tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36606917563401634692024-03-12T23:52:15.404-07:00Barnett - Great AmericansNed Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03061911547748210995noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3660691756340163469.post-73316648770836360872014-04-15T21:15:00.000-07:002014-04-15T21:15:26.313-07:00Monique Harris - A Great American Who's Saving "The Least of These"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">If
you ask Monique Harris how she came to found <a href="http://www.childrenfirst-nv.org/">Southern Nevada Children First</a>,
she’ll give you two answers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First, she’ll
tell you that her entire life has prepared her for this role.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And second, she’ll tell you that when her
dream for serving others was shattered by unexpected bureaucratic fiat, she
turned that crisis over to God. He opened the door to a new way she could serve
homeless and at-risk teen-aged girls – and their babies – rescuing them in ways
she’d never even imaged were possible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">However,
she’ll also tell you that founding and leading Southern Nevada Children First was
not what she had in mind for her life – not as a child growing up on the
streets of Los Angeles, not as a single mom putting herself through college,
and not as a young and inspired social worker looking to create a completely
different way of helping people.</span></div>
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What she won’t tell you is that, while this was never what she imagined for her
life’s work, she can’t imagine a more fulfilling path for herself, and for the
hundreds of young girls – and their babies – who she’s already helped.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Monique
Harris has an Associate’s Degree, a Bachelor’s Degree and a Masters of Social
Work Degree.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Educationally, she has all
the qualifications that a person in her position is expected to have.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, few people realize that she was well
into her adulthood – and that she was a single mother supporting herself and
her two children – before she put her mind into earning those degrees and
changing her life.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">She
grew up hard in the tough inner-city LA neighborhood of Inglewood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, she had two benefits many girls from
her neighborhood never had. First, she grew up in a two-parent home – though
her father was sometimes in jail – and after 61 years, her parents are still
married.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But Monique also had another
gift – a mother who was grounded in God’s Word, a woman of steadfast faith who
did all she could to set Monique on the right path.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For more than a decade, her mother might have
despaired that her efforts were “seeds that fell on rocky ground,” but in the
end, it turned out that Monique had listened to her mother, deep in her soul
where it really mattered.</span></div>
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Growing up, her father was very “street-oriented,” and while he did his best to
shelter his wife and daughter from that life, Monique’s brothers were more or
less brought into the “family business,” the in-the-streets way of life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a teen-ager, though she did finish high
school, Monique decided that her father’s and brother’s lifestyle was more
exciting than her mother’s. She got involved in a fast life, on the streets in
the wrong neighborhood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To her credit, she
tried college, but it didn’t take.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She
preferred street life, which included hanging out with guy who was to become
her husband. It also included all the excitement and drama of being a “baby
momma.”</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">She
didn’t wait long for that last thrill.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By
19, she was pregnant, and by 20, she was a new bride.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But her life as a wife and mother didn’t turn
out like a Walt Disney fairytale, and she’s still frustrated that it was only
after she got married that she learned her husband was addicted to cocaine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It took her years of marriage to finally
conclude that his love for cocaine outweighed his love for his wife or his
children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That was a bitter pill to
swallow.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br />
Her second child, a daughter who only recently turned 15, was born when Monique
was 25.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, just a year later,
after more than six years of trying to turn her husband around, she separated
from him to protect her children, and herself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Though separated, Monique and her husband stayed married for another
five years, while she continued to try to turn him around. All during that
time, she was a single mother, responsible for her kids, her mortgage note and
her future.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">With
her husband gone, that future was suddenly very important to her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She went back to college on her own dime, working
two jobs and “doing hair” on the weekends to help make ends meet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Against formidable odds, she finished her Associate
degree in child development and her Bachelor’s degree in youth social work. Then
she decided – with the final end of her marriage – that she needed a new
perspective.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She sold her house in LA,
moved to Las Vegas, and here she earned her Master’s Degree in Social Work –
her MSW. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">While
still in college, Monique began working with homeless teens. She was quickly
surprised to learn that most of these kids were not rebellious young punks
who’d run away from home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead, they
were victims – usually of their own parents – parents who, in most cases, had actually
driven their daughters out of the house and onto the streets. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">While
working on her Masters, Monique first ran into a population of girls – pregnant
and parenting teen agers – who, because of fears of liability issues, nobody seemed
to want to help.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With no one to help
them, these victims remained on the streets, the prey of drug dealers, pimps,
human traffickers and sexual slavers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Las Vegas – where “everything has a price” and where “what happens in
Vegas stays in Vegas” – was and remains a hotbed for the abuse of homeless teen-aged
girls.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br />
Monique couldn’t get those “babies having babies” out of her mind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were too close in experience to her own
life, and her compassion for them was only matched by her understanding of the
huge odds they faced.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Looking
back on that, and considering what she does now, Monique sees their risk
without blinders.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“</span><span style="color: #2f1311; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea;">On any given day in Clark
County Nevada, there are more than 300 unaccompanied homeless kids,” she
