First Female Academy Graduate Dies in Iraq.
First Black West Point Commander Dies In Iraq
The nation is mourning the death of Lt. Emily Perez, 23, the first Black woman to serve as corps commander sergeant major at West Point . Perez, who graduated in the top 10 percent of her class, out-ran many men, directed a gospel choir, read the Bible every day. She also headed a weekly convoy as it rolled down treacherous roads, packed with bombs and bullets near Najaf , Iraq . As platoon leader, she ins isted on leading her troops from the front. She died Sept. 12 when a bomb detonated near her Humvee in Kifl, south of Baghdad . Shortly before shipping out to Iraq with the 204th Support Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, she flew cross-country to be a bone marrow donor for a stranger who was a match. She was the 64th woman from the U.S. military to be killed in Iraq or Afghanistan.
A celebrity is a widely-recognized or famous person who commands a high degree of public and media attention. While fame is generally considered a necessary precondition for celebrity status, it is not always sufficient. There has to be a level of public interest in the person, which may or may not be connected to the reason they are famous.
A public figure such as a politician or CEO may be famous, but they may not become a celebrity unless public and mass media interest is piqued. For example Virgin Director Richard Branson was famous as a CEO, but he did not become a celebrity until he attempted to circumnavigate the globe in a hot air balloon). On the other hand, mass entertainment personalities such as soap opera actors or country music stars are likely to become celebrities even if the person deliberately avoids media attention.
Generally, a hero is defined in mythology and legend, is a man, often of divine ancestry, who is endowed with great courage and strength, celebrated for his bold exploits, and favored by the gods.
Also, a person noted for feats of courage or nobility of purpose, especially one who has risked or sacrificed his or her life, as soldiers and nurses who are heroes in an unpopular war.
Today, too many celebrities are marketed as heroes.
Lt. Emily Perez was a real hero.
Labels: Black Female Officers.
posted by ichbinalj at 4:18 PM
4 Comments:
WEST POINT, New York (AP) -- The first member of West Point's "Class of 9/11" to die in combat was buried at the military academy Tuesday, two weeks after she was killed by a bomb at the head of a convoy in Iraq.
2nd Lt. Emily Perez, 23, was leading a platoon when a roadside bomb exploded September 12 south of Baghdad. She was the first female West Point graduate to die in Iraq and the highest-ranking black and Hispanic woman cadet in the school's history.
"She was like a little superwoman, so full of energy and life," said Meghan Venable-Thomas, a senior who was on the track team and in the gospel choir with Perez.
The academy's Class of 2005 is called the "Class of 9/11" because the 2001 terrorist attacks occurred just weeks into the students' freshman years.
"I think we all hoped it wouldn't happen," said class President James Freeze of the first death among the graduates, who numbered exactly 911. Half of the class remains on duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Perez was a Medical Service Corps officer assigned to the 204th Support Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 4th Infantry Division in Fort Hood, Texas.
Dozens of cadets watched as she was buried in the West Point Cemetery. After accepting the folded American flag from Perez's coffin, her mother leaned over, put her forehead on the casket and whispered.
Perez was fluent in German from growing up overseas. She also played the clarinet and helped start an AIDS ministry at her church. Before leaving for Iraq, she donated bone marrow to a stranger.
"One of the things important to Emily was not the fear of death, but the fear of not living," the Rev. E. Faith Bell said after the service.
THE PEPSI GENERATION versus MUSLIM MAYHEM.
Our soft and stupid culture is setting us up to be no match for these Muslim youth who are being wet nursed in Islamic death cults, being fueled with Muslim madness in a land with zero economic opportunity and are feasting feverishly on a steady diet of Anti-American disdain.
Yep, all things being equal, I believe they will eventually clean our kid’s clock if we don’t get a pro-American, kiss-my-butt attitude back into our warp and woof. These Muslim boys who currently reside across the sea (and some across your street) are not your normal young men.
This is sort of a problem for me. Why? Well, once again, Muslim young men dig jihad, and our youth love hair gel, teeth grills and blue jeans that are 17 sizes too big. Al Qaeda operative Maulana Inyadullah put it succinctly, “[Americans] love Pepsi, and we love death.” This is not some moody, PMS phase Islam is currently going through. This is their MO (modus operandi).
