are looking a little less White and male as the historically homogenous
service makes a new push to attract diverse talent.
 At a farewell ceremony for outgoing Navy Secretary Ray Mabus in January, Marine Commandant Gen.
Robert Neller said accessions of female and minority officers into the service reached 33 percent in fiscal
2016, an increase of about 10 percentage points from previous years.
 Last February, Neller announced that he wanted the Corps to expand its population of female troops, both
officer and enlisted, with a goal of creating a service that was 10 percent female. Currently, fewer than eight
percent of Marines are women, making the Corps the most male-dominated service in the Defense
Department.
More Female, Minority Officers Join as Marine Corps Stresses Diversity
24 February 2017
Page 1
DEOMI News Highlights
Culture
Indiana’s pre-Civil War Black farming community a Smithsonian surprise
Louisiana journalist pursuing KKK killers across time
The Man who led the Syrian Train-and-Equip Effort Wants a Cultural Translation App
Discrimination
After refusing to watch LGBT diversity video, Social Security judge sues to avoid being fired
A girl named Ehlena and a dog named Wonder win at U.S. Supreme Court
St. Louis County cop says he was told to ‘tone down his gayness’
Diversity
4th Female Sentinel Proud to Revere Tomb’s Unknown Soldiers
Cressida Dick Will Be First Woman to Lead Scotland Yard
The effect: how war veterans impacted the modern Civil Rights Movement
Mildred Dresselhaus, physicist dubbed ‘queen of carbon science,’ dies at 86
More Female, Minority Officers Join as Marine Corps Stresses Diversity
National African American History Month: Reflecting a lineage of core values
‘Red Tail’ tells tales: American hero educates, inspires at celebration
Transgender: What does it mean? After Trump rolls back protections, an explainer
Miscellaneous
Holocaust survivor: ‘I lost my will to live’
Legalizing same-sex marriage was associated with fewer youth suicide attempts, new study finds
The short, troubled life of Obama’s transgender student protections
Misconduct
Wiggins: WNBA’s ‘harmful’ culture of bullying, jealousy
Racism
Asian Last Names Lead To Fewer Job Interviews, Still
Citing Racist Testimony, Justices Call for New Sentencing in Texas Death Penalty Case
Man with White supremacist ties accused of plotting attack ‘in the spirit of Dylann Roof’
Religion
FBI investigating reported death threats against Muslims by N.C. conservative activists
Islamic State vows more attacks on Egypt’s Christians
Marines accused of violating U.S. Constitution with religious display
Muslim Group Wins Right to Build Mosque in Michigan City
Pence makes stop at Jewish cemetery in Missouri where gravestones were toppled
Sexual Assault/Harassment
New hope for Yazidi women raped and tortured by IS fighters
24 February 2017
Page 2
Culture
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/02/21/indianas-pre-civil-war-black-farmingcommunity-smithsonian-surprise/96565400/
Indiana's pre-Civil War black farming community a
Smithsonian surprise
By Will Higgins, The Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY NETWORK, February 21, 2017
Stanley Madison whose ancestors helped found Lyles Station Ind.
poses June 2 2000 outside the old Lyles Consolidated School where
the federal government is expected to pay $1.25 million to convert
the building into a place where today's students can learn about the
area's history. The Gibson County town in the southwestern corner
of Indiana was founded by freed slaves more than 150 years ago.
(Photo: Michael Conroy, Associated Press)
Slavery, Jim Crow, civil rights, jazz -- these are the traditional
touch points of African-American history.
But at the new Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, a modest exhibit
devoted to a small farming community in southern Indiana has generated buzz.
The exhibit's two dozen or so objects -- including a horse-drawn plow, a hand-held corn planter and a quilt
-- are artifacts from an unincorporated burg called Lyles Station. There, free blacks settled, cleared the land
and worked their own soil prior to the Civil War, a remarkable feat considering slavery was still the law of
the land in half the country, including in Kentucky just 35 miles to the south.
That such a place would have existed has been a surprise to some museumgoers. "There has been very little
study of African-American land-owning pioneering farmers in the antebellum period," says Anna-Lisa
Cox, a fellow at Harvard University whose research was used in
developing the Lyles Station exhibit.
In this photo Sept. 14, 2016, final preparations are being made for
the opening of the National Museum of African American History
and Culture in Washington. The museum opens in Washington this
Saturday, Sept. 24, 2016, aiming to tell the story of black people in
the U.S. through compelling artifacts, yet visitors will find few
personal mementos from one of the most famous and influential
black Americans, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. (AP Photo/Susan
Walsh, File)
Lyles Station was one of dozens of free black farm communities in the Midwest, which in the early 19th
century was still referred to as the "Northwest Territory," the region's official name before it was carved
into states.
Its settlers were indomitable people who endured not only the Fugitive Slave Act and other race-based
indignities but also continual flooding. The land they acquired was low-lying and near three major rivers.
"The old men were smart men, and they taught us the land was important," says Stanley Madison, a Lyles
Station resident who founded the Lyles Station Historic Preservation Corp. in 1997. Madison works his
fields less than a mile from where his great-great-grandfather worked his.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/02/21/indianas-pre-civil-war-black-farmingcommunity-smithsonian-surprise/96565400/
That's the other remarkable thing about Lyles Station: It still exists. It's one of the last mid1800s black farming communities still going.
There were a million black farmers in the USA in 1920, according to a U.S. Department of
Agriculture report, but by 1982 there were just 30,000. The political climate for black farmers improved in
2010 following President Barack Obama's announcement that $1.25 billion would be made available to
fund any unfiled claims from a class-action lawsuit settled in 1997. The lawsuit, filed on behalf of
400 black farmers, alleged that the USDA had denied them loans based on racial discrimination.
Preparations are finalized for the opening of the National Museum
of African American History and Culture in Washington. (Photo:
Susan Walsh/Associated Press)
In 2012, the USDA counted 44,629 black farmers, a 12% increase
since 2007. Even so, blacks make up just 2% of the country's
farmers compared with 14% a century ago.
The farmers of Lyles Station "did not take part" in the USDA
settlement, Madison says. "There was some talk of it, but no one I
know received money from the settlement."
Lyles Station's farmers survived by being enterprising and frugal. "It was always told to us that if you made
five dollars, you could spend two but save three," Madison says, "because in farming, you don't know the
future, you don't know what could come up."
In 1913, a giant flood came up. It drenched Lyles Station's fields and ruined crops. After that the
population, once 800 strong, began to scatter. About 100 residents remain.
The Madisons stayed and prospered by doing things like this: Stanley Madison was in the seventh grade
when his grandfather gave him a gilt, a young female pig that could be bred to have many litters of piglets.
"My grandfather said, 'Son, if you take care of this animal it'll make you money,'" Stanley Madison recalls.
"And by the time I got married, I had the 20% down payment I needed for my house. All from that pig."
The community's farming future is uncertain. In a time of large-scale farming done by corporations, the
farms of Lyles Station remain small, most of them in the 150- to 200-acre range, not enough to support a
family.
Most of the farmers are part-timers, hobbyists, who rely on 40-hour-a-week jobs in nearby factories for
their living. A half-dozen families still own 1,000-acre tracts. But in at least two cases the descendants have
moved away and are renting their land to corporate interests.
The future may be cloudy, but with the new museum, at least Lyles Station's past is secure.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/02/22/louisiana-journalist-pursuing-kkk-killersacross-time/98260116/
Louisiana journalist pursuing KKK killers across time
By Jerry Mitchell, The (Jackson, Miss.) Clarion-Ledger
USA TODAY NETWORK, February 22, 2017
Stanley Nelson, author of "Devils Walking: Klan Murders alone the Mississippi in
the 1960's" book. (Photo: Rhett Powell)
Stanley Nelson assumed that the first story he wrote about the 1964 killing of
Frank Morris by the Ku Klux Klan would be the last.
But Nelson found himself drawn into the web of mysteries surrounding the
murders of Morris and many others. Along the way, he uncovered the work of a
secret KKK terrorist cell known as "the Silver Dollar Group."
Now, a decade later, the 61-year-old editor of The Concordia Sentinel in Ferriday,
La., has written more than 400,000 words on the subject -- all while covering local government, the school
board, the courthouse, crime, trials and the drainage commission, plus listening to complaints and editing
the newspaper.
"I've watched Stanley do it all while working both sides of the Mississippi River (on) nights and weekends
to doggedly track down the truth behind unsolved and unpunished civil rights murders," says Hank
Klibanoff, director of the Georgia Civil Rights Cold Cases Project at Emory University in Atlanta. "He's a
journalistic phenomenon."
In 2011, the Pulitzer Prize committee noticed his work and made him a finalist. Best-selling author Greg
Iles based his trilogy of novels, starting with Natchez Burning, on the reporting.
"Stanley Nelson picked up the torch that was dropped all those years ago and continued the search for
justice," Iles says. "That's true heroism."
In October, LSU Press published Nelson's book, Devils Walking, about nine KKK killings along the
Mississippi River that went unpunished in the 1960s.
Frank Morris was a 51-year-old black businessman in Ferriday who ran a shoe shop and repair store, where
he served both black and white customers.
After a false KKK rumor that he had flirted with a white woman, the Silver Dollar Gang set his store on
fire on Dec. 10, 1964. He was sleeping in back.
When he tried to escape out the front door, a gang member with a shotgun forced him back inside, snarling,
"Get back in there, n-----!"
Morris died of severe burns at a hospital four days later.
Although Nelson had grown up in the area, he had never heard of Morris until 2007, when the FBI included
his case on a list of 100 unsolved murders from the civil rights era that it would be re-examining. He wrote
about the case.
After that first story appeared, Morris' granddaughter, Rosa Williams, who was 12 at the time, telephoned.
"She told me, 'All of my life I have wanted to know what happened to my grandfather. I've learned more in
your story than I've known all my life. I've never gone a day without thinking about my grandfather,'" he
recalls.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/02/22/louisiana-journalist-pursuing-kkk-killersacross-time/98260116/
In 2010, Nelson tracked down three witnesses who told him a man named Arthur Leonard Spencer had
acknowledged involvement in the attack but claimed he and fellow Klansmen didn't mean to kill Morris.
The FBI talked to the witnesses, but concluded they were lying.
Nelson disagreed.
In his book, he traced the fatal fire from Spencer to Concordia Parish sheriff's deputy Frank DeLaughter,
identifying him as the one who masterminded the fire to avenge an argument he had with Morris after
DeLaughter refused to pay Morris for a pair of cowboy boots and for shoe repair work.
"If today's bureau had not ignored their own retired agents and instead sought their assistance, justice may
have prevailed for Frank Morris," Nelson says.
The FBI believed the Silver Dollar Group was also behind the 1964 disappearance of Joe Edwards, who
worked at the Shamrock Motel where Klansmen regularly gathered, and the 1965 bomb attack on Natchez,
Miss., NAACP leader George Metcalfe, who survived.
Nelson also saw their fingerprints on the 1964 ambush killing of Clifton Walker near Woodville, Miss., and
dozens of beatings and burnings on both sides of the river.
The Silver Dollar Group aimed to trigger a race war, Nelson says. "They were going to fight to the death."
Over the past decade, the FBI has closed all but seven of the 100 cases.
Nelson remains determined to pursue the mysteries that remain, including the disappearance of Edwards.
Nelson hopes to find his body. "I want to do that for the family," he says. "It's the only (civil rights cold)
case I know of where the body was never found."
http://www.defenseone.com/technology/2017/02/man-who-led-syrian-train-and-equip-effort-wantscultural-translation-app/135557/
The Man who led the Syrian Train-and-Equip Effort Wants
A Cultural Translation App
The complex, delicate missions of today and tomorrow need a better way to bring fused
intelligence to operators.
By Patrick Tucker
Defense One, February 17, 2017
Sometimes the full story of a tragedy doesn’t come out until the people involved ask for tech solutions to
help them avoid past mistakes. Take the train-and-quip program that aimed to create a moderate opposition
force for Syria. Led by Lt. Gen Michael Nagata, the program is roundly seen as a failure, having consumed
a half billion dollars while producing only 54 of a promised 1,500 fighters. President Obama canceled the
effort in 2015, but the cause of the failure remains a matter of analysis and debate.
On Tuesday, Nagata shed some new light on the failed mission in the form of a wish list presented to
industry at NDIA’s recent SO/LIC conference. Among his requests: build an app to provide instant
expertise on local, cultural and political conditions — something like a Wikipedia for special operators.
“Our deployed elements are still highly dependent on contractor translators, globally provided escorts and
the like,” Nagata said. “Could these … human-dependent capabilities be replaced by automated, fieldavailable, language-translation and societal-navigation interpreters? Could we create a field-available
Wikipedia-like service that is available to the individual operator without adding 70 pounds to
his rucksack?”
The ultimate product would provide Navy SEALs, Army Rangers, and other special operators information
on “the context of foreign environments, foreign customs, foreign cultures above and beyond the individual
interaction we are having with an indigenous element.”
Nagata’s request speaks volumes about the challenge he faced: training a small army of Syrian civilians to
take back their country from established fighting forces.
Nagata also said his operators were hindered by a lack of information-sharing on the battlefield. He longed
for a better fusion of traditional human intelligence and simple open-source intel, presented to the operator
in a way that doesn’t distract him or her from nearby dangers or the job at hand. The information should
help troops better know the effect of actions they take before they take them and commanders better know
what missions will fail before those missions are launched.
“Could industry help the SOF element with anticipating consequences?” Nagata asked. “Here’s what I
mean by that, anticipating correctly the consequences of the operations and the activities we undertake is
often the trickiest and yet in some ways the most important part of our planning efforts, whether tactical or
strategic. Too often the consequences we imagine in the planning bay do not play out in real life, it’s the
old adage no plan survives execution. Because the conditions we encounter in operating environment, we
move into are not what we had assumed.”
Data doesn’t create understanding. And that’s what both planners and operators need more of before
someone dreams up another train-and-equip mission.
Discrimination
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/02/21/after-refusing-to-watch-lgbtdiversity-video-social-security-judge-sues-to-avoid-being-fired/
After refusing to watch LGBT diversity video, Social
Security judge sues to avoid being fired
By Derek Hawkins
The Washington Post, February 21, 2017
Flags are waved during the National LGBT 50th Anniversary
Ceremony, Saturday, July 4, 2015. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Citing his First Amendment rights and religious protections under
the Civil Rights Act, a Social Security Administration judge in
Texas who refused to watch an LGBT diversity training video is
suing his superiors to avoid being fired, saying he was subject to a
“religiously hostile work environment.”
Judge Gary Suttles said in a complaint filed Thursday in federal court in Texas that the Social Security
Administration, or SSA, should be barred from taking any disciplinary action against him at least until his
religious discrimination claims are heard by a federal employment panel.
“The agency has wholly failed to work in good faith to reasonably accommodate Judge Suttles’ sincerely
held religious belief against watching” the video, the complaint says.
The agency violated his rights, the complaint says, “by discriminating against him on the basis of
his religion, creating a religiously hostile work environment,” and by “retaliating against him for his
protected activity of seeking a religious accommodation.”
A representative from the SSA was not immediately available for comment on Tuesday.
Suttles’s case comes amid a sweeping expansion of LGBT rights, during which courts have ruled against
bakers, florists and others who say anti-discrimination measures clash with their religious liberties. Social
conservatives and some Christians argue that the government should not be able to force them to offer their
services to same-sex couples, and they have sought religious freedom exemptions as recourse.
Some of the most high-profile cases have played out in the business world, including a lawsuit against
a Christian baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple. But government officials
have drawn attention for their defiance, too, among them Kim Davis, the county clerk in Kentucky who
refused to issue same-sex marriage licenses in violation of a Supreme Court ruling.
Suttles was hired as an administrative law judge in the Houston District office of the SSA in 2005. In the
time since, he has never received a reprimand or warning, his complaint says.
In May, one of the office’s directors sent an email ordering employees to watch a video called “Lesbian,
Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Community.” The 17-minute video included a message from the
agency commissioner and “a brief session on tips for increasing cultural awareness in a diverse and
inclusive environment,” according to the complaint. The email said the SSA was responding to a 2011
executive order from President Obama that instructed federal agencies to develop new workplace diversity
and inclusion plans.
Suttles wasted no time telling the office director he would not watch the video.