explained.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Many of these victims are pregnant,
or are already parenting their own babies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Homeless, without someone to guide them, care for them or provide for
them, they are extremely venerable to the lure of drugs and alcohol to numb
their pain. They are also forced to participate in survival sex and
prostitution, just to provide shelter, food and protection for themselves and
their babies. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many just choose to hide
their situation from others, hoping it will go away.”<br />
<br />
As she completed her MA, she saw this situation for what it is – not in the
depth of understanding she has today, but she saw it clearly enough to know
that she wanted to do something to make a difference in these at-risk young
girls’ lives.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Her
career path, following her MA, was drawn toward helping at-risk populations,
though not specifically young girls.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This changed when she connected with another lady in the community, who
was conducting a pilot program to pull at least a couple of kids’ lives
together, starting by giving them a place to live.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">With
her strong academic bent, and with her remarkable organizational skills, Monique
was more about policies and procedures than about hands-on helping these
kids.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As she helped her new friend, he’d
already decided on her life’s work – creating and managing a Foster Care agency
focused on troubled teens.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">All
she needed was Clark County’s certification of her Foster Care agency, and
she’d be ready to go.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">While
she waited on Clark County, she began helping her new friend, who was all about
helping at-risk kids. However, she had little money and no useful organizational
skills.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What she did have was a house
that she shared with several at-risk girls, where she served as a kind of “den
mother” or “big sister” to the girls she was helping. Soon she and Monique realized
that each complemented the other. Together, they set out to help at least some
of these kids.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Monique turned to
fund-raising and organizational management, while her partner focused on actually
hands-on helping these at-risk kids.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">After
three months, thanks to Monique’s fund-raising skills, they had three houses
filled with girls, and their babies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But
at that point, with no warning, Monique’s partner bailed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The pressures just became too much for
her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She just up and moved back to wherever
it was that she came from, abandoning the kids and leaving Monique with all the
bills, but with no program. She also left Monique with three houses filled with
girls and their babies. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Doing
her best to network for solutions, Monique quickly placed all but three girls
with other appropriate housing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Then,
her compassion trumping any potential liability issues, she took those three still-homeless
girls into her home – a home that already housed her own two children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a big risk in many ways, but it
worked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Remarkably,
one of these three girls remembered her new savior, from a time when Monique
had worked for a service agency.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
girl was a mother at sixteen – her baby’s father was her own mother’s
boyfriend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While her mom took her baby
to raise, she kicked her own daughter out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Living
on the streets, this girl was forced into prostitution. Then – having already
been an unwed mother and a street-walker, she’d been kicked back onto the
streets by her pimp because her feet bled so badly that she could no longer
“walk the street.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Desperate,
that scared little girl – who should have been worrying about prom dresses
instead of survival – had gone to a “Safe Place” business location. Then,
because it was part of her job at that time, Monique was called in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She “rescued” that girl from the Safe Place and
brought her to sheltered place to live during that moment of crisis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">While
Monique hadn’t remembered this particular girl, this girl remembered her “Angel.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Three
weeks after taking these girls into her home, Monique got the letter she’d been
waiting for.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, instead of
approving her Foster Care agency, Clark County had turned down her request.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They said she could be a Foster Care mom, but
despite her training and organizational skills, she could not run a new Foster
Care organization.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was a stunning,
callous reversal that shattered her dreams and destroyed the life-plans she’d so
carefully crafted.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Devastated,
and after a week of unimaginable turmoil, Monique turned this situation over to
God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“You
don’t want me to follow this path,” she told God, “but you want me to do
something else.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Trusting
that her answer would come, Monique took a frightening leap of faith – she put
her entire $10,000 retirement fund into a bank account, waiting on God to show
her where to put it to work helping others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
rest, as they say, is history. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Starting
in 2007 with her $10,000 retirement fund as seed money, Monique Harris built an
organization to rescue homeless young girls and their babies that, in 2013, was
funded at the $1.5 million dollar level.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Because of Nevada’s 2001 “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Right to
Shelter Law</i>,” the state helped to fund services to homeless kids – and
their babies, providing some foundational funding. However, it took all of
Monique’s skills and determination to seek out additional funding – not easy
for a new non-profit, especially during the worst economic collapse since the
Great Depression, but she managed.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“I
know why God led me in this direction,” she explains.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“The household environment I grew up in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My father was in and out of jail, and
currently, he’s on probation – in all those years, he still hasn’t turned his
life around.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We lived in a world of
drugs, violence, and sexual abuse, and while he tried to protect me, the siren
song of the street was too strong, at least at first. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br />
“With him as my role model, I grew up hard on the streets. I’ve been there, and
I know what life on the streets can be life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This is why I understand the girls – I have lived the life they do now.