I believe that if we, as a nation (especially young adults), don’t toughen up a bit—and do it quick—that we’re not going to have the long-term stuff to cudgel off these persistent zealots. As I begin to stare at my 44-year mark and try to see down the road regarding the land my girls and their kids will inherit, I begin to shake like Shemp when he didn’t have any cheese at the real possibility of the end of this great American experiment.
I believe our increasingly effeminate culture doesn’t stand a long-term chance in hell against Muslim mayhem—unless we beef up a bunch and get back some of the now-endangered American resolve. And that goes for every American—whatever your politics, sexual bent and musical taste. If we don’t recognize and realign spiritually, physically and politically to stave off these death dealers, then within 50+/- years we will be another head on Muhammad’s trophy room wall.
Don’t believe me? Look across the pond. Europe is history as far as their heyday goes. With diminishing birth rates and a thinning of skin, it won’t be too long before the EU is Islam’s prison chick . . . mop head wig, lipstick and all. For a more in-depth and disturbing look into how Europe is cooked, get Mark Steyn’s latest book, America Alone.
Having run out of analogies, adjectives and time, let me put this to you in a song I wrote (to be sung to the tune of “Imagine,” by John Lennon).
Imagine there's no America
It's easy if you try
Just a big Muslim mess
No Stars and Stripes to fly
Imagine all our people
Living as Islamic slaves.
Imagine there's no Country and Western
It isn't hard to do
No baseball or hot dogs
as far a freedom goes, we’re screwed
Imagine all our pretty girls
wearing black little sheets.
You may say that I'm a doom-n-gloomer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll wake the heck up
And our nation will still be strong.
Imagine there’s no possessions
That’s the Muslim plan
No need for Ford or Chevy
A veritable Suckistan
Imagine all our people
Losing all we have.
You may say that I'm a doom-n-gloomer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll wake the heck up
And our nation will still be strong.
By Doug Giles
Nov 09, 20006 Washington Post
Capitol Hill Demographic Goes Slightly More Female.
No Racial Shift, But Minorities' Influence May Rise.
The House and Senate elections this week added at least five women to the next Congress, the only notable demographic shift in an otherwise dramatic political upheaval.
For the most part, Congress will remain dominated by white men. In terms of racial demographics, neither body will see a change in numbers, but the influence of minority leaders could increase: Five blacks and one Hispanic are in line for House committee chairmanships.
On the religious front, Democrats in Minnesota elected the House's first Muslim member.
The congressional black population will remain unchanged at 43, with three members leaving the House and three elected to the next Congress, all Democrats -- Yvette Clarke of New York, Keith Ellison of Minnesota and Henry "Hank" Johnson Jr. of Georgia. In Senate races, black candidates did not do well. Rep. Harold E. Ford Jr. (D-Tenn.) was defeated in his Senate bid, as was Maryland's Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) remains the only black Senate member.
Although for years Democrats and the black community pushed to recruit more African American candidates, there were no complaints yesterday about the status quo.
Myra L. Dandridge, a spokeswoman for the Congressional Black Caucus, said the elections had particular historical significance because "five members stand to chair five very powerful, prominent House committees." In addition, another member, Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.), is a contender for majority whip, the No. 3 position in the House.
"This demonstrates diversity among the ranks of the House leadership and mirrors how America looks," Dandridge said.
The number of Hispanic legislators remains unchanged, with 23 in the House and three in the Senate. Rep. Nydia M. Valazquez (D-N.Y.) is in line to be chairman of the House Small Business Committee.
"Of course, we're disappointed," said Arturo Vargas, executive director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials.
"The real issue for us is the need to field Latino candidates in non-majority Latino districts," he said. "We need to see that crossover, and we need the party to recognize viable Latinos. . . . For the most part Latinos in Congress are representing Latino majority districts. But the three senators show they can get elected statewide."
The elections added one Asian American member to the House, bringing the total to six, in addition to the two senators from Hawaii.
The elections also yielded several armed services veterans and an unusually large group of non-career politicians. Twenty of the new Democratic lawmakers come from a variety of professions -- including a sheriff, a college professor, a high school teacher, a football coach, a social worker and a chemist.