“I am already fully aware to treat all persons with respect and dignity and have done so my entire life,” he
said in an email the next day, according to the complaint. “Furthermore, this type of government
indoctrination training does not comport with my religious views and I object on that basis as well.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/02/21/after-refusing-to-watch-lgbtdiversity-video-social-security-judge-sues-to-avoid-being-fired/
Monica Anderson, the hearing office’s chief administrative law judge, responded with a sharply-worded
message giving Suttles a “direct order” to watch the training video. “Failure to follow this directive may
lead to disciplinary action,” the chief judge said, according to the complaint. Anderson also denied Suttles’s
request for a religious accommodation, saying the agency needed to ensure “all employees know about and
comply with this.”
The back and forth carried on for a few months. Suttles suggested that the agency give him a pass by
allowing him to take a professional ethics course or “alternative diversity” course that “did not deal with
such a specific community of people.” Anderson declined, proposing instead that Suttles read a transcript
of the video. Suttles again refused.
“Judge Suttles continued to refuse to watch the mandatory,” the complaint says, “because it is the
substantive content of which, not the medium by which the content was delivered that violates his faith.”
By the fall, Suttles’s case had made its way to the regional chief administrative law judge, who issued an
official reprimand and warned Suttles that “future acts of misconduct” could result in more serious
punishment, including removal from the job. (Administrative law judges, unlike federal court judges under
Article III of the Constitution do not have life tenure.) The reprimand barred Suttles from working from
home or requesting a job transfer for one year, according to the complaint.
Suttles claims the action was retaliatory. He reported the episode to an Equal Employment Opportunity
counselor, alleging the agency violated his First Amendment right to free exercise of religion, as well as his
rights under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on several factors,
including religion.
According to the complaint, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission will not finish its initial
review of his case until mid-March. In the meantime, the deadline for Suttles to watch the video has lapsed.
The judge said the agency “has made it quite evident that it does not intend to wait” to discipline him.
Suttles says he will suffer “irreparable harm” unless the court prevents the agency from disciplining him or
forcing him to watch the video.
Though his complaint describes a “sterling work record,” Suttles was criticized and investigated by the
SSA in 2015 after he scoffed at a Gulf War veteran’s post-traumatic stress disorder during a disability
benefits hearing. Suttles questioned whether the veteran, a 44-year-old who served as a fueler on an aircraft
carrier, had experienced true trauma during the war.
“I mean, hey, you were in the Navy. You weren’t even fighting on the ground,” Suttles told him, according
to the Austin American-Statesman. “To me it would have been exciting. What do you mean stressful?”
The remarks were condemned by veterans groups at the time. The SSA ultimately rejected calls to
temporarily remove Suttles from his job.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-dog-idUSKBN1611Y6
A girl named Ehlena and a dog named Wonder win at U.S.
Supreme Court
By Andrew Chung
Reuters, February 22, 2017
The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday sided with a disabled Michigan girl whose school refused to let her
bring her service dog to class, making it easier for students like her to seek redress for discrimination in
federal court.
The justices ruled 8-0 that Ehlena Fry, 13, and her parents may not be obligated to go through timeconsuming administrative appeals with the local school board before suing for damages for the emotional
distress she said she suffered by being denied the assistance of her dog, a goldendoodle named Wonder.
Ehlena was born with cerebral palsy, a neurological condition that severely limited her mobility. Wonder
was trained to help her balance, retrieve dropped items, open and close doors, turn on lights, take off her
coat and other tasks.
"I saw with my own eyes how Wonder helped my daughter grow more self-reliant and confident," Stacy
Fry, Ehlena's mother, said in a statement. "We are thankful that the Supreme Court has clarified that
schools cannot treat children with disabilities differently or stand in the way of their desired independence."
The justices sent the case back to a lower appeals court to determine whether Ehlena's complaint involves
the impermissible denial of a proper special education.
The dispute arose in 2009 when Ehlena's elementary school in Napoleon, Michigan refused to allow her to
attend school with Wonder. The school said she already had a one-on-one human aide, as part of her
individualized special education program.
The family eventually moved to a different school district where Wonder was welcomed. They filed suit in
2012 in federal court, claiming discrimination under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, which
permits service dogs in public institutions.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which represented the family, said the ruling will remove unfair legal
hurdles for victims of discrimination that prevent students from seeking justice guaranteed by the
Americans with Disabilities Act.
Napoleon Community Schools Superintendent Jim Graham said he had no comment.
Ehlena and her parents sued the school district seeking money damages for emotional harm, claiming the
school deprived Ehlena of her independence, including in intimate settings such as the bathroom.
Wednesday's ruling overturned a 2015 decision by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati,
Ohio upholding a dismissal of the lawsuit. The appeals court had said that under the Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), a federal law governing special education, the family had to exhaust all
of the administrative hearings in its service dog dispute with local and state officials before filing suit.
Writing for the court on Wednesday, Justice Elena Kagan said that if the substance of a lawsuit does not
claim the denial of a proper special education under IDEA, then exhausting the administrative remedies is
not required.
SEE ALSO:
'Ruff' justice: Supreme Court rules for disabled girl, service dog [USA TODAY, 2017-02-22]
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/st-louis-county-cop-says-he-was-told-totone/article_a5afe909-771f-5726-8db9-5bdffe0ae1c1.html
St. Louis County cop says he was told to ‘tone down his
gayness’
By Christine Byers
St. Louis (Mo.) Post-Dispatch, February 17, 2017
St. Louis County Police Sgt. Keith Wildhaber
A 22-year St. Louis County police veteran who was once picked to become
the department’s liaison to the gay community is now suing the department
for discrimination.
In a lawsuit filed Jan. 10, Sgt. Keith Wildhaber claims a former St. Louis
County Police Board member told him to “tone down your gayness” if he
ever wanted to be promoted.
Wildhaber declined to comment for this story. His attorney, Russell
Riggan, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
The sergeant ranked third among 26 people who took a promotions test in
February 2014, and also was third in a second round of tests in February
2015, according to the lawsuit.
But Wildhaber has watched as virtually all of his peers were promoted, even though his written
performance reviews show that he “exceeds standards” or is “superior” in all rated categories, the suit says.
“Defendant believes plaintiff’s behavior, mannerisms, and/or appearance do not fit the stereotypical norms
of what a ‘male’ should be,” according to the lawsuit.
Police Chief Jon Belmar would not comment on the suit or agree to an interview about his department’s
interaction with gay officers, said a department spokesman, Sgt. Shawn McGuire.
Gay officers can raise concerns through the chain of command, McGuire said.
During a routine business check at Bartolino’s restaurant in 2014, Wildhaber visited with its owner, John
Saracino, according to the lawsuit. Saracino was a member of the department’s civilian police board at the
time.
“The command staff has a problem with your sexuality. If you ever want to see a white shirt (i.e. get a
promotion), you should tone down your gayness,” Saracino allegedly told Wildhaber.
Reached Wednesday, Saracino said: “I never had a conversation like that. I would never say anything like
that. That’s not me.”
Saracino later resigned from the board in controversy over a letter of support he asked Belmar to write to a
federal judge who was sentencing Saracino’s nephew in a marijuana ring.
On April 1, 2016, Wildhaber filed a charge of discrimination with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission and Missouri Commission on Human Rights, alleging that he was unfairly passed up for
advancement .
About a month and a half later, the department reassigned him from afternoon shifts at the Affton precinct
to midnights in the Jennings precinct, the suit says. It says that the new assignment was about 30 miles
from Wildhaber’s home in Oakville, according to the suit.
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/st-louis-county-cop-says-he-was-told-totone/article_a5afe909-771f-5726-8db9-5bdffe0ae1c1.html
Several large departments nationally, including St. Louis city, have members appointed as liaisons to gay
residents and officers, and diversity recruitment efforts.
A Justice Department report critical of the St. Louis County police response to Ferguson protests in 2014
suggested that the department create a diversity council to advise commanders on recruitment and other
issues regarding an array of people — including ethnic, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and linguistic
minorities.
The department has not acted on the recommendation, McGuire said.
“No liaison has been assigned, so there is no status update,” McGuire said in a prepared statement. “Our
main focus in recruiting is attempting to recruit outstanding candidates who want to become part of our
organization, no matter what their status, race, religion, sexual preference, political belief, or aspiration is.”
The St. Louis County Police Association has asked Wildhaber to serve on a committee it is forming to
“ensure all of our members are treated equally and fairly in the workplace, which is a bedrock principal of
our organization,” said Joe Patterson, its president and a county police detective.
“We have been actively recruiting LGBT members and minority members to serve on steering committees
in order to bring forth not only their concerns, but their ideas on how to improve the police association,”
Patterson said.
He said the association is eager to work with the police department and community.
“In the course of our duties, we encounter people from all walks of life and all backgrounds, and our police
department should be reflective of the population we serve,” he said. “I don’t think you can be overly
inclusive in 2017.”
In St. Louis, Police Chief Sam Dotson appointed Capt. Angela Coonce as the department’s LGBT liaison
about three years ago. The department also has had a recruitment booth at the PrideFest diversity
celebration for about the same amount of time.
“She advocates for policies, and when we were talking about the transgender community, she became the
subject matter expert and liaison into the community to help me when issues arise internally,” Dotson said.
About the time Coonce became the city police liaison, county Police Chief Tim Fitch asked Wildhaber to
serve in that role in the county. Belmar replaced Fitch as chief in January 2014 and it didn’t happen.
Wildhaber took the test to become a lieutenant the next month. He remains a sergeant.
Wildhaber, with the department since 1994, previously served four years in the Army. In 1998, he won a
medal of valor from the department for rescuing someone from a burning car.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Sgt. Shawn McGuire said in an earlier version of this story that gay officers could take
concerns to the department's Employee Assistance Program. He said Thursday that he misunderstood the
question in an email exchange with a reporter, and that gay officers can use the department's chain of
command.
SEE ALSO:
Officer was told to ‘tone down your gayness’ if he wanted a promotion, lawsuit claims [The Washington
Post, 2017-02-17]
Diversity
http://ncojournal.dodlive.mil/2017/02/22/4th-female-sentinel-proud-to-revere-tombs-unknown-soldiers/
4th Female Sentinel Proud to Revere Tomb’s Unknown
Soldiers
By Martha C. Koester
NCO Journal, February 22, 2017
Sgt. Ruth Hanks is the fourth female sentinel at the Tomb of the
Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.
(Photo by Martha C. Koester / NCO Journal)
Sgt. Ruth Hanks has many memories to choose from when
explaining why she cherishes her job as a tomb guard at the Tomb
of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington,
Virginia.
Perhaps it was when an honor flight of U.S. military veterans, either World War II- or Korean War-era,
stopped to watch the changing of the guard at the tomb in the cemetery’s Memorial Amphitheater. Hanks
wondered if one of the veterans paying tribute that day had fought alongside one of the unknown Soldiers.
“Veterans see that Soldier will never be forgotten,” she said. “It’s a big thing.”
Or, maybe it was the first time she heard, “Oh, [the Soldier is] a female. I didn’t know they could do that,”
while on duty as a sentinel at the tomb. Though sentinels are focused on performing their tasks, they do
hear a few of the public’s comments.
Hanks knows that when she ultimately leaves the prestigious post she will have amassed a wealth of pride,
experience and knowledge to share with other Soldiers about her momentous opportunity.
“I am always trying to bring it back to the unknowns so that everybody remembers what we are here for,”
Hanks said. “I am there for the unknowns, and I will perform to the best of my ability.”
Demanding, yet humbling
Hanks, a military police officer, comes from a family of military service members, and acknowledges the
responsibility she shoulders as the fourth female sentinel. For the most part, though, she sees herself as just
another one of the guys.
“It’s a role for other females to look up to, but at the same time, from my point of view I’m just a sergeant
in the United States Army who wants to do a job,” Hanks told her college newspaper.
It was after being deployed to Afghanistan in 2013 that she began researching the Old Guard, its specialty
platoons and the Tomb of the Unknowns.
“I also happened to run into an old Tomb Guard Identification Badge holder and talked to him a little bit,”
Hanks said. “That kind of set in stone what I wanted to try to do during my next assignment.”
“I am there for the unknowns, and I will perform to the best of my
ability,” says Sgt. Ruth Hanks, a tomb guard at the Tomb of the
Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.
(Photo by Martha C. Koester / NCO Journal)
Since 1948, Soldiers of the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment “The Old
Guard” have served in the distinguished duty as sentinels, guarding
the tomb in any kind of weather, 24 hours a day and 365 days a
http://ncojournal.dodlive.mil/2017/02/22/4th-female-sentinel-proud-to-revere-tombs-unknown-soldiers/
year. The Guard is changed every 30 minutes from April 1 to Sep. 30 and every hour from Oct. 1 to March
31. During the hours the cemetery is closed, the guard is changed every 2 hours.
The impeccably attired tomb guard wears the Army dress blue uniform, which is reminiscent of the style
worn by Soldiers in the late 1800s. Sentinels shine their shoes, medals and belt buckles for hours to meet
the high standards of uniform preparation.
During the ceremony, the relief commander appears on the plaza of the cemetery’s Memorial Amphitheater
and announces the Changing of the Guard. The new sentinel leaves the tomb quarters, which is beneath the
amphitheater, and unlocks the bolt of his or her M-14 rifle ─ the signal to begin the ceremony.
The relief commander walks out to the tomb, salutes and faces the spectators, asking them to stand and
remain silent during the ceremony. The relief commander conducts an inspection of the weapon, checking
each part of the rifle once. Then, the relief commander and the relieving sentinel meet the retiring sentinel
at the center of the matted path in front of the tomb. All three salute the unknown Soldiers. (The tomb
contains the remains of one each for World War I, World War II and the Korean War. The previously
unknown Soldier from the Vietnam War was identified as 1st Lt. Michael Blassie. After DNA
identification, Blassie’s remains were moved to Jefferson National Cemetery, Missouri.)
The relief commander orders the retiring sentinel to pass on his or her orders, who replies, “Post and orders,
remain as directed.” The new sentinel says, “Orders acknowledged,” and steps into position. When the
relief commander passes by, the new sentinel begins walking at a cadence of 90 steps per minute.
The tomb guard marches 21 steps down the mat behind the tomb, turns and faces east for 21 seconds, turns
and faces north for 21 seconds, then takes 21 steps down the mat and repeats the process. After the turn, the
sentinel executes a sharp “shoulder-arms” movement to place the weapon on the shoulder closest to the
visitors, signifying that the sentinel stands between the tomb and any possible threat. The number 21 was
chosen because it symbolizes the highest military honor that can be bestowed posthumously ─ the 21-gun
salute, according to arlingtoncemetery.mil.
Lessons learned
Sentinels are considered to be the best of the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, which is headquartered at Joint
Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Virginia. Each Soldier must be in superb physical condition and have an
unblemished military record. An interview and a two-week trial determine the Soldier’s capability to train
as a tomb guard. Once chosen, he or she will undergo many hours of intensive training and testing, which
focuses on overall performance, uniform preparation and knowledge of the tomb and Arlington National
Cemetery.
Hanks credits leadership training and the maturity that comes as a noncommissioned officer for preparing
her to take proper responsibility as a tomb guard, whether she is executing her duties in front of veterans or
family members.
Sgt. Kevin E. Calderon, another tomb guard, shares Hanks’ sentiments.
“Coming down here to the tomb, I’ve developed myself so much to the point I know exactly what I’m
looking for when I see a Soldier,” Calderon told Army publications. “Every day here is training. You
become a trainer. When new candidates arrive, the goal isn’t to make them as good as you. You want them
to be better. It’s the epitome lifestyle of an NCO.”
A great sense of time management and a supportive family has also helped her cope, she said.
http://ncojournal.dodlive.mil/2017/02/22/4th-female-sentinel-proud-to-revere-tombs-unknown-soldiers/
“My family loves it,” she said. “When they came out here for my Tomb Guard Identification Badge
ceremony, they got to see me out there, and they really enjoyed it. It’s just overwhelming pride that you see
in your family. I don’t do it for that, but seeing that is just phenomenal. It’s one of those things; you just
want to make your parents proud, so it was pretty neat.”
It wasn’t until 1994 that women were permitted to volunteer to become sentinels when the 289th Military
Police Company was attached to the Old Guard, according to the Society of the Honor Guard, Tomb of the
Unknowns. The MP branch is a combat support unit.