The only difference between me and the girls my organization rescues is that in
my home, I had a support system – my mother.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“A
strong woman with a strong faith, she’s grounded in the Word, and has lived her
life with a strong relationship with God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As a child, she had been abused and neglected, and as she grew up, she
swore she’d never do that to her kids.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That commitment is what saved me from a path with no good ending. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br />
“My mother’s love and example helped me to develop a nurturing spirit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know the value of a support system, and
that’s why I created Southern Nevada Children First.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The Facts and Stats</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Monique
Harris<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b>holds a Bachelor of Arts
degree in Social Work, focusing on the Non-Profit Sector, as well as a Master’s
Degree in Social Work (MSW). She also holds several professional certifications,
including:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Youth</span></i><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Agency Administration</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Model Approaches to Partnership and Parenting</span></i><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Parent Resources</span></i><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">for
Information Development and Education</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">For
more than 17 years, she has worked for organizations, in many roles, but all
providing services to underserved and disadvantaged populations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She continues to work closely with Children
and Family Services, acting as a Foster Parent, a Child and Family Advocate,
and a Community Liaison. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Her
professional experiences also included providing wraparound services, case
management, community outreach and mentoring.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Ned Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03061911547748210995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3660691756340163469.post-61179393170129751272014-02-05T14:24:00.000-08:002014-02-05T14:24:13.315-08:00Great American - Founder of Great American Business <div style="text-align: center;">
<b> A Titan of the PR Field - A Man Who Put Ethics Into PR - Was a Great American</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
By Ned Barnett</div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGaGdh6n9t3yu_JnKawGWFFNPW1FBewQdoyi9vIX1e47cRNR-ovNsG_akuiocHuT9EedA8IKstFHE-fdxC5MzksEclrpi_ngXOQESYVuHMrqS4wffbnNFVGXacTd-pT8yVqy_OVywKKvwF/s1600/Daniel+Edelman.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGaGdh6n9t3yu_JnKawGWFFNPW1FBewQdoyi9vIX1e47cRNR-ovNsG_akuiocHuT9EedA8IKstFHE-fdxC5MzksEclrpi_ngXOQESYVuHMrqS4wffbnNFVGXacTd-pT8yVqy_OVywKKvwF/s1600/Daniel+Edelman.png" height="320" width="295" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>This blog was originally published in the trade journal <a href="http://www.prnewsonline.com/water-cooler/2013/01/17/recalling-daniel-edelman-4-lessons-learned-from-a-pr-titan/">PR News</a> </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>as a memorial to a great man</i></div>
<br />
Daniel J. Edelman, founder of one of the world’s largest PR agencies,
died on January 15, 2013 at age 92. He left a profound legacy for our industry,
among his clients, employees—and even among his competitors.<br />
<br />
I never met Daniel Edelman, but I competed against him for clients,
and—by doing so—I learned a number of valuable lessons. We went
head-to-head for clients when I was a partner with America’s largest
healthcare-only agency; and again, when I was an exec with the Silicon
Valley subsidiary of Fleishman-Hillard. I always made it a point to
“know” the competition, and through time, I came to feel as if I knew
the man.<br />
<br />
Here are some of Daniel Edelman’s lessons. They’ve never let me down.<b><br />
</b><br />
<ol>
<li>
<b>Integrity:</b> Daniel Edelman was known for integrity. In our
business, which many feel is lacking in that essential commodity, he
demonstrated that integrity was not only the “right thing to do,” it was
also a sound business investment. The first time I went up against his
agency, my biggest initial challenge involved proving that my agency had
the same high standards of integrity that Edelman was known for.<br />
<br />
</li>
<li>
<b>Involvement:</b> In trying to land Edelman clients, or when
trying to out-compete Edelman for prospective clients, I learned very
quickly that Daniel Edelman knew the value of personal involvement. No
matter how big Edelman had become, he was not “too important” to meet
face-to-face with clients or prospects, even ones who weren’t (yet)
Fortune 500 clients. He had name-brand recognition, to be sure, but he
brought more than his name to those meetings, including a keen creative
insight which never failed to impress clients and prospects.<br />
<br />
</li>
<li>
<b>Bottom-Line Creativity:</b> I never saw an Edelman PR campaign
that didn’t reflect the distinctive bottom-line strategic and tactical
creativity that Daniel Edelman and his company brought to the table. In
my experience, he never focused on ephemeral measurements, such as Ad
Equivalency, when he could instead point to sales or other more
substantive business measurements.<br />
<br />
</li>
<li>
<b>Billing:</b> In addition to serving his clients, Daniel
Edelman knew how to create profit for himself, as well as his clients.