Women in Congress made a net gain of five seats, three in the House and two in the Senate, bringing the total to 86. At least eight new Democratic women and two Republican women were elected to the House, with the possibility of a few more in still unresolved races. Two female Senate victors -- Democrats Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota -- will bring the number in that body to 16.
Women's advocates were hoping for larger gains but were hampered by the loss of four Republican House seats held by women. Nonetheless, the Democratic victories showed that women generally run well as agents of change "because they are viewed as outsiders," said Deborah L. Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.
As far as having a legislative impact, Walsh said, "women do bring a different set of life experiences to policymaking. Women in both parties are more likely than men to focus on issues affecting women, families and children."
Deval Laurdine Patrick is First Black Governor of Massachusetts
Deval Laurdine Patrick (born July 31, 1956 in Chicago, Illinois is an American politician and the Governor-elect of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. On November 7, 2006 Patrick became the first African-American elected governor of Massachusetts, and only the second in United States history. He is scheduled to take office in January of 2007. Prior to entering politics, Patrick worked as an attorney and businessman. He and his wife Diane Patrick have lived in Milton, Massachusetts since 1989. They have two daughters, Sarah and Katherine.
Patrick was born on Chicago's South Side in 1956, into an African-American family living on welfare and residing in a two-bedroom tenement. His father Pat Patrick, a member of jazz musician Sun Ra's band.
After receving his J.D. from Harvard Law School, Patrick worked as a law clerk for Judge Stephen Reinhardt of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, then became an attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund in New York City. While working with LDF, Patrick met future President Bill Clinton, then serving as governor of Arkansas. Clinton was being sued over a voting rights case, and the two worked out a settlement.
In 1994, Clinton nominated Patrick to be Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. As an Assistant Attorney General, Patrick worked on a range of issues, including racial profiling, police misconduct, fair lending enforcement, human trafficking, and discrimination based on gender and disability. He led what was before 9/11 the largest federal criminal investigation in history as co-chair of the Task Force appointed to address arsons of Black churches and synagogues in the South. He also played a key role as an advisor to post-apartheid South Africa during this time and helped to create their civil rights laws.
Some gay rights activists have criticized him for his tenure on the United Airlines board. During this time, the company fought a San Francisco ordinance requiring companies to offer domestic partners benefits. Patrick encouraged UAL to offer domestic partner benefits to all employees, becoming the first airline to do so. Patrick contends that for a global company to comply with local employment ordinances in San Francisco would have set an unhelpful precedent.
In 2005, Patrick announced his candidacy for Governor of Massachusetts. He was at first seen as a dark horse candidate, facing veteran Massachusetts campaigners Tom Reilly and Chris Gabrielli in the Democratic primary. The Patrick campaign gained momentum at the Democratic State Caucuses, where it organized their supporters, many of whom had never been involved in such party processes before, to win twice as many pledged delegates as the Reilly campaign. Patrick went on to win the nomination, and faced Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey whom he defeated overwhelmingly in the November general election. Patrick has become the second elected African-American state governor in United States history, the first being Virginia State Governor Douglas Wilder who was elected in 1989, and the third African-American to serve as a United States state governor, the first being P. B. S. Pinchback, the Senate president pro tempore of Louisiana who ascended to the governorship of Louisiana after the death of Oscar Dunn in 1872.
Patrick opposes the death penalty, saying that "the death penalty does not work. It hasn’t worked in actually deterring crime, and it won’t work for Massachusetts. It’s disappointing to see the governor act like so many other politicians who choose this issue to score political points."[8] This position puts him at odds with Lt. Governor Kerry Healey who would "reinstate the death penalty for felons convicted of killing a law enforcement officer, judge, prosecutor or corrections officer.
Patrick believes immigration is a federal issue and has supported the McCain-Kennedy plan to both tighten border control and create "pathway[s] to citizenship" for immigrants who have established lives in America.[11] On the state level, he supports increased enforcement of employment laws to crack down on employers taking advantage of illegal immigrants, and opposes discrimination on the basis of immigration status for providing state services, including such things as public housing, in-state tuition for public universities, and driver's licenses.
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