In 1996, Sgt. Heather L. Johnsen became the first woman to earn the Tomb Guard Identification Badge.
She volunteered for duty in June 1995 and earned her badge in 1996. Since then, two additional female
Sentinels who are also NCOs were awarded the badge ─ Sgt. Danyell E. Wilson in 1997, and Staff Sgt.
Tonya D. Bell in 1998.
Women must meet the same requirements as male Soldiers to be eligible as tomb guards. The only
difference is that women have a minimum height requirement of 5 feet 8 inches, which is the same standard
to be a member of the Old Guard. Male sentinels must be between 5 feet 10 inches and 6 feet 4 inches tall.
“I do not get treated any differently,” Hanks said. “The crowd might have more of a response because there
is a female there, but when it comes to work and training, it’s absolutely the same.”
Hanks foresees that her praise of the tomb, guards and the military ritual will endure long after she has
moved on from her duty, urging prospective visitors to Washington, D.C., to stop by the Tomb of the
Unknowns for the Changing of the Guard. “Check this out, and I’ll tell you a little story about them,” she
would say.
“I would be passing on history,” Hanks said. “The motto of the tomb guard is ‘Soldiers never die until they
are forgotten. Tomb guards never forget.’ That’s what we have to keep doing.”
The Sentinel’s Creed
My dedication to this sacred duty is total and wholehearted.
In the responsibility bestowed on me, never will I falter.
And with dignity and perseverance.
My standard will remain
Through the years of diligence
And the discomfort of the elements,
I will walk my tour in humble reverence to the best of my ability.
It is he who commands the respect I protect,
his bravery that made us so proud.
Surrounded by well-meaning crowds by day,
alone in the thoughtful peace of night,
this Soldier in honored glory rest under my eternal vigilance.
To join ‘The Old Guard’
Prospective noncommissioned officers and enlisted Soldiers interested in joining “The Old Guard” may call
The Old Guard Recruiting Office at commercial 703-696-3007 or email Old Guard Recruiting at
[email protected]
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/22/world/europe/scotland-yard-commissioner-cressida-dick.html
Cressida Dick Will Be First Woman to Lead Scotland Yard
By Katrin Bennhold
The New York Times, February 22, 2017
Cressida Dick, center, the new commissioner of the Metropolitan
Police Service, with Mayor Sadiq Khan of London and Amber
Rudd, Britain’s home secretary, who appointed Ms. Dick. (Credit:
Peter Nicholls/Reuters)
LONDON — When Cressida Dick left Scotland Yard three years
ago, she said she hoped that one day a woman would lead Britain’s
biggest police force to show that it was “modern and
representative.”
On Wednesday, those hopes were realized when Ms. Dick herself was named the first female police
commissioner in Scotland Yard’s 188-year-history.
A onetime beat cop in London’s West End, Ms. Dick, 56, said she was “thrilled and humbled” by the
appointment.
“This is a great responsibility and an amazing opportunity,” she said Wednesday in a statement. “I’m
looking forward immensely to protecting and serving the people of London.”
Founded in 1829, Scotland Yard, as the city’s Metropolitan Police Service is known, is the recipient of
roughly a quarter of all police spending in England and Wales. (Scotland and Northern Ireland, the other
two nations in the United Kingdom, have their own legal systems and police forces.)
The daughter of Oxford academics and a graduate of both Oxford and Cambridge, Ms. Dick was head of
counterterrorism at Scotland Yard from 2011 to 2014, overseeing among other things the security operation
for the London Olympics in 2012.
She left Scotland Yard in 2014 after 31 years to become general secretary at the foreign office.
Ms. Dick has held command roles in several counterterrorism operations; one operation went terribly
wrong in 2005: She was the senior officer in charge when Jean Charles de Menezes, 27, a Brazilian who
had been mistakenly identified as an attempted suicide bomber, was fatally shot by officers at a London
subway station.
A jury cleared her of any wrongdoing, but Ms. Dick has repeatedly expressed regret. “I think about what
happened on that terrible day very, very often,” she said in 2014.
During the search for a new commissioner, the family of Mr. de Menezes wrote a letter to London’s mayor,
Sadiq Khan, about Ms. Dick’s potential role. “We have serious concerns about such an appointment and the
signal it sends to the people of London,” they wrote.
But Mr. Khan and others defended Ms. Dick’s appointment. “This is a historic day for London and a proud
day for me as mayor,” he said Wednesday.
Amber Rudd, the home secretary who appointed Ms. Dick with Mr. Khan’s counsel, called her an
“exceptional leader” and implicitly highlighted her gender as a possible asset in some pressing issues facing
Scotland Yard.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/22/world/europe/scotland-yard-commissioner-cressida-dick.html
“The challenges ahead include protecting the most vulnerable, including victims of sexual abuse and
domestic violence,” Ms. Rudd said. “Cressida’s skills and insight will ensure the Metropolitan Police adapt
to the changing patterns of crime in the 21st century.”
Of the 43 police forces in England and Wales, several have been led by women. But never London.
Alex Carlile, a member of the House of Lords, Britain’s upper chamber, who served as an independent
reviewer of terrorism legislation, said it was “a very positive thing” that Scotland Yard had women in
leadership roles. “But Cressida Dick has not been appointed because she’s a woman,” he said. “She’s been
appointed because she was the pre-eminent person for the job.”
With Ms. Dick’s appointment, three of the most senior figures in British policing are now women,
with Lynne Owens heading the National Crime Agency and Sara Thornton, one of Ms. Dick’s rivals for the
Scotland Yard job, the chairwoman of the National Police Chiefs’ Council.
https://www.dvidshub.net/news/224418/effect-war-veterans-impacted-modern-civil-rights-movement
The effect: how war veterans impacted the modern Civil
Rights Movement
By Terrance Bell
Defense Video Imagery Distribution System, February 23, 2017
Medgar Evers, Whitney Young and Ralph Abernathy were among
the many figures of the Civil Rights Movement who served during
World War II and the Korean War. The wars, especially the
segregated conditions of WWII, sparked collective aspirations
amongst African Americans to fight for equal treatment and justice
at home with the same fervor and commitment they did against Nazi
Germany on the battlefields of Europe, Africa and Asia. (Photo by
Terrance Bell)
FORT LEE, Va. (Feb. 23, 2017) -- Medgar Evers, a World War II
veteran who participated in the famed Red Ball Express logistical effort, marched head-first into the teeth
of the civil rights struggle years later, muddying himself in the trenches of the movement’s fight against
segregation in Mississippi. Amid the commitment to the cause, he conceded danger was a lurking
proposition.
“I’m looking to be shot any time I step out of my car ...,” he said. “If I die, it will be in a good cause. I’ve
been fighting for America just as much as the Soldiers in Vietnam.”
Hosea Williams, like Evers, also was a World War II veteran. Having survived a Nazi bombing in Europe
under the command of Gen. George Patton, Williams had teetered on the steps of death after being
hospitalized for nearly a year as a result of the attack. He was reacquainted with the pain of his experience
and introduced to the companions of rebuke and humiliation – after he was beaten by whites “like a
common dog” upon his return home for using a whites-only water fountain, he said.
“At that moment, I truly felt as if I had fought on the wrong side,” Williams said later, noting his U.S.
Army uniform worn at the time did not deter his attackers. “Then, and not until then, did I realize why God,
time after time, had taken me to death’s door, then spared my life ... to be a general in the war for human
rights and personal dignity.”
The experiences of civil rights icons like Evers and Williams and a long list of others formed a collective
narrative of those who served in the U.S. military during WWII and the Korean War and returned to their
communities with newfound hope and aspiration to improve their lot in American society through various
efforts of the Civil Rights Movement.
From the perspective of retired Army Lt. Col. John Boyd, black war veterans were critical to the fight for
civil rights.
“They had a great impact on the movement,” said the Mechanicsville resident and veteran of the Vietnam
War. “I would go as far to say if it wasn’t for the black Soldiers who came back from World War II and the
Korean War and lent their expertise to the cause, Dr. King and the other ministers would not have been able
to effectively organize (the masses) as they did.”
Civil rights for African Americans, or the “human rights and personal dignity” Williams referred to, have
been elusive commodities for the better part of their existence. WWII, like all wars before it (and many
since), was yet another opportunity to validate their place as American citizens and claim the rights and
privileges they were persistently denied. Retired Col. Porcher “PT” Taylor, a combat veteran of WWII and
https://www.dvidshub.net/news/224418/effect-war-veterans-impacted-modern-civil-rights-movement
the Korean and Vietnam wars, said risking life and limb for one’s country makes a powerful argument for
reciprocation.
“When you go out there on the battlefield and you’re fighting for your life and the lives of the people
you’re serving with, it’s a big difference compared to the ordinary citizen who did not serve,” said the 91year-old Petersburg resident. “The country is then indebted to that person. It’s an obligation.”
African-American men and women who served during WWII and the Korean War numbered more than a
million-and-a-half, despite enduring racism and discrimination on the homefront and within the ranks. In
addition to heightened expectations because of their battlefield sacrifices, many returned with unique
perspectives about life and liberty, especially since many had been exposed to Europe and its more tolerant
racial climates. Black military members also gained communication, organizational and leadership skills
they might have never acquired as civilians, said Taylor.
Take, for example, Whitney Young. Enlisting in the Army in 1942, he attained the rank of first sergeant in
only three weeks, according to www.mallhistory.org. His rapid ascension in a segregated unit caused some
resentment among his fellow Soldiers and members of his unit’s white leadership. As a result, he was often
called upon to mediate between the two groups.
“It was my Army experience that decided me on getting into the race relations field after the war,” said
Young. “Not just because I saw the problems, but because I saw the potentials, too. I grew up with a basic
belief in the inherent decency of human beings.”
Young eventually became executive director of the National Urban League in 1961 and a major player in
the Civil Rights Movement.
In addition to the varied and once-in-a-lifetime experiences common to military service, black veterans
who served in WWII also were provided with unprecedented educational opportunities. The Servicemen
Readjustment Act of 1944, also known as the GI Bill, provided them access to a free college education,
although discrimination prevented many from receiving benefits. Williams and Evers were both educated
under the GI Bill as well as others such as Ralph Abernathy, a confidante of King, and Harry Belafonte, an
entertainer and activist.
Education was an important factor in the Civil Rights Movement, said Taylor, but the African-American
war experience, especially the segregated conditions of WWII, was the rock-solid premise for civic action
and responsibility. He noted how blacks desired more important roles in the war effort than the menial jobs
most were relegated to, and how they longed for some measure of human dignity in light of the humiliating
subjugation they experienced in comparison to German prisoners of war.
Further, Taylor cited those like championship boxer Joe Louis, who enlisted in the Army while still the
world heavyweight champion. Louis was familiar with the challenges blacks faced during the war and
gladly gave up thousands of dollars in profits to advocate for their cause. His efforts resulted in helping
future baseball player Jackie Robinson and others gain acceptance into officer candidate school. Robinson
would go on to assume the lead role in knocking down major league baseball’s walls of segregation.
There are various other examples of this wartime service-civic responsibility dynamic. The work of Amzie
Moore and Aaron Henry, both WWII veterans who noted the racism inherent in military segregation, were
spurred to wage war against segregation in postwar Mississippi. They did not command the spotlight like
the high-profile Louis, yet their work as white establishment agitators was far more dangerous. The two
eventually helped to organize such efforts as voter registration campaigns and economic boycotts all over
the state despite looming threats of violence.
https://www.dvidshub.net/news/224418/effect-war-veterans-impacted-modern-civil-rights-movement
The sense of frustration African-Americans felt while serving their country is perhaps no better illustrated
than by the work of one Grant Reynolds. He, like so many before him, entered a WWII Army with high
inspirations to do his part for the war cause. He was trained as a chaplain but resigned his commission a
few years later due to the “brazen racism” he had witnessed, according to www.blackpast.org. Ironically,
Reynolds channeled his experiences and with A. Philip Randolph, established the Committee Against Jim
Crow in Military Service and Training in 1947. The group’s efforts led to President Harry S. Truman’s
Executive Order 9981 that integrated the services in 1948.
Truman’s mandate, which did not erase military segregation all at once (complete integration did not occur
until the mid-1950s), served in many respects as the basis for the various legislation signed into law years
later to include the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that guaranteed civil and
voting rights for all people.
Those two pieces of legislation are the crowning achievement of the Civil Rights Movement and the
signature of warriors like Williams and Evers, who committed themselves to the wellbeing of their country
in and out of uniform, despite the cost. Perhaps their earlier brushes with mortality served as the opening
salvos in their fight for human rights and dignity.
Maybe it’s plausible to think they had little to lose in light of what could be gained. Evers seemed to be at
peace with the notion.
“Freedom has never been free …,” he said. “I love my children and I love my wife with all of my heart.
And I would die, die gladly, if that would make a better life for them.”
Williams, one of King’s top lieutenants, fought long and hard for civil and human rights over the course of
his life. He is best known for courageously leading the first Selma to Montgomery March of 1965. He died
in 2000.
Evers participated in numerous causes in the name of equal rights and justice. He carried the title of
NAACP field secretary for the state of Mississippi when he was tragically gunned down in 1963 at the
hands of a white supremacist.
In 1994, Evers’ killer was brought to justice. Today, the state of Mississippi is far removed from its
segregationist past.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/mildred-dresselhaus-physicist-dubbed-queen-ofcarbon-dies-at-86/2017/02/22/3355d3a2-f8a7-11e6-be05-1a3817ac21a5_story.html
Mildred Dresselhaus, physicist dubbed ‘queen of carbon
science,’ dies at 86
By Martin Weil
The Washington Post, February 22, 2017
President Barack Obama awards Mildred Dresselhaus the
Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2014. (Pablo Martinez
Monsivais/Associated Press)
Mildred Dresselhaus, who grew up in a rough New York
neighborhood, became one of America’s foremost physicists and
worked to encourage other women to enter such seemingly
daunting occupations, died Feb. 20 at a hospital in Cambridge,
Mass. She was 86.
The death was announced by the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, where she was a faculty member for 50 years. No
cause was reported.
Dr. Dresselhaus was a leader in the study of the electrical and electronic properties of solids, with
specialties in exotic forms of carbon and in nanoscience, the physics of materials at scales of one-billionth
of a meter.
Her abilities helped her achieve many firsts. She was the first woman to serve as a full and tenured
professor at MIT and the first woman (in 1990) to win the National Medal of Science for engineering.
In recognition of her efforts to understand and develop newer, stronger, more technologically useful carbon
molecules, she was dubbed the “queen of carbon science.”
She was prominent in the development of carbon nanotubes, ultra-thin-walled, tubular structures composed
of many carbon atoms that promised advances in the conduction of electricity and the creation of sturdier
materials.
In addition, she was recognized for bringing her knowledge of electronic and molecular physics to bear on
the development of better thermoelectric materials. These offer the possibility of new means of electrical
generation, transforming temperature differences into electrical voltages.
By one estimate, she was author or co-author of more than 1,700 publications and articles.
In a White House ceremony in 2014, President Barack Obama draped around her neck the Presidential
Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian honor.
Only a few weeks ago, when General Electric launched a program to boost the number of women in its
technical fields, she became what might be called the campaign’s poster woman.
A television ad posed the question, “What if female scientists were celebrities?” In response to that
question, the ad imagined Dr. Dresselhaus endowed with the ubiquitous presence and attentive adulation
characteristic of figures in popular culture.
Mildred Spiewak was born in Brooklyn on Nov. 11, 1930, the daughter of immigrant parents recently
arrived from Poland. She grew up in the Bronx during the Great Depression, and she took an unsentimental
view of her childhood. She worked in factories to help her hard-pressed family.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/mildred-dresselhaus-physicist-dubbed-queen-ofcarbon-dies-at-86/2017/02/22/3355d3a2-f8a7-11e6-be05-1a3817ac21a5_story.html
“My early years were spent in a dangerous, multiracial, low-income neighborhood,” she wrote in a
biographical essay. “My early elementary school memories up through ninth grade are of teachers
struggling to maintain class discipline with occasional coverage of academics.”
Working in her favor, however, was the presence of a brother who was a child prodigy on the violin. It led
to free musical training for her, which led her to become acquainted with parents of fellow music students
who pointed her toward a selective public high school for girls.
From there, it was on to Hunter College, one of the city’s free colleges, where Rosalyn Yalow, who later
became a Nobel laureate in physiology/medicine, happened to be teaching for a semester. Yalow pointed
her toward physics.
She graduated in 1951, then won a Fulbright fellowship to study at the University of Cambridge in
England. She received a master’s degree from Radcliffe College in 1953 and a doctorate in 1958 from the
University of Chicago, where she took a course in quantum mechanics from Nobel laureate Enrico Fermi
shortly before his death.
At Chicago, she met her husband, Gene Dresselhaus, also a theoretical physicist. The couple went to work
in 1960 at the same institution, the MIT Lincoln Laboratory.
It was at a time when solid-state physics was beginning to come into its own, as the transistor came to
revolutionize electronics, and knowledge of how electrons behaved in solid materials was vigorously
pursued.
At the Lincoln Lab, Mildred Dresselhaus worked in the electro-optics of semimetals. For her, in the years
between 1959 and 1964, it was the right subject at the right time. Semiconductors, the key ingredient of
modern electronic devices, were receiving greater emphasis than semimetals.
“There were advantages for me to work in a less competitive research area while we had our babies” she
wrote in her biographical essay. But the work she did was regarded as a significant contribution to
condensed-matter physics.
In 1968, she became a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT, and in 1985, she
was made an institute professor, a high honor held by no more than 12 active teachers at a time. Her work
on the movement of electrons — and therefore electric currents — through solids became significant for
device development.
Besides the National Medal of Science, she was also honored with the Energy Department’s Enrico Fermi
Award. Dr. Dresselhaus served as director of the Energy Department’s science office from 2000 to 2001,
was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and received several awards for leadership in science
and for her teaching.
Mildred Dresselhaus in 2005. (Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post)
She received Carnegie Foundation funding in 1973 to advance
women’s study in traditionally male-dominated fields, such as
physics. That same year, she was appointed to the Abby
Rockefeller Mauzé chair, an institute-wide chair at MIT endowed in
support of the scholarship of women in science and engineering.
For women, she said, it is “almost the best career they can have,”
she told NPR in 2014. “There are two reasons. One, the work is
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/mildred-dresselhaus-physicist-dubbed-queen-ofcarbon-dies-at-86/2017/02/22/3355d3a2-f8a7-11e6-be05-1a3817ac21a5_story.html
very interesting, and secondly, you’re judged by what you do and not what you look like, and I think that
that is a very important thing for women in science. The sad thing is that so few women choose it because
there aren’t so many of us and they don’t like to be outnumbered by the men.”
Besides her husband, survivors include four children and five grandchildren, according to MIT.
Dr. Dresselhaus’s achievements were owed to innate ability, but her experiences also played a role, along
with a positive way of confronting the world.
At the Medal of Freedom ceremony, she heard her life cited as testimony to what can be achieved “when
we summon the courage to follow our curiosity and our dreams.”
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2017/02/22/more-female-minority-officers-join-marine-corpsdiversity.html
More Female, Minority Officers Join as Marine Corps
Stresses Diversity
By Hope Hodge Seck
Military.com, February 22, 2017
1st Sgt. Roxanne R. Collins, the first sergeant of Camp Lejeune’s
Engineer Maintenance Company, 2nd Maintenance Battalion,
addresses Marines at the air station’s Aerial Port of Embarkation.
(Marine Corps/Pfc. Samantha H. Arrington)
The officer ranks of the Marine Corps are looking a little less white
and male as the historically homogenous service makes a new push
to attract diverse talent.
At a farewell ceremony for outgoing Navy Secretary Ray Mabus in January, Marine Commandant Gen.
Robert Neller said accessions of female and minority officers into the service reached 33 percent in fiscal
2016, an increase of about 10 percentage points from previous years.
"That's the highest we've ever had, that I can remember," Neller said. "It's going to make us a stronger
Marine Corps."
Speaking to Military.com later in January, Neller said he couldn't tie the increase in what the Corps calls
"diversity officer accessions" to any single program or initiative, but suggested it's reflective of efforts to
recruit more broadly.
"I think it just shows an indication, a direction from the Marine Corps to [develop] a force so that in 25
years, the Marine Corps can look more like the nation," he said. "And if you don't start now, you're never
going to get there."
In fiscal 2016, the service received 1,603 new officers, of whom 9.8 percent were women and 33.3 percent
were non-white, Marine Corps Recruiting Command spokesman Jim Edwards told Military.com. By
comparison, diversity officer accessions totaled only 26.4 percent in fiscal 2015, 22 percent in 2014, and
just 19.5 percent in 2012.
Last year's accessions create an especially strong contrast to the service as a whole. Just 6.8 percent of all
active-duty Marine officers are female, and 24 percent identify as non-white, according to Marine Corps
almanac data from February 2016.
Edwards said the opening of ground combat and other previously closed jobs to women in 2016, along with
Neller's publicly stated goal to recruit more female Marines, prompted recruiters to emphasize advertising
and promotion targeting women.
"We have increased the amount of female-inclusive or female-specific advertising to generate awareness
about what it means to be a Marine and regarding opportunities for women in the Marine Corps," he told
Military.com.
These efforts, he said, included updating existing advertising materials to be more representative of
women; sending direct mail to female high school juniors and seniors; and coordinating engagements with
female college and high school sports programs around the country.
Last February, Neller announced that he wanted the Corps to expand its population of female troops, both
officer and enlisted, with a goal of creating a service that was 10 percent female. Currently, fewer than
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2017/02/22/more-female-minority-officers-join-marine-corpsdiversity.html
eight percent of Marines are women, making the Corps the most male-dominated service in the Defense
Department.
In an effort to attract non-white officers, Marine Corps Recruiting Command organized focus groups for
active-duty Marines last August to discuss the "current mindset of African-American youth," among other
topics. Across the entire service, fewer than a quarter of active-duty Marines are non-white. Roughly 12
percent of enlisted troops and fewer than six percent of officers are African-American.
While the Corps' efforts to attract diversity at the entry level appear to be enjoying success, demographic
data show the service still struggles when it comes to retaining female and minority officers, particularly at
the most senior levels. Diversity drops sharply as seniority increases.
Just 10 percent of Marine colonels are non-white, and only 17 out of 693 -- just over 2 percent -- are
female. As of last February, among the Corps' 83 generals, 10 were non-white, and just one was a woman.
"The Marine Corps is committed to making concerted efforts to attract, mentor and retain the most talented
men and women who bring a diversity of background, culture and skill in service to our nation," Edwards
said.
In the coming year, he said, Marine Corps Recruiting Command will continue to take "deliberate actions"
to reach and attract more diverse potential enlisted Marines and officers.
Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @HopeSeck
https://www.dvidshub.net/news/224512/national-african-american-history-month-reflecting-lineage-corevalues
National African American History Month: Reflecting a
lineage of core values
By Airman 1st Class James Thompson
Defense Video Imagery Distribution System, February 23, 2017
Each February we celebrate National African American History
Month and honor African-American heritage and individuals who
have made major societal impacts. (U.S. Air Force
graphic/Brandon Deloach)
To commemorate and acknowledge these figures, National African
American History Month honors those who have made significant
contributions toward equality, justice and innovation that helped
shape the Air Force as we know it today. Their idealism currently
lives on through many Airmen as they serve their country.
Today African Americans continue to make a difference in the Air Force and at Creech Air Force Base by
flying, maintaining and supporting MQ-1 Predators and MQ-9 Reapers in global persistent attack and
reconnaissance operations.
NAAHM provides a glimpse through the many open doors of opportunity for young African Americans,
said Master Sgt. Vidal, 22nd Attack Squadron first sergeant. Vidal recounts early memories as a child when
he was encouraged by his father to read literature by W.E.B. Dubois and said the impact of it shaped his
views toward education and self-motivation.
“It really empowered me, showing me education was a founding source of future opportunities,” said
Vidal.
Vidal said works by W.E.B. Dubois and other influential figures were groundbreaking and instrumental to
his upbringing.
“A lot of the people who we talk about and celebrate in NAAHM were pioneers and they did something no
other African Americans had done up to that point,” said Lt. Col. Ronnie, 432nd Wing squadron
commander. “I think it’s equally important to point to successful African Americans who are out there
making it happen right now.”
Ronnie and Vidal said the efforts of those before are derived from core values that exemplify American
Airmen, such as the Tuskegee Airmen and other African Americans who made an impact early on.
“Those guys proved that African Americans were just as capable, intelligent, hard-working and credible as
anyone else,” said Senior Master Sgt. Marquell, 432nd Maintenance Squadron Tiger Aircraft Maintenance
Unit superintendent.
The Tuskegee program became the center for African-American aviation during World War II, and the
Tuskegee Airmen became one of the most highly respected fighter groups because of their achievements.
“The Tuskegee Airmen in my mind embodied the Air Force’s core values, not just African-American core
values,” said Ronnie. “They weren’t about being the best African-American unit. They were about being
the best pilots they could be. They have had that impact, not just to the advantage of African Americans in
the Air Force, but they made all Airmen in the Air Force better.”
https://www.dvidshub.net/news/224512/national-african-american-history-month-reflecting-lineage-corevalues
Coming from military families, both Ronnie and Vidal agree their biggest role models are their own family
members. Morals and values such as education, family, professionalism and leadership were instilled in
them from their fathers and grandfathers.
“I’m a fan of works by Malcolm X, Marcus Garvey and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., but one of the few
people who have had a significant impact on me was my grandfather,” said Marquell. “He was a hard
working guy and a man of principle who took care of his family with literally nothing. There’re some
people you’ll see in your life who surpass being a role model. They’re significant figures who make you
who you are, simply by watching them be who they are.”
Marquell credits his own upbringing and the work of African Americans before him for his success in
today’s fight and stresses the importance of passing the torch to the next generation.
“I come from poverty and an upbringing without academics as a key component, to now having two
associates degrees, one professional manager’s certification, one bachelor's degree, a master’s degree and
made chief master sergeant this cycle,” said Marquell. “How can I bequeath anything to Airmen about
being academically sound, reading books about Malcolm X or Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. or the importance
of having an education if I don’t do it? The bulk of what I’ve done was to establish credibility to help
others along the way.”
Marquell went on to say the accomplishments of African Americans in the armed forces also play a part in
establishing a more diverse fighting force.
“Diversity and our differences make us stronger,” said Marquell. “It is why the United States Air Force
doesn’t have any other air force that rivals us. Other countries can buy aircraft, but what they can’t buy is a
group of people who are able to work together in spite of differences to make our community as a whole
better. When we focus on meeting our core values and allow diversity to fill the gaps, we are unstoppable.”
For these three Airmen, NAAHM serves as a reminder of the persistence and perseverance of African
Americans whose legacy continues to resonate across the rifts of time and inspire thousands of United
States service men and women.
https://www.dvidshub.net/news/224495/red-tail-tells-tales-american-hero-educates-inspires-celebration
‘Red Tail’ tells tales: American hero educates, inspires at
celebration
By Brian Melanephy
Defense Video Imagery Distribution System, February 23, 2017
R.T. Lee, with his wife by his side, takes the Naval Surface Warfare
Center, Port Hueneme Division workforce on a journey
highlighting the struggles he faced as an African American and
how education, determination and hard work led him to the
Himalayas and beyond.
PORT HUENEME, Calif. -- A packed house waited patiently for an
opportunity to spend an hour with a piece of living history in the
Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division (NSWC
PHD) Audiovisual Center, Feb. 13.
Proudly sitting in a chair on stage with his wife next to him and in his Air Force blues, 91-year young
Tuskegee Airman R.T. Lee shared his story of growing up during a time when simply being African
American was a roadblock to success.
Lee, with notes in hand, struggled to get his words out but his message was not lost. It resounded like the
engines of the plane he flew during WWII. Humility, happiness and humor sprinkled with seriousness
dominated the story of his challenges early in life, his adventure getting into the Army Air Corps and being
selected as a pilot and training at the Tuskegee Institute.
Lee graduated from high school in 1943 and enlisted in the Army. He had extremely high scores on his
entry exams and this opened a window of opportunity very few young African Americans had.
“I graduated from high school at the height of World War II, at the time you enlisted in the Army or you
became a “4F” not qualified for military service - and I didn’t want to be that,” Lee said.
When he first arrived at the Tuskegee Institute he initially trained to fly the P-51, but he couldn’t qualify
with the plane.
He transitioned to multi-engine transports and ended up flying the C-146. The Tuskegee Airman, or red
tail, was then stationed in India where he flew 28 missions across the Himalayas from what was then
Burma to China. He transported troops and equipment.
He credited his success to his instructors at flight school.
“Our teachers at Tuskegee were tough, but they believed in us and we lived up to their expectations,” said
Lee. “They taught us to aim high and never give up.”
Lee struggled to read his notes during the hour. However, with his wife of 58 years at his side he stayed on
track – injecting humor at every opportunity. The audience bonded with him immediately and they were
glued to his every word.
In his concluding remarks he brought the focus back to education.
“It is my hope that we work harder to have all students attend schools that have an abundance of
resources,” Lee said.
https://www.dvidshub.net/news/224495/red-tail-tells-tales-american-hero-educates-inspires-celebration
After his final words the audience rose to its feet and gave him a passionate standing ovation. He was then
thanked by NSWC PHD Commanding Officer Capt. Cord Luby and given a small token of appreciation – a
framed photo.
He took time to answer questions from the audience including one of his four children, his son John. The
younger Lee was prodding his dad to share a funny story.
“Dad, were you ever shot down?”
The answer: no.
“No crashes or anything like that?”
“I didn’t crash; I ran out of gas and needed something to eat, so I ate grass. I cooked it, but I ate grass. I can
still taste it today,” said Lee. “That was good grass by the way!”
Instead of leaving after the celebration the workforce lined up and one-by-one shook Lee’s hand – thanking
him for his service to the nation and his inspirational message.
Lee retired from the Air Force after 26 years of service in 1969. He then worked for the County of Ventura
for 16 years. The Camarillo resident has not slowed down. He is actively involved in his church and several
civic organizations.
NSWC PHD’s workforce is 7.75 percent African American. The division’s workforce strategy is focused
on partnership, hiring and recruiting with black historical colleges and universities and professional
societies including Morgan State, Prairie View A&M, North Carolina A&T, Tuskegee University and
National Society of Black Engineers.
African American/Black History Month is celebrated each year in February. It is an annual opportunity to
remember and recognize the achievements of African Americans and the central role they played and
continue to play in our nation’s history.
This year’s theme was “success always leaves footprints.” Lee left footprints on this organization.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/02/23/transgender-what-does-mean-after-trumprolls-back-protections-explainer/98293820/
Transgender: What does it mean? After Trump rolls back
protections, an explainer
By Mary Bowerman
USA TODAY Network, February 23, 2017
In this May 17, 2016 file photo, a new sticker is placed on the door
at the ceremonial opening of a gender neutral bathroom at Nathan
Hale High School in Seattle. (Photo: Elaine Thompson, AP)
The Trump administration issued new guidance Wednesday rolling
back federal protection for transgender students granted under the
Obama administration.
The decision was met with criticism from many LGBTQ rights
groups and celebrities alike who say students should be able to use
restrooms of their chosen gender.
Here's a refresher on what it means to be transgender:
What does transgender mean?
A transgender person is someone whose internal sense of themselves, a man or woman, is different than the
sex they were born with, Nick Adams, a transgender man and director of programs for Transgender Media,
GLAAD told USA TODAY in a 2015 interview.
"Your biological sex is made up of a combination of things including your sexual chromosomes, the
hormones in your body and secondary sex characteristics. But gender identity is completely internal, it's not
visible to others. It's the internal sense of yourself as a man or woman," Adams said.
So for a trans person, the gender they are assigned doesn't add up with how they view themselves.
Only 16% of Americans say they know someone who is transgender, according to a GLAAD/Harris
Interactive poll.
"When you are born, someone looks at your external genitals and assigns something to you, but that might
not be how you feel inside, so someone who identifies as transgender may identify with their gender
differently than their assigned gender," Randi Kaufman, a clinical psychologist who works at The Gender
& Family Project at the Ackerman Institute for the Family in New York City told USA TODAY in an
earlier interview.
How is it different from being gay?
People are much more familiar with the concept of sexual orientation, or whether a person is lesbian or gay,
but much less familiar with transgender identity and who transgender people are.
Adams says step one is getting people to understand that sexual orientation is who you are attracted to or
who you want to fall in love with and gender identity is who you are as a person.
"All transgender people have a sexual orientation – heterosexual, gay, lesbian or bisexual, just like
everyone else," Adams says.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/02/23/transgender-what-does-mean-after-trumprolls-back-protections-explainer/98293820/
"It's not complicated. I am a transgender man, I was a female at birth. I am attracted to men and have been
in a relationship with a gay man. I am a gay man," Adams says. "There are many transgender women that
identify as lesbians."
What's the big deal about bathrooms?
The Obama administration last year issued guidelines requiring that schools allow transgender students to
use restrooms matching their chosen gender rather than their birth gender. Thirteen states challenged the
move, prompting a federal judge in Texas to issue a nationwide hold on enforcement of the guidance.
LGBTQ rights groups say that female and male transgender students should be allowed to use the bathroom
that corresponds with their gender identity, especially if they are transitioning.
On social media, many against the so-called "bathroom bills," have tweeted pictures of trans men and
women who are indistinguishable from cisgender male and females.
The message: Do you want a trans woman that looks like the woman below in the men's bathroom? (For
those unfamiliar with the term, someone who is cisgender exclusively identifies as their sex assigned at
birth, according to the Trans Student Educational Resources organization.)
Those against the Obama administration guidelines say that public schools should have the right to make
their own decision on bathroom policies without federal interference. Many also worry that allowing
transgender men and women to use the bathroom of their choosing may allow predators to argue that they
are allowed in women's bathrooms because they identify as a female.
Why are transgender suicide rates so high?
A recent study on transgender people showed that 41% of transgender people reported attempting suicide,
compared with 1.6% of the general population, GLAAD reports.
"That's not because transgender people are more mentally unstable but because we live in a culture where
transgender people are not accepted, and people often find it very difficult to hope they can transition to
their authentic self and be happy and successful," Adams said in an earlier interview.
Kaufman says many people with gender dysphoria have secondary issues like suicidal thoughts and
depression that stem from feeling like they are trapped in the wrong body.
"Some people feel there are is no help," Kaufman says.
Kaufman says for parents with children who may be struggling with gender identity, support is key.
"People who are accepted do the best," Kaufman says. "We have seen that a families' acceptance is
protection."
Note: This article features interviews from a 2015 story on Caitlyn Jenner.
Miscellaneous
http://www.coloradoan.com/story/news/local/csu/2017/02/21/holocaust-survivor-lost-my-live/98211626/
Holocaust survivor: ‘I lost my will to live’
By Cassa Niedringhaus
The Coloradoan (Fort Collins, Colo.), February 21, 2017
Holocaust survivor Fanny Starr will speak at CSU on Wednesday
as part of CSU's 20th annual Holocaust Awareness Week. Starr
endured several Nazi concentration camps, including Auschwitz.
(Photo: Valerie Mosley/The Coloradoan)
Fanny Starr lay in a field in Auschwitz more than 70 years ago,
looking at the night sky and asking God how it was she ended up
there.
White flakes fluttered through the darkened sky. It was not
snow, but the ashes of bodies burned in ovens.
Her mother, two of her siblings and her extended family members were gassed and burned when they
arrived at Auschwitz, Poland, and her father later starved himself in Dachau, she says. Her pain has not
receded in the intervening decades.
"The pain will never go away," said Starr, who is 95 and lives in Denver. "It's hard. Never can you forget."
Starr will share her story Wednesday night at Colorado State University. The university's Students for
Holocaust Awareness organized for her to speak during the 20th Annual Holocaust Awareness Week, and
the event was co-sponsored by: the Associated Students of Colorado State University, Hillel, Chabad
Jewish Student Organization, and the Jewish fraternity and sorority, AEPi and Sigma AEPi.
Starr was born and raised in Lodz, Poland, as one of five children. Her father ran a successful tannery, but
the family was forced into the city's ghetto in 1939 when she was a teenager. The Lodz ghetto became one
of the largest in German-occupied Europe.
Nazis came to their home, forced them out, and put bullets in their St. Bernard's head and through their
aquarium.
During her time in the ghetto, Starr was forced to carefully cut apart clothes and retrieve gold, diamonds
and other valuables that had been sewn in them. She tied the cloth pieces in bundles and sorted each
retrieved item into barrels that would later be taken away. She did not know until she arrived at Auschwitz
that the clothes she had been cutting apart belonged to murdered Jews.
When the ghetto was liquidated in 1944, Starr and her extended family members were forced into a train
car. By her estimate, more than 60 of them crowded into one car.
They arrived at Auschwitz, where they were shaved and undressed. Starr and her younger sister, Rena
Alter, survived. So did a cousin and an uncle. She wouldn't find out until 1964 that one of her brothers also
survived. The rest of her family members died — they were among 6 million Jews and more than 11
million total people who died during the Holocaust.
Starr and Alter were dressed in gray-striped outfits at Auschwitz, but they weren't tattooed because there
were too many people coming through the camp at the time. It was then that Starr said that she gave up.
"I didn't want to live," she said. "I lost my will to live."
The camp was crawling with lice, she said, and many of the people on the bunk beds around her were dead.
She pauses and cries when sharing these details, and folds and re-folds a tissue she holds in her hands.
http://www.coloradoan.com/story/news/local/csu/2017/02/21/holocaust-survivor-lost-my-live/98211626/
She credits her sister with keeping her alive. Alter grabbed Starr by her striped dress, stood her up and
smacked her in the face.
"You have to put yourself together," Starr recalls her sister saying. "We have to go forward."
The pair filtered through other camps across Europe, including Ravensbruck, Mauthausen-Gusen and
Bergen-Belsen.
In Mauthausen-Gusen, Starr helped build V-2 missiles for the Germans. A man taught her how to do the
job and hid half an apple to give to her, an act she said proved he had a good heart.
She was liberated on April 15, 1945, in Bergen-Belsen, but she remained there because it served as a camp
for displaced people and because they could not leave without a sponsor. She met her husband, Zesa Starr,
there, and they were married at Bergen-Belsen. Their first child was born at the former camp.
Their second was born in Des Moines, Iowa, and their third in Denver. Helen Starr, their youngest, traveled
to Fort Collins for her mother's speech Wednesday. She's also helped her mother to tell her story across the
country, a story she said has incredible significance today.
Helen Starr noted the recent threats and vandalism aimed at Jews, including destruction at a Jewish
cemetery in St. Louis and a spate of bomb threats aimed at Jewish community centers.
Helen also noted that Fanny Starr is one of a small number of survivors alive and willing to talk about the
atrocities committed during the Holocaust.
"There is only a handful of survivors that will speak," she said. "You could sit down in a room with all of
her friends, who are all survivors, they will not talk about anything. It is very painful. They're humiliated
and ashamed that they couldn't stand up and fight."
For more information about CSU's 20th Annual Holocaust Awareness Week, visit holocaust.colostate.edu.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/02/21/legalizing-same-sex-marriage-wasassociated-with-fewer-youth-suicide-attempts-new-study-found/
Legalizing same-sex marriage was associated with fewer
youth suicide attempts, new study finds
By Ben Guarino
The Washington Post, February 21, 2017
(Sarah Rice/Getty Images)
Suicide, after fatal injuries and homicides, is the most frequent cause
of death for U.S. citizens between the ages of 15 and 24. Certain
young Americans, in particular, are at increased risk of dying by
suicide. Gay, lesbian and bisexual youth attempt to take their lives at
a rate four times higher than heterosexual teenagers, according to the
Trevor Project, a nonprofit that offers a national hotline and other
suicide prevention efforts for young LGBT people.
In the past few years, public health experts have increasingly investigated the factors, such as mental illness
or substance abuse, behind why teenagers attempt suicide. More recently, researchers from Johns Hopkins
University and Harvard University asked a different sort of question: whether the legalization of same-sex
marriage could have an impact on suicide attempts in adolescents.
Such an association seems to exist, at least based on self-reported data from more than 750,000 students.
As the scientists wrote in JAMA Pediatrics on Monday, students living in states where same-sex marriage
was legalized saw a drop in suicide rates, compared to students living elsewhere (a critical point being that
the scientists investigated an association, not a causal relationship).
The new study was not designed to explain why the drop occurred. But one possibility, the study authors
said, was that same-sex marriage was related to a reduction in social stigma.
“Policymakers need to be aware that policies on sexual minority rights can have a real effect on the mental
health of adolescents,” said Julia Raifman, a study author and an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins
Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, in a news release. “We can all agree that reducing
adolescent suicide attempts is a good thing, regardless of our political views.”
Psychiatrist Victor Schwartz, a medical officer at the youth suicide prevention group the JED Foundation,
who was not involved in the study, said that feeling stigmatized can be frightening and painful. “It’s a real
risk factor, a feeling that you’re at odds with your family or community,” he said to PBS. “You feel like
you’re going to be left out on your own.”
The Johns Hopkins and Harvard scientists relied on data from the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance
System, an annual Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey of high school students. The survey
collects information about diet, sexual behaviors, and drug and alcohol use in U.S. high schoolers. Between
1991 and 2015, more than 3.8 million students responded to the survey.
The researchers examined the data from 762,678 students who answered the survey between 1999 until
January 2015. (That is, before the Supreme Court decision in June 2015 that ruled same-sex marriage was a
constitutional right that could not be denied across the U.S.) The data reflected 32 states that legalized
same-sex marriage between 2004 and 2015, as well as the 15 states that did not.
One of the survey questions was this: “During the past 12 months, how many times did you actually
attempt suicide?” Overall, 28.5 percent of students who identified as a sexual minority responded that they
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/02/21/legalizing-same-sex-marriage-wasassociated-with-fewer-youth-suicide-attempts-new-study-found/
had attempted suicide one or more times. For heterosexual students, 6 percent responded they had
attempted suicide.
“It’s not easy to be an adolescent,” Raifman said, “and for adolescents who are just realizing they are
sexual minorities, it can be even harder — that’s what the data on disparities affecting gay, lesbian, and
bisexual adolescents tell us.”
The scientists compared rates before and after same-sex marriage legalization. After states legalized samesex marriage, the number of self-reported suicide attempts also decreased. For all students surveyed,
regardless of sexual orientation, the percentage of students who reported a suicide attempt dropped from
8.6 percent to 8.0 percent.
For gay, lesbian and bisexual students in particular, the decrease was more pronounced. Rates of suicide
attempts decreased from 28.5 percent to 24.5 percent (a 14 percent reduction in suicide attempts). There
was no change in states that did not legalize same-sex marriage before January 2015.
Extrapolating that finding to all U.S. students, the study authors wrote, would equate to 134,000 fewer
adolescents attempting suicide each year.
[‘Kids at school keep telling me to kill myself’: Gay 13-year-old committed suicide after intense bullying]
This finding supported the idea that stigma — involving loss of status, discrimination or stereotyping —
may underlie some suicide attempts, public health experts said. “Stigma is one of the most frequently
hypothesized risk factors for explaining sexual orientation disparities in suicide outcomes,” wrote
Columbia University’s Mark L. Hatzenbuehler in a JAMA Pediatrics editorial accompanying the study.
Although the majority of high school students do not have immediate plans to get married, legalizing
“same-sex marriage reduces structural stigma associated with sexual orientation,” Raifman said.
“There may be something about having equal rights — even if they have no immediate plans to take
advantage of them — that makes students feel less stigmatized and more hopeful for the future.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/02/23/the-short-troubled-life-of-obamastransgender-student-protections/
The short, troubled life of Obama’s transgender student
protections
By Derek Hawkins
The Washington Post, February 23
Well-intended as they might have been, President Barack Obama’s protections for transgender students
were on shaky ground from the get-go.
As quickly as the Obama administration rolled out the protections last year, the Trump administration on
Wednesday revoked them, saying they were devised without enough legal analysis. All told, it took little
more than the stroke of the new attorney general’s pen to undo one of Obama’s signature civil rights
initiatives.
Then again, it didn’t take much more than the stroke of a pen to enact the protections, either. And that’s
ultimately what doomed them when President Trump took office.
Last May, as national debate over transgender rights was reaching a boiling point, the Obama
administration directed schools across the country to allow transgender students to use bathrooms, locker
rooms and other facilities that match their gender identity rather than their sex assigned at birth.
The directive came in the form of a “Dear Colleague” letter to educational institutions. In it, administration
officials said barring students from bathrooms that matched their gender identities amounted to sex
discrimination, violating the Title IX federal anti-discrimination law.
Schools were required to provide transgender students “equal access to educational programs and activities
even in circumstances in which other students, parents, or community members raise objections or
concerns,” the letter read. “The desire to accommodate others’ discomfort cannot justify a policy that
singles out and disadvantages a particular class of students.”
Stern language, to be sure. But it didn’t carry the force of law. The letter was merely “guidance” explaining
the administration’s position on the rights of transgender students.
Still, the threat to schools was clear: play by our rules or we’ll cut off your federal funding.
The LGBT community and allies cheered the new guidance, saying it was necessary to make transgender
students feel safe and welcome.
But social conservatives and others argued it amounted to an intrusion by the federal government, and in
some cases a trampling of state and local policies. Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) called it “blackmail.” In
a post that proved somewhat prescient, Washington Post blogger Ed Rogers wrote at the time, “This is
exactly the type of rule-by-fiat approach that has given rise to the frustration that has now produced Donald
Trump.”
From one perspective, the Obama administration kicked a hornets’ nest. The directive came at a time when
the country was embroiled in a bitter fight over transgender rights, prompted in part by debate over North
Carolina’s “bathroom bill,” which bans transgender people from using bathrooms that don’t correspond to
their biological sex. On top of that, multiple lawsuits addressing bathroom access were already underway in
federal court, raising questions about whether such a directive was necessary.
But supporters contended the protections could hardly have come at a better time. Officials in the Justice
Department’s civil rights office said they’d received a surge in discrimination complaints from transgender
students and questions from teachers about how to support them. The nation’s largest teachers
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/02/23/the-short-troubled-life-of-obamastransgender-student-protections/
union backed the directive, saying transgender students had the right to safely express their gender identity
in school.
Less than two weeks after the letter was issued, 11 states filed a lawsuit saying the directive had “no basis
in law” and claiming it would bring “seismic changes” to the nation’s schools. Later in the summer, another
10 states filed a similar lawsuit, alleging the administration had exceeded its authority.
In court, the government’s attorneys struggled to explain the thrust of the guidance. Judge Reed O’Connor
of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas balked at the government’s argument that sex
discrimination under Title IX included discrimination based on gender identity, since nothing in the law
mentioned sexual orientation. He also seemed puzzled about how the government expected schools to
respond to the guidance.
One particularly revealing exchange came during oral arguments in August, when O’Connor asked if the
government wanted schools to consider changing their policies, even though they had received “only
guidance and interpretative documents” from the administration.
“Of course, we — we would prefer that school districts and other stakeholders comply with our
understanding of the law,” Justice Department attorney Benjamin Leon Berwick responded. But if the
states “believe that our understanding is incorrect,” he continued, “they suffer no harm at this time or there
is nothing forcing them to proceed as they have been proceeding.”
The judge seemed confused, at one point referring to the guidance as “directives or rules or whatever it is.”
He continued to press Berwick about how schools were supposed to react:
THE COURT: And so these guys are saying I’m going to have to change my bathrooms, I am going
to have to get new signs, I’m going to have change my policies, I’m going to have to get rid of old
policies, implement new policies —
MR. BERWICK: So that’s where I think this case differs, Your Honor, because — because those
guidance documents don’t — they are there not forced to do any of that now. Now, of course —
THE COURT: They are not — What did you say?
MR. BERWICK: They are not forced to do any of that at the moment. Now, of course, the
Government would like them to comply with the law but the fact is, if they so choose, if they
believe their interpretation of the law is correct they can wait for initiation of an enforcement action
and then make their argument in context of the enforcement action and they lose nothing.
Ultimately, O’Connor ruled against the administration. In August, barely three months after the “Dear
Colleague” letters went out, the judge issued a nationwide injunction prohibiting the government from
enforcing the directive. The judge said administration officials should have treated it more like a formal
agency rule, allowing schools and members of the public to weigh in before it took effect.
The protections were still blocked by the injunction on Wednesday, when the Trump administration sent a
“Dear Colleague” letter of its own instructing schools to disregard what the Obama administration had told
them. It didn’t offer any new guidance, instead saying only that the old directive needed to be withdrawn
because it created confusion, drew legal challenges and didn’t allow enough input from states and school
districts, as The Post reported.
Before it was revoked, the Obama administration’s directive did prompt some school districts to revise or
update their policies to accommodate transgender students accordingly. A court also cited the
administration’s position in a ruling in a lawsuit by Gavin Grimm, a transgender high schooler who sued
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/02/23/the-short-troubled-life-of-obamastransgender-student-protections/
his school for barring him from the boys’ bathroom. But the directive’s lasting impact seems to have been
more symbolic than legal. Many transgender students and their allies said the measure made them feel
validated, and assured them that they had an ally in the federal government.
“This guidance was developed and issued to support transgender students because the reality is that
transgender students are far more likely to face severe violence and discrimination at school than their
peers, placing them at greatly increased risk of suicide and self-harm as a result,” Eliza Byard, executive
director of the advocacy group GLSEN, said in a statement Wednesday. “When students are allowed to be
themselves, they thrive. This guidance changes and saves lives and hurts no one. It should not be
withdrawn.”
Grimm, whose lawsuit over bathroom rights is slated for oral arguments in the U.S. Supreme Court next
month, called the directive “incredibly empowering” and said he was disheartened to learn about the Trump
administration’s decision.
“It certainly bolstered the hope,” Grimm told The Post Wednesday, “that the future for transgender students
was looking up in a way that it hadn’t been previously.”
SEE ALSO:
Trump's transgender directive and what's at stake within the U.S. military [Military Times, 2017-02-23]
The Federal Government’s Reversal: Let the States Deal With Transgender Kids [The Atlantic, 2017-0223]
End of transgender bathroom rule gets conservative praise [The Associated Press, 2017-02-23]
Trump's transgender move puts spotlight on Supreme Court case [Reuters, 2017-02-23]
Trump revokes Obama guidelines on transgender bathrooms [Reuters, 2017-02-23]
Parents of transgender students appeal to Trump on bathrooms [The Associated Press, 2017-02-23]
Trump administration rolls back transgender student restroom protections [USA TODAY, 2017-02-22]
Trump administration working on trans bathroom guidelines [The Associated Press, 2017-02-21]
Misconduct
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sports/sd-sp-wigginsside-20170217-story.html
Wiggins: WNBA’s ‘harmful’ culture of bullying, jealousy
By Tod Leonard
The Sand Diego (Calif.) Union-Tribune, February 20, 2017
Candice Wiggins had what many would consider a dream career in the WNBA.
She was the No. 3 overall draft pick out of Stanford in 2008. She was named the league’s Sixth Woman of
the Year as a rookie. She won a championship with the Minnesota Lynx.
The success, Wiggins says now, hid a darker reality.
“It wasn’t like my dreams came true in the WNBA. It was quite the opposite,” said Wiggins, the former La
Jolla Country Day star who is being inducted into the San Diego Hall of Champions’ Bretibard Hall of
Fame on Tuesday.
For the first time in an extensive interview, Wiggins described what she said was a “very, very harmful”
culture in the WNBA – one in which she contends she was bullied throughout her eight-year career. She
also described the discouragement she felt being a part of a “survival league” that she said still struggles for
attention and legitimacy after 20 seasons in existence.
Wiggins, who turned 30 on Feb. 14, abruptly announced her retirement last March while considering a
contract extension from the New York Liberty – her fourth WNBA team.
“I wanted to play two more seasons of WNBA, but the experience didn’t lend itself to my mental state,”
Wiggins said. “It was a depressing state in the WNBA. It’s not watched. Our value is diminished. It can be
quite hard. I didn’t like the culture inside the WNBA, and without revealing too much, it was toxic for me.
… My spirit was being broken.”
Wiggins, a four-time All-American at Stanford, asserts she was targeted for harassment from the time she
was drafted by Minnesota because she is heterosexual and a nationally popular figure, of whom many other
players were jealous.
“Me being heterosexual and straight, and being vocal in my identity as a straight woman was huge,”
Wiggins said. “I would say 98 percent of the women in the WNBA are gay women. It was a conformist
type of place. There was a whole different set of rules they (the other players) could apply.
“There was a lot of jealousy and competition, and we’re all fighting for crumbs,” Wiggins said. “The way I
looked, the way I played – those things contributed to the tension.
“People were deliberately trying to hurt me all of the time. I had never been called the B-word so many
times in my life than I was in my rookie season. I’d never been thrown to the ground so much. The message
was: ‘We want you to know we don’t like you.’ “
There is no published data on the percentage of WNBA players who are gay. In a 10-team league that
employs 120 players annually, at least 12 current and former players have come out publicly in various
forms of media.
Wiggins said she was disheartened by a culture in the WNBA that encouraged women to look and act like
men in the NBA.
“It comes to a point where you get compared so much to the men, you come to mirror the men,’ she said.
“So many people think you have to look like a man, play like a man to get respect. I was the opposite. I was
proud to be a woman, and it didn’t fit well in that culture.”
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sports/sd-sp-wigginsside-20170217-story.html
Of the league as a whole, Wiggins said, “Nobody cares about the WNBA. Viewership is minimal. Ticket
sales are very low. They give away tickets and people don’t come to the game.”
The WNBA, whose teams are subsidized by the NBA, said after the 2016 season that the announced
average attendance of 7,655 was its highest in five years. (Attendance peaked at 10,800 in 1998.) The
league boasted of an 11-percent increase in viewership on ESPN channels in 2016 — to 224,000 per game.
NBA games on ESPN in 2015-16 averaged eight times more — 1.6 million viewers.
Wiggins enjoyed a strong start to her WNBA career, averaging 15.7 and 13.1 points per game, respectively,
in her first two seasons. But in only the eighth game of her third year, in 2010, she suffered a torn Achilles’
tendon that knocked her out for that season.
Wiggins returned in 2011, and her Minnesota team captured its first WNBA championship, but she was
limited to a backup role and averaged only 5.9 points per game.
In her eight seasons, Wiggins averaged 8.6 points per game after averaging 19.2 at Stanford.
The Achilles injury was one of eight for which Wiggins required surgery. She has attributed some of the
physical breakdowns to an arduous schedule of playing in Europe in the offseason to supplement her pay in
the WNBA.
The current collective bargaining agreement caps the top WNBA salaries at $109,000 per season, while the
average player makes about $75,000. Players could earn five to eight times that in Europe.
Wiggins played on pro teams in Spain, Turkey, Israel and Greece, and won the Euro Cup with the
Greek team that she counts among her career highlights.
“It was incredible,” she said of her experience in Europe. “It shaped my entire world view.”
Back home, Wiggins kept on playing in the WNBA, she said, more for the people around her and the fans.
She played her final three seasons for three different teams — Tulsa, Los Angeles and New York.
“There were horrible things happening to me every day, and that connection to the outside world kept me
going,” she said.
Wiggins said, “I want you to understand this: There are no enemies in my life. Everyone is forgiven. At the
end of the day, it made me stronger. If I had not had this experience, I wouldn’t be as tough as I am.
“I try to be really sensitive. I’m not trying to crush anyone’s dreams or aspirations, or the dreams of the
WNBA. I want things to be great, but at the same time it’s important for me to be honest in my reflections.”
Wiggins said she is writing an autobiography with the working title, “The WNBA Diaries,” based on her
journals as a player.
Wiggins has her sights set on a new athletic career: pro beach volleyball. She is working out with her
former club coach who prepared her for volleyball at LJCD and has been mentored by current women
beach players.
She aspires to play on the pro beach volleyball tour and possibly the Olympics. She touts the sport’s
camaraderie and its “celebration of women and the female body as feminine, but strong and athletic.”
“I don’t know what I can accomplish in volleyball, but this is fun for me,” Wiggins said. “Volleyball has
always been an outlet, and it’s something I can pursue on my own terms. It’s really the culture I’m signing
up for. This is really who I am.”
Racism
http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2017/02/23/516823230/asian-last-names-lead-to-fewer-jobinterviews-still
Asian Last Names Lead To Fewer Job Interviews, Still
By Jenny J. Chen
NPR, February 23, 2017
When it comes to job applications, not all names are treated
equally. Terry Vine/Getty Images
What's in a name? A lot, according to a new study from researchers
at Ryerson University and the University of Toronto, both in
Canada.
The study found that job applicants in Canada with Asian names —
names of Indian, Pakistani or Chinese origin — were 28 percent
less likely to get called for an interview compared to applicants
with Anglo names, even when all the qualifications were the same. Researchers used data from a previous
study conducted in 2011 where they sent out 12,910 fictitious resumes in response to 3,225 job postings.
The previous study, also in Canada, similarly found that applicants with Anglo first names and Asian last
names didn't fare much better than applicants with Asian first and last names.
"Some people still believe that minorities have an advantage," said one of the study authors, Jeffrey Reitz, a
sociologist at the University of Toronto. "These studies are important to challenge that and show that not
only is this kind of discrimination happening, but it's quite systemic."
Reitz, who completed his undergraduate and graduate degrees in the United States and has conducted
numerous studies comparing race relations in the two North American countries, says this kind of
discrimination is prevalent in the U.S. as well. "It's a very intense belief that we're a multicultural country
in the way that the U.S. is not. But it's not terribly different in the two countries," said Reitz.
A two-year study published in the Administrative Science Quarterly Journal found that Asian job
candidates in the U.S. were almost twice as likely to receive a call back if they whitened their resumes by
changing their names and excluding race-based honors and organizations. (The same was true for AfricanAmerican candidates).
Last year, a young Asian-American named Tiffany Trieu who applied for a graphic design
position received a letter from the president of the studio denying her the job because "we've hired so many
foreign nationals that it seems time for us to hire an American, or be unfair." Trieu was born in the United
States.
In the same year, the U.S. Department of Labor filed an administrative lawsuit against Palantir
Technologies alleging that the data mining startup systematically discriminated against Asian job
applicants. The case claimed that while 77 percent of applicants for several engineering positions were
Asian, less than 15 percent of the people hired were Asian. Palantir has denied these allegations of
discrimination and the case is still pending.
The kind of discrimination described in the study often goes unnoticed because statistics often portray
Asian-Americans as doing quite well — one of the best educated, highest income racial groups in the
United States. But such statistics belie the fact that they're still not treated equally in comparison to their
white counterparts. What's more, data on Asian-Americans is rarely broken up sufficiently so that it
differentiates between Cambodian-Americans and Korean-Americans. That level of generalization can
skew perceptions of how parts of the population are doing in certain regards.
http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2017/02/23/516823230/asian-last-names-lead-to-fewer-jobinterviews-still
Reitz said that when researchers of the studies cited above asked employers to explain why they called
fewer Asian applicants, they usually received a response along the lines of, "Well, you see an Asian name
and you know that language problems are going to be there."
For many Asian-Americans, this kind of discrimination means that the pressure to change their names and
shed the perpetual foreigner stereotype is strong. In 2009, Texas state representative Betty Brown
suggested during House testimony that all Chinese-Americans change their names to ones "we could deal
with more readily here." But for many, those Asian names given at birth hold a lot of meaning. As Quartz
writer Zheping Huang wrote, "This is the only name that I feel I belong to."
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/22/us/politics/duane-buck-texas-death-penalty-case-supreme-court.html
Citing Racist Testimony, Justices Call for New Sentencing in
Texas Death Penalty Case
By Adam Liptak
The New York Times, February 22, 2017
Duane Buck was convicted of the 1995 murders of a former girlfriend and one of her
friends. Texas law allows death sentences only if prosecutors can show the defendant
poses a future danger to society. (Credit: Texas Department of Criminal Justice)
Testimony laced with “a particularly noxious strain of racial prejudice” in a Texas
death penalty case required a new sentencing for the defendant, Duane Buck, the
Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday.
The testimony came from a psychologist who said black defendants were more
dangerous than white ones. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., writing for the
majority in a 6-to-2 decision, said the psychologist’s report “said, in effect, that the
color of Buck’s skin made him more deserving of execution.”
“Our law punishes people for what they do, not who they are,” Chief Justice Roberts wrote. “Dispensing
punishment on the basis of an immutable characteristic flatly contravenes this guiding principle.”
Mr. Buck was convicted of the 1995 murders of a former girlfriend, Debra Gardner, and one of her friends,
Kenneth Butler, while Ms. Gardner’s young children watched. Texas law allows death sentences only if
prosecutors can show the defendant poses a future danger to society.
During the trial’s sentencing phase in 1997, Mr. Buck’s lawyers presented a report from the psychologist,
Walter Quijano, who said race was one of the factors associated with future dangerousness.
At the trial, a lawyer for Mr. Buck asked Dr. Quijano to elaborate.
“It’s a sad commentary that minorities, Hispanics and black people, are overrepresented in the criminal
justice system,” Dr. Quijano testified.
A prosecutor followed up: “The race factor, black, increases the future dangerousness for various
complicated reasons — is that correct?”
Dr. Quijano answered, “Yes.”
Chief Justice Roberts wrote that the testimony “appealed to a powerful racial stereotype — that of black
men as ‘violence prone.’”
Other evidence suggested that Mr. Buck did not pose a threat of future danger, Chief Justice Roberts wrote.
“Buck’s prior violent acts had occurred outside of prison, and within the context of romantic relationships
with women,” the chief justice wrote. “If the jury did not impose a death sentence, Buck would be
sentenced to life in prison, and no such romantic relationship would be likely to arise. A jury could
conclude that those changes would minimize the prospect of future dangerousness.”
“But one thing would never change: the color of Buck’s skin,” Chief Justice Roberts wrote. “Buck would
always be black.”
Texas argued that Dr. Quijano’s testimony was brief and was overwhelmed by other evidence that Mr.
Buck continued to pose a threat.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/22/us/politics/duane-buck-texas-death-penalty-case-supreme-court.html
Chief Justice Roberts rejected that argument. “When a jury hears expert testimony that expressly makes a
defendant’s race directly pertinent on the question of life or death, the impact of that evidence cannot be
measured simply by how much airtime it received at trial or how many pages it occupies in the record,” he
wrote. “Some toxins can be deadly in small doses.”
In 2000, John Cornyn, then Texas’ attorney general and now a United States senator, disavowed Dr.
Quijano’s testimony in six cases, including that of Mr. Buck. “It is inappropriate to allow race to be
considered as a factor in our criminal justice system,” he said in a public statement. The state later
consented to new sentencing proceedings in the five other cases.
After Mr. Cornyn left office, the state continued to seek to execute Mr. Buck. His case was different,
prosecutors said, because Mr. Buck’s own lawyer — rather than prosecutors — had presented Dr.
Quijano’s testimony.
But Chief Justice Roberts said that only made the problem worse. “No competent defense attorney would
introduce such evidence about his own client,” he wrote, noting that Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. had said
much the same thing in a 2011 opinion at an earlier stage of the case. Back then, Justice Alito wrote that the
case “concerns bizarre and objectionable testimony.”
In dissent on Wednesday, Justice Clarence Thomas, joined by Justice Alito, said, “Texas had good reason
for treating this case differently from the others.”
“This is the only one” of the six cases, Justice Thomas wrote, quoting from Justice Alito’s 2011 opinion,
“where ‘it can be said that the responsibility for eliciting the offensive testimony lay squarely with the
defense.’”
But Chief Justice Roberts wrote that an expert presented by the defense had special force. “When a
defendant’s own lawyer puts in the offending evidence, it is in the nature of an admission against interest,
more likely to be taken at face value,” he wrote.
One of Mr. Buck’s trial lawyers, Jerry Guerinot, has a dismal record in death penalty cases, having
represented 20 people sentenced to death in Texas, more than are awaiting execution in about half of the
states that have the death penalty.
The case reached the Supreme Court on the narrow question of whether a federal appeals court should have
allowed Mr. Buck to appeal a challenge to his death sentence. But Chief Justice Roberts’s opinion
answered larger questions, too, ruling that Mr. Buck’s lawyers had been ineffective and had prejudiced
him, making him entitled to a new sentencing hearing.
In his dissent, Justice Thomas said the majority had been so eager to reach its “desired outcome” that it had
bulldozed procedural obstacles and misapplied settled law. As a consequence, the decision in the case,
Buck v. Davis, No. 15-8049, “has few ramifications, if any beyond the highly unusual facts presented
here,” Justice Thomas wrote. Justice Thomas described Mr. Buck’s murders in detail, suggesting that they
were proof enough that he remained dangerous and saying that Chief Justice Roberts had relied “on
rhetoric and speculation to craft a finding of prejudice.”
SEE ALSO:
Supreme Court rules in favor of death row inmate [CNN, 2017-02-22]
Rejecting 'noxious' prejudice, U.S. top court backs black death row inmate [Reuters, 2017-02-22]
Supreme Court blocks death sentence over racial bias [USA TODAY, 2017-02-22]
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/02/16/man-with-white-supremacist-tiesaccused-of-plotting-attack-in-the-spirit-of-dylann-roof/
Man with white supremacist ties accused of plotting attack
‘in the spirit of Dylann Roof’
By Matt Zapotosky
The Washington Post, February 16, 2017
A South Carolina man with white supremacist connections and an apparent admiration for Charleston, S.C.,
church shooter Dylann Roof was arrested Wednesday and accused of plotting an attack, not knowing he
was describing his plans to an undercover FBI employee.
Benjamin Thomas Samuel McDowell, 29, told the FBI employee he wanted to do something on a “big
scale” and then write on the building he had targeted, “In the spirit of Dylann Roof.”
“I seen what Dylann Roof did and in my heart I reckon I got a little bit of hatred and I … I want to do that
s—,” McDowell told the undercover employee, according to a criminal complaint. “Like, I got desire …
not for nobody else … it just … I want something where I can say, ‘I f—— did that’ … me personally.”
According to the complaint, Horry County, S.C., police knew McDowell as someone who had made white
supremacist connections while serving prison sentences for various criminal offenses. He posted rambling,
expletive-filled white supremacist rants on Facebook, and in early January, requested an “iron” — or gun
— from someone through Facebook instant messenger, according to the complaint. Less than a week later,
he was in touch with an undercover FBI employee whom McDowell believed handled problems for the
Aryan Nations, a group that espouses racist and anti-Semitic beliefs.
McDowell’s case is somewhat similar to Roof’s in that Roof, too, expressed frustration that, in his view,
white supremacists were not taking enough action. Roof, who was sentenced to death last month for
shooting and killing nine black parishioners at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, wrote in a
journal that he “would rather live imprisoned knowing I took action for my race than to live with the torture
of sitting idle” and suggested he hoped others might follow suit.
“It isn’t up to me anymore,” Roof said. “I did what I could do. I’ve done all I can do. I did what I thought
would make the biggest wave, and now the fate of our race sits in the hands of my brothers who continue to
live freely.”
McDowell did not seem to have chosen a specific plan of attack. He told the undercover FBI employee he
wanted to target nonwhites at a county outside the one where he lived, and he did not want to get caught. “I
got the heart to do this,” he said, according to the criminal complaint.
McDowell asked the undercover employee to buy him a handgun, which would ultimately serve as the
basis for the criminal charge against him — being a felon in possession of a firearm. The two talked on the
phone on Feb. 11, though McDowell insisted they meet in person, as he had no more minutes on his
cellphone, his mom would not let him use her cellphone and he was uncomfortable speaking on the
landline in his mom’s house. They eventually hatched a plan where the employee would pick McDowell up
from his mom’s house, then drive to McDowell’s grandfather’s house, so McDowell could get money from
his grandfather to pay for the gun and ammunition.
The two met as planned Wednesday, and McDowell bought a .40-caliber handgun, the firing pin of which
had been shaved down, for $109. Agents then arrested McDowell.
Efforts to reach relatives and an attorney for McDowell were not immediately successful Thursday.
Religion
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/crime/article134503649.html
FBI investigating reported death threats against Muslims by
N.C. conservative activists
By Joe Marusak
The Charlotte Observer, February 23, 2017
The FBI’s Charlotte office is investigating reported death threats against Muslims made at a meeting of
conservative activists in Kernersville, an agency spokeswoman said Thursday.
“My only recommendation is to start killing the hell out of them,” one participant said, according to the
Council on American-Islamic Relations, based in Washington, D.C. “I’m ready to start taking people out.”
The meeting at a seafood restaurant included a presentation on “a supposed Muslim plot to conquer the
United States,” the council said, citing local media reports of the Feb. 16 meeting.
“Shed some blood, too,” the same participant said in response to the presenter’s call to “shed some light”
on the issue, according to the council.
The FBI began investigating the threats before CAIR called on the agency to look into the remarks, Shelley
Lynch, spokeswoman for the FBI’s Charlotte office, said Thursday. The Observer on Saturday published a
story about CAIR’s call for the probe.
“The FBI is aware of news media stories about a recent meeting in North Carolina where comments were
reportedly made against the Muslim community,” the agency said in a statement. “We are working with our
local law enforcement partners to determine if a federal violation involving threats of violence that is not
speech protected under the First Amendment has occurred.
“The safety and security of our citizens is a priority for the FBI, and we have been in contact with local
community leaders to assure them we take potential threats of violence very seriously,” the FBI said.
The meeting in a private room at Captain Tom’s Seafood Grill and Bar included Tea Party members,
patriot groups and other conservative activists, the Triad City Beat alternative newspaper reported.
Kernersville is in Forsyth County, about 90 miles northeast of Charlotte.
The restaurant has received angry posts on its Facebook page.
“I will never step foot in or support financially this business due to their involvement in targeting and
planning the murder of innocent Americans,” one person wrote.
“Keep an eye on your dwindling bank account,” posted another. “Are these clowns worth losing your
business??”
In reply, the restaurant posted this statement on Sunday: “We rent a room, we are not affiliated with anyone
who rents it.”
In response to the reported call to kill Muslims, according to CAIR, a member of the hate group ACT for
America said at the meeting, “I can understand that. But we’re not there yet.”
In reaction to the threats made at the meeting, CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper said: “Calls to violence
against members of any minority group warrant a criminal investigation by state law enforcement
authorities and the FBI. We call on President Trump to repudiate the growing bigotry in our nation
targeting Muslims, Hispanics, immigrants, refugees and other minority groups.”
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/3fbd03dc0b2b4dafa45a105dc8246d67/islamic-state-vows-more-attacksegypts-christians
Islamic State vows more attacks on Egypt's Christians
By Maggie Michael
The Associated Press, February 20, 2017
In this Dec. 11, 2016 file photo, security forces examine the scene inside
the St. Mark Cathedral in central Cairo, following a bombing that killed
dozens of people. A 20-minute video from an Islamic State affiliate in
Egypt, which emerged Monday, Feb. 20, 2017, showed the suicide
bomber who attacked the church and vowed more attacks on the country's
Christian minority. The video said Christians are the extremist group's
"favorite prey." (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)
CAIRO (AP) — An Islamic State group affiliate in Egypt released a
video Monday showing the suicide bomber who killed nearly 30 people when he attacked a packed church
in December and vowing more attacks on the country's Christian. A narrator says in the 20-minute video
that the Egyptian Christians are the extremist group's "favorite prey."
The video shows footage of Egypt's Coptic Christian Pope, Christian businessmen, judges and priests who
either speak of the need to protect the minority or use derogatory terms to refer to Egypt's Muslim majority.
The narrator says Christians were no longer "dhimmis," a reference to non-Muslims in Islam who enjoy a
degree of state protection. Instead, the group describes the Christians as "infidels" who are empowering the
West against Muslim nations.
"God gave orders to kill every infidel," one of the militants carrying an AK-47 assault rifle says in the
video.
Egypt's Coptic Christians, who make up around 10 percent of the population, have been always a favorite
target of Islamic extremists. Attacks on churches by Muslim mobs increased since the 2013 military
overthrow of an Islamist president. Christians overwhelmingly supported the army chief-turned-president,
Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, and extremists have used such support as a pretext to increase attacks against them.
The video shows footage of Abu Abdullah al-Masri, the militant who blew himself up at the central Cairo
church in December. The attack, says the narrator, was "only the beginning."
"Oh worshippers of the cross ... the soldiers of the state are watching you," another masked militant
identified as Abu Zubair al-Masri says.
The video carries the logo "Egypt" instead of the normal "Wilayat Sinai" or the state of Sinai. Wilayat
Sinai, the name of the IS branch in Sinai, has claimed responsibility for dozens of suicide bombings and
attacks, mainly targeting security forces and military across the country but primarily in Sinai Peninsula,
where the army has been leading an anti-terrorism operation for years.
The IS message comes at a time when attacks on Coptic Christians have escalated in Sinai. In the past
month, at least three Christians were gunned down in separate drive-by shooting attacks in the city of elArish.
El-Sissi has repeatedly assured Egypt's Christians of his goodwill toward the community, visiting the seat
of the Coptic Orthodox church in Cairo on major holidays, but many in the ancient community complain
that very little has changed in their lives since el-Sissi took office in 2014, especially in rural areas where
Muslim radicals frequently attack Christian homes and businesses over a range of issues, including the
construction or restoration of churches, land disputes or sexual affairs between members of each
community.
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/military/sd-me-mcrd-religion-20170217-story.html
Marines accused of violating U.S. Constitution with religious
display
By Carl Prine
The San Diego (Calif.) Union-Tribune, February 17, 2017
Statues of the Magi, the three wise men in Christian scripture who
brought gifts to Jesus Christ upon his birth in a manger, on the
grounds of Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego. (Photo
courtesy of Military Religious Freedom Foundation)
The local ACLU chapter on Friday joined the Military Religious
Freedom Foundation in publicly accusing Marine leaders
of discriminating against Jews and other non-Christian recruits —
an allegation the Corps’ officials deny.
At issue is the crèche erected during each year’s Christmas season on the grounds of Marine Corps Recruit
Depot in San Diego to commemorate the birth of Jesus. In December, the lighted display was located near
the base chapel and featured statues of the Three Wise Men bearing gifts to the newborn.
On Jan. 17, the New Mexico-based foundation petitioned Marine Brig. Gen. William Jurney — commander
of the boot camp and the Western Recruiting Region — to let troops of other faiths put up religious
displays near the crèche. The foundation said it represents 27 active-duty, retired and veteran Marines
affiliated with the depot.
Twenty of those individuals are Jewish and want to place a Hanukkah menorah on the depot’s grounds each
December, the foundation said. The group also said seven Marines who are Christian or don’t worship any
deity joined the petition, contending that the Corps appears to promote Christianity over other faiths at the
depot.
On Feb. 10, Jurney’s staff judge advocate general, Lt. Col. Jeffrey Munoz, told the foundation in a letter
that such concerns were “premature” because there’s no longer a crèche on the MCRD grounds and “the
(next) holiday season is months away.”
Munoz said the Corps is in full compliance with the U.S. Constitution and federal, state and local laws, and
that the service would never endorse any religion over another.
“Compliance with the law is a matter that we take seriously and adhere to scrupulously. … All service
members and civilian employees aboard this installation are free to practice their religion as provided for in
law and regulation,” Munoz wrote.
On Friday, David Loy, legal director for the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties, entered the fray.
He wrote to the Corps alleging that Munoz was trying to sidestep the issue — an effort that he described as
“at best evasive and at worst thinly veiled discrimination.”
Loy urged the Corps to immediately grant permission to the Jewish Marines in question so they could start
planning a Menorah display for the 2017 holiday season.
On the same day, depot spokesman Capt. Matthew Finnerty said the Corps declined to elaborate “beyond
what we already provided” in Munoz’s letter to the foundation.
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/military/sd-me-mcrd-religion-20170217-story.html
In 1971, the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case of Lemon v. Kurzman concluded with a ruling that a
government policy violates the Establishment Clause of the 1st Amendment if its purpose isn’t secular,
primarily advances or inhibits religion, or fosters an excessive entanglement of the government with a faith.
“This isn’t just about a Marine Corps that says your constitutional rights are premature. These sorts of
actions by the Marines destroy unit cohesion and ruin morale,” said Michael “Mikey” Weinstein, a former
Air Force officer and the foundation’s creator. “These Marines shouldn’t have to be like the tarantula on a
wedding cake, afraid to go up the chain of command. They should be protected because the Bill of Rights
exists not for the convenience of the majority but to prevent the tyranny of the majority.”
Weinstein said his organization used to rely on Glen Doherty, a former Navy SEAL and member of the
foundation’s board, to solve religion-related problems with the Corps before they escalated into the public
arena. Doherty, a guard at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, was killed during the Sept. 11, 2012
attack on the diplomatic compound by Islamic militants loyal to Ansar al-Sharia, a terrorist organization.
“He handled the area for a very, very long time, both San Diego and Twentynine Palms. But he was
tragically killed,” Weinstein said.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/22/us/michigan-mosque-approved.html
Muslim Group Wins Right to Build Mosque in Michigan
City
By Daniel Victor
The New York Times, February 22, 2017
Protesting the construction of a mosque in Sterling Heights, Mich.,
in 2015. (Credit John M. Galloway/Detroit News, via Associated
Press)
Over the objections of some residents, a Muslim group won the
fight to build a mosque in Sterling Heights, Mich., after the city on
Tuesday settled a lawsuit by the Justice Department that accused
officials of religious discrimination.
The group, the American Islamic Community Center, applied to Sterling Heights, about 16 miles from
downtown Detroit, to build the house of worship in August 2015. The planning commission rejected the
application, citing concerns over the height of the building, parking and noise.
But the lawsuit, filed in December — and the anti-Muslim language used by many residents who spoke at
public meetings about the mosque — suggested that the rejection and the uproar were more about religion
than by-the-book zoning details.
The government quoted a person who said “Remember 9/11” and others who claimed that Christians would
face difficulty trying to build a church in Iraq.
“We are alleging that Sterling Heights discriminated against the American Islamic Community Center on
the basis of religion and placed a substantial burden on the community’s ability to exercise its religion by
denying approval to build a mosque,” Barbara L. McQuade, the United States attorney for the Eastern
District of Michigan, said in a statement in December.
The City Council unanimously approved the settlement on Tuesday, prompting some residents to shout
“terrorists” at council members and another to urge the officials to “fight against a political ideology whose
goal is death to America,” according to Fox 2 Detroit.
Ms. McQuade said at a news conference on Wednesday, “It’s important to remember, in our pluralistic
society, that religious minorities are entitled to the same protections as all of the rest of us.”
The lawsuit contended that the city had discriminated against the Muslim group, which has about 300
members in the Detroit suburbs, because of its religion and imposed undue burdens on its ability to build
the mosque. It noted that, despite the commission’s concerns about height, churches in the city had higher
steeples.
As part of the settlement, the mosque will shrink to a height of 61 feet from a planned 66 feet. The Muslim
group also agreed to have no outdoor amplification or street parking.
Mayor Michael C. Taylor of Sterling Heights said in an interview on Wednesday that despite the antiMuslim rhetoric of some residents, the rejection really was about zoning. The city is home to two
previously built mosques, as well as a Sikh temple and a Buddhist temple.
“The perception was that the city is denying a mosque because the city is not welcoming to mosques, and
nothing could have been further from the truth,” he said. “We are very welcoming to the A.I.C.C., but there
were legitimate zoning and planning issues that had to be worked out.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/22/us/michigan-mosque-approved.html
Many of the irate residents, however, made clear they were not motivated by parking concerns. Mr. Taylor
said much of the resistance to the mosque came from the city’s large population of Chaldean Christians,
some of whom were refugees who fled religious persecution in Iraq. They see putting a mosque in their
neighborhood as a provocation, he said.
Throughout the process, anti-Muslim sentiments flared. One public commenter held up a photograph of a
woman wearing a garment that covered her head and said he did not want to “be near people like this,”
according to the Justice Department complaint. Another resident suggested that weapons might be hidden
in the mosque. Still another said officials should screen the American Islamic Community Center’s
members because “they’re cutting people’s heads off; they kill our soldiers.”
The Muslim group sought to build the house of worship after it outgrew its current mosque in nearby
Madison Heights. About 70 percent of its members live in Sterling Heights, and many have lived there for
decades longer than those opposing the mosque, said Azzam Elder, the lead lawyer for the community
center.
He called the decision “a victory for all Americans, especially vulnerable Americans.” The group’s
members, he said, “feel very relieved, because the city of Sterling Heights finally realized who they are:
They’re veterans who have served in the U.S. military; they’re professionals; they’re everyday Americans.”
Mohammed Abdrabboh, another lawyer representing the Muslim group, said at the news conference,
“Ignorance coupled with government power can be very difficult to overcome.”
“Today, however, it really is a victory for pluralism, tolerance and basic human decency,” he added.
When a reporter asked why the group would want to build in a place where neighbors were unwelcoming,
Ms. McQuade intervened.
“Because America says you get to be where you want to be,” she said. “If you own land, you don’t have to
leave because your neighbors don’t want you there.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/02/22/pence-makes-stop-at-jewish-cemeteryin-missouri-where-graves-were-toppled/
Pence makes stop at Jewish cemetery in Missouri where
gravestones were toppled
By John Wagner
The Washington Post, February 22, 2017
Vice President Pence made a stop
Wednesday at the Jewish cemetery in
Missouri where close to 200 gravestones
were toppled over the weekend in the
latest act of anti-Semitic violence, which
has been on the rise across the country.
“From the heart, there’s no place in
America for hatred or acts of prejudice or
violence or anti-Semitism,” Pence said
from the bed of a pickup truck, speaking
through a bullhorn at an event organized
to clean up the damage. “I must tell you, the people of Missouri are inspiring the nation by your love and
care for this place, for the Jewish community in Missouri, and I want to thank you for that inspiration, for
showing the world what America is really about.”
Pence’s appearance in University City, Mo., came a day after President Trump denounced the vandalism
and spoke out more broadly against anti-Semitic violence. Trump had faced mounting criticism for not
speaking out on the matter, and some Jewish leaders said Tuesday that his remarks in Washington were still
insufficient.
Pence made his unadvertised visit to the cemetery shortly after delivering a speech at a distribution point of
Cat construction equipment in Fenton, Mo. Both the cemetery and the business are located in the suburbs of
St. Louis.
At the top of his speech on the economy, Pence also paused to address the cemetery vandalism.
“We condemn this vile act of vandalism and those who perpetrated it in the strongest possible terms,” he
said.
A groundskeeper arrived Monday morning to find gravestones overturned across a wide section of the
cemetery, the oldest section, bearing the remains of Jews who died between the late 1800s and the mid-20th
century.
While at the cemetery on Wednesday, Pence also heard a prayer from a rabbi and joined Gov. Eric Greitens
(R) in clearing brush.
After Pence’s visit, one of the groups that had been critical of Trump’s response to the vandalism issued a
statement praising the vice president.
“Today, Vice President Pence proved to be the ultimate mensch by visiting, and even cleaning, the
desecrated Jewish graves in St. Louis,” said Steven Goldstein, executive director of the Anne Frank Center
for Mutual Respect. “Through the Vice President's visit to St. Louis today, this administration finally
showed America the kind of response our nation was waiting for all along — a response filled with
proactive heart.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/02/22/pence-makes-stop-at-jewish-cemeteryin-missouri-where-graves-were-toppled/
SEE ALSO:
Trump denounces 'horrible' threats against Jewish centers [The Associated Press, 2017-02-21]
Trump issues first public condemnation of anti-Semitic incidents [Reuters, 2017-02-21]
Trump Speaks Out Against Anti-Semitism [The New York Times, 2017-02-21]
Trump denounces anti-Semitic attacks as 'horrible' [USA TODAY, 2017-02-21]
Ivanka Trump Calls for Tolerance After Threats on Jewish Centers [The New York Times, 2017-02-20]
Vandals wreck headstones at historic Jewish cemetery in St. Louis [USA TODAY, 2017-02-20]
Sexual Assault /
Harassment
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/3af2849583f84580ba47fd6eb044b628/new-hope-yazidi-women-raped-andtortured-fighters
New hope for Yazidi women raped and tortured by IS
fighters
By David Rising
The Associated Press, February 22, 2017
In this Jan. 12, 2017 photo, 39-year-old Gorwe stands inside the
tent she shares with family members at the Sharya camp for
civilians displaced by war in Iraq. She escaped Islamic State
militant captivity and has two sisters-in-law who are now living in
Germany and receiving treatment in German trauma specialist Jan
Kizilhan's program. (AP Photo/Alice Martins)
DOHUK, Iraq (AP) — It's been less than two weeks since Perwin
Ali Baku escaped the Islamic State group, after more than two years
in captivity, bought and sold from fighter to fighter and carted from Iraq to Syria and then back again.
When a door slams, the 23-year-old Yazidi woman flashes back to her captors locking away her 3-year-old
daughter, captured with her, to torment her. When she hears a loud voice, she cringes at the thought of them
barking orders.
"I don't feel right," she said, sitting on a mattress on the floor of her father-in-law's small canvas-topped
Quonset hut in a northern Iraq refugee camp. "I still can't sleep and my body is tense all the time."
Perwin wants treatment, and is hoping to find it in a new psychological trauma institute being established at
the University of Dohuk, the first in the entire region.
It's the next phase of an ambitious project funded by the wealthy German state of Baden Wuerttemberg that
brought 1,100 women who had escaped Islamic State captivity, primarily Yazidis, to Germany for
psychological treatment. The medical head of that project, German trauma specialist Jan Kizilhan, is also
the driving force behind the new institute, which opens at the end of the month.
The program will train local mental health professionals to treat people like Perwin and thousands of
Yazidi women, children and other Islamic State victims. About 1,900 Yazidis have escaped the clutches of
IS, but more than 3,000 other women and children are believed to still be held captive, pressed into sexual
slavery and subjected to horrific abuse. As the fighting rages between Iraqi forces and IS in Mosul, only
about 75 km from Dohuk, the number reaching freedom increases daily.
Right now there are only 26 psychiatrists practicing in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of northern
Iraq, with a population of 5.5 million people and more than 1.5 million refugees and internally displaced
people. None specializes in treating trauma.
Kizilhan, himself of Yazidi background but who immigrated to Germany at age 6, has interviewed
thousands of women in the refugee camps. His latest trip to Iraq was to interview prospective students for
the program's inaugural class.
As he drove in to Dohuk, his phone buzzed twice with WhatsApp messages. There were photos of three 10year-old boys, one lifting his shirt to show an ugly wound on his torso, and a family of two women and
three children, all of whom had just escaped IS. They needed psychological help.
"I get this type of message every day," Kizilhan said, shaking his head. "We can't bring them all to
Germany."
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/3af2849583f84580ba47fd6eb044b628/new-hope-yazidi-women-raped-andtortured-fighters
Perwin received brief, basic counseling after being freed Dec. 30 from IS near Mosul — "they asked do
you sleep well and I said no, I can't sleep well" — but nothing else. She looks to her toddler, dressed in a
red sweatsuit with her hair in pigtails held together with cherry bobbles, who popped into the tent only to
beat a hasty retreat when she saw strangers.
The child has received no treatment at all.
"She's always scared," Perwin said. "And she's had nothing more than cough medicine."
___
Fighters from the Islamic State, also known as Daesh, swept into the Sinjar region of northern Iraq in
August 2014, an area near the Syrian border that is the Yazidis' ancestral home.
Tens of thousands of Yazidis escaped to Mount Sinjar, where they were surrounded and besieged by
Islamic State militants. The U.S., Iraq, Britain, France and Australia flew in water and other supplies, until
Kurdish fighters eventually opened a corridor to allow them to safety.
Casualty estimates vary widely, but the United Nations has called the Islamic State assault genocide, saying
the Yazidis' "400,000-strong community had all been displaced, captured or killed." Of the thousands
captured by IS, boys were forced to fight for the extremists, men were executed if they didn't convert to
Islam — and often executed in any case — and women and girls were sold into slavery.
Members of Germany's 100,000-strong Yazidi community reached out for help and found the ear of
Winfried Kretschmann, Baden Wuerttemberg's governor. Across party lines, the prosperous state's
legislature approved a 95 million-euro program over three years to bring women abused by IS to Germany.
The program has garnered international interest and acclaim. Its most famous alumna is Nadia Murad, who
was captured by IS at age 19 and raped, beaten and tortured daily before she managed to escape. Following
treatment in Germany, she became the best-known voice for Yazidi women, telling their ordeal to the U.N.
Security Council and later being named a U.N. special ambassador.
But even Kizilhan acknowledges the program is only a partial measure, with so many others still needing
help.
"We are talking about general trauma, we are talking about collective trauma and we are talking about
genocide," said Kizilhan, 50, who is also a university professor and Mideast expert. "That's the reason we
have to help if we can — it's our human duty to help them."
That desire gave rise to the current project, establishing the new Institute of Psychotherapy and
Psychotraumatology at Dohuk University in cooperation with Germany's University of Tuebingen. It's a
relative bargain at 2.5 million euros, with around 1.5 million from Baden Wuerttemberg's regular budget to
get it started and the remaining funds still being sourced.
The idea is to train 30 new professionals over three years and to extend the program to other regional
universities, so that after 10 years there could be more than 1,000 psychotherapists in the region.
The students will receive a double masters degree in psychotherapy and psychotraumatology to German
standards, and training from both local and German professors. After some initial training, students will
start working with patients in clinics and camps to garner practical experience — and provide some
immediate help.
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/3af2849583f84580ba47fd6eb044b628/new-hope-yazidi-women-raped-andtortured-fighters
"They will be working in a practical position under supervision and this will be very helpful," said Nezar
Taib, Dohuk province's director of general health. "During their practice they can also treat, and this will
give the opportunity for more people to have access to psychotherapy and counseling."
The first class is made up of 17 women and 13 men, Muslims, Christians and Yazidis, with backgrounds in
psychology, nursing, social work and teaching.
Among those chosen, Naji Haji, himself a Yazidi who escaped from Sinjar, has an undergraduate degree in
psychology and has already been working in refugee camps for an NGO. He hopes the program will give
him the additional skills to help in complicated cases.
"We are seeing many people that were exposed to incidents of trauma — PTSD, depression and anxiety
cases," the 39-year-old said.
Galavej Jaafar Mohemmad, a Kurdish native of Dohuk, also has psychological training but wants more.
"Iraq has moved from one war to another war, but this time is the worst that has ever happened to humans
— that's why I want to help," the 45-year-old said. "Even for the women who have come back from Daesh,
Daesh has taken their kids, their husbands — they're free but they don't feel free."
___
There are some two dozen camps for internally displaced people in the Dohuk area.
Like the others, the Mamrashan IDP camp is crowded, with 5,353 people, primarily Yazidis, sharing 1,139
container homes. There's space for at least another 800 homes, but no money yet to build them.
Kizilhan strolls slowly along the main dirt road, followed by a gaggle of young children calling out
"Allmania, Allmania" — "Germany, Germany" — and flashing the peace sign. He and colleague Sebastian
Wolf, a psychologist affiliated with the University of Tuebingen, duck inside one container and sit down
cross-legged with three young boys.
Kizilhan translates as the oldest boy, Adham, tells how he and his family escaped the Islamic State in
November, but his fear remains.
"They beheaded someone in front of me in the market in Tal Afar," said the 14-year-old. "I passed out in
fear."
Soon his mother arrives with two other women, then two men, then another, and soon the small room is
packed. In all, 18 members of the family escaped while their Islamic State captors were busy fighting, led
on a desperate five-hour trek to Kurdish Peshmerga lines by Bashar, the boys' 23-year-old cousin.
"We had to take the chance," Bashar told the doctors. "It was either get killed, or be free."
The boys' two sisters are now living in Germany as part of Kizilhan's program; Bashar told the doctors he
also looks forward to receiving treatment himself.
"When you escape Daesh you haven't really escaped — you look around and think that they're still there,"
he said. "They beheaded people, they threw people from grain silos — what we didn't see with our own
eyes they showed us on video to make us scared."
After he leaves, Kizilhan makes a call to see if he can get Bashar some immediate help. If not, he said,
three students from the new program could be working in the camp as soon as May.
"He's totally traumatized," Kizilhan said. "He can't sleep, he's in constant fear and has panic attacks — he
needs urgent help, but he's a real hero; he ensured that his family escaped."
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/3af2849583f84580ba47fd6eb044b628/new-hope-yazidi-women-raped-andtortured-fighters
One major obstacle facing the doctors initially was getting people to open up. Even though women taken
by Islamic State were forced into sexual slavery, their plight was initially perceived as an affront to their
honor.
Kizilhan met with their religious leader, the Baba Sheikh, who agreed to officially accept the women back
into Yazidi society. The Baba Sheikh told The Associated Press that the decision was an easy one.
"What happened to the Yazidis has never happened to anyone, especially with the youngsters of 10, 12," he
said in an interview at the Yazidis' holy site of Lalish. "We had to do something."
___
In the Sharya camp, an older facility with some 17,000 people living in row after row of white canvas tents,
39-year-old Gorwe has just been visited by two sisters-in-law who are receiving treatment in Kizilhan's
program in Germany.
"They were as good as before Daesh," she said. "I'm not sure why, but I think the treatment has helped and
they have a better life in Germany."
However, for Gorwe herself, the ordeal is far from over. She said that for her, psychological treatment "is
no use."
"No matter how many doctors I see, I'll still have the same pain inside me," she said.
Twenty-four of her family members were taken by the Islamic State, including herself, and only 14 — all
women and children — have returned. The fate of the other 10, including her husband and four of her
children, is unknown.
Gorwe, who asked that her last name not be used out of fear that the Islamic State would harm her relatives
still in captivity, slowly and methodically tells of how the militants caught up with the group of three
families as they tried to escape in August 2014.
After stripping the family of their phones, cash and two cars, they separated the men from the women and
children.
She and her six children were taken to the city of Tal Afar, where her oldest daughter, then 15, was almost
immediately taken away from her.
"I don't know anything about her," she said. "All I heard is they took her to Syria."
She was reunited with two of her brothers-in-law, and they were all forced to say they had converted to
Islam and to work building houses and tending farms.
After several months, one day the militants came and separated the men and women and children, she
recalled, clutching her hands tightly in her lap as she talked.
IS fighters then began taking women with one or two children, and "distributing them to themselves."
"Then they came for me," she said.
They took her three oldest boys — aged 14, 12, and a 10-year-old with developmental and psychological
disabilities — and she tried to stop them.
"I said don't take him, he's crazy, and they said we are crazy too, and took him," she recalled, taking a deep
breath and closing her eyes at the memory.
"Because we tried to prevent them taking him, they beat us," she said, pausing. "They beat us a lot."
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/3af2849583f84580ba47fd6eb044b628/new-hope-yazidi-women-raped-andtortured-fighters
With her two remaining children, a boy, 5, and a girl, 7, she was taken along with about 200 other women
and children to an underground prison near the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa in Syria, then relocated
into a building.
About a month later, Gorwe said, she and group of 10 other women were taken away to an "underground
marketplace" where they were paraded in front of Islamic State fighters.
"It was filled with Daesh, they were sitting on chairs and it was like a fashion show, we had to walk among
them," she said. "When it was my turn I started walking. The sign was when one of them banged their feet
on the ground, that means he wants you. This man stamped his feet on the ground when I walked by, Abu
Nasser was his name, I believe he was from Saudi Arabia."
That began a months-long ordeal where she bought and sold "for work and sex" by a string of Islamic State
militants along with her two remaining children.
The final time, she said her captor — a local IS leader — sold them to a young man who drove up in a car
and seemed taken by her daughter.
"He said I like this girl, I like her hair, I'll buy her," she recalled. "He bought us all."
Once alone in his car, the man said he was working on behalf of her family and taking them to Abu Shujaa,
a Yazidi who had smuggled many people out of IS captivity. She said she thought it was just another IS
mind game.
"I thought I was going to be sold again," she said, then smiling slightly as she added: "Until I saw Abu
Shujaa."
That was Dec. 23, 2015. Since then, Gorwe said, not a day passes when she doesn't think about her
husband, daughter and missing boys. And the two children who did make it out are still "nervous all the
time and are very needy."
"I will never forget what happened to us as they were selling us and buying us and beating us, I think about
it all the time," she said. "Nobody can forget this genocide, but especially those who fell into their hands,
they will never forget. How could you forget?"
___
Follow David Rising on Twitter at — https://twitter.com/davidrising
SEE ALSO:
New trauma unit to help former Islamic State sex slaves [The Associated Press, 2017-02-22]