For instance, while he often met with his clients—generally for
strategic creative sessions where his immense expertise added real
value—he never traveled alone. He brought his team of senior agency
execs, men and women who understood the client’s needs, and each of them
legitimately billed for their time. Until I first tried to wrest a
client from his agency, I’d never heard of a thousand-dollar-an-hour
meeting. Yet the Edelman clients I knew had no qualms about this
seemingly astronomic figure, because they always received real and
perceived value from these meetings. Following his example, I now bring
my team, rather than trying to represent them, and I’ve found that my
clients also appreciate this added depth this.<br />
</li>
</ol>
<b>Bottom</b><strong> line:</strong> Daniel J. Edelman is gone, but
his legacy will continue to shape the PR field in ways that go far
beyond the agency he created. Ned Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03061911547748210995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3660691756340163469.post-86337765450851032592014-02-05T14:16:00.000-08:002014-02-05T14:16:00.676-08:00Three Great Americans and the Mexican War <h3 class="post-title" style="text-align: center;">
Sam Colt, Eli Whitney, Captain Sam Walker - Three Great Americans Create A War-Winning New Technology - And Change History</h3>
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By Ned Barnett<span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></div>
<span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></div>
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Three Great Americans - strangers to one another - came together to create a new technology which helped America win a war ... and to change history. In the process, they also pioneered a new approach to creating weapons of war for the US Military that remains successful to this day - helping to preserve our Freedom and the American Way of Life. </div>
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It's a fascinating story ...<br /><br />As
he was preparing to retire from public life, President Dwight
Eisenhower famously warned America against the growing power and
influence of the “Military-Industrial Complex.” As the General of the
Army who defeated Hitler and oversaw the creation of NATO, then as the
President who faced down the newly nuclear-armed Soviets for eight long
years, Ike knew something about the Military-Industrial Complex.</div>
<div>
<br />However,
most of his audience – the American people – assumed that this
Military-Industrial Complex was something new, and dangerous.
After all, that’s what the 50s were about – things that were new, and
dangerous. H-Bombs. Sputnik. Polaris submarines. Jet bombers and
ICBMs. All new, all dangerous.<br /><br />In fact, the Military-Industrial Complex began more than
100 years before Eisenhower was elected President, and indirectly, we
owe this all to a man more famous for inventing the cotton gin, Eli
Whitney – and more directly, to a former Texas Ranger. We also owe it to the man for whom it was written, "God Made Man, But Sam Colt Made Men Equal."<br /><br />As a young
man, Eli Whitney came up with the idea of manufacturing interchangeable
parts, and applied that to the production of muskets for the U.S. Army.
Before Whitney’s innovation, muskets were hand-made. When a part
broke, a skilled gunsmith had to make and carefully fit a replacement
part. Whitney changed all that – and started the idea of a production
line, which was perfected a century later by Henry Ford.<br /><br />Whitney
died in 1820, but he left a legacy of innovation and a family interest
in the manufacture of precision firearms. In this way, he laid the
groundwork for the salvation of a bankrupt inventor, and the creation of
what we now know as the Military Industrial Complex.<br /><br />In the
early 1830s, inventor Samuel Colt perfected the first practical revolver
– a five-shot weapon named the Paterson, after the town in New Jersey
where Colt made these handguns. They first became popular in the
mid-1830s when US officers fighting in the Seminole War in Florida
bought them to replace cumbersome Army-issued single-shot muzzle-loading pistols that
were little different from what George Washington had used 60 years
before. <br /><br />It wasn’t long after the Seminole war before the Colt
Paterson was adopted by the Texas Rangers – not officially, but again,
individual Rangers gladly bought them out of pocket. They knew it was
worth a man’s life to have firepower close at hand, and a brace of
Colt’s revolvers could replace ten single-shot pistols. </div>
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In 1844, in
what became the legendary Hays Fight, a skirmish that included Seminole
War veteran Samuel H. Walker, 15 Texas Rangers defeated an 80-warrior
Comanche War Party in a stand-up fight – in Walker’s words, “… killing
& wounding about half of them. With improvements, I think the Colt
revolvers can be rendered the most perfect weapon in the world.”<br /><br />When
the Mexican War broke out two years later, Walker was mustered into the
Army as a Captain, and set out to recruit a unit of Dragoons – men who
rode into combat on horseback, but who – unlike the cavalry, who fought
on horseback – dismounted to fight. Having carried his
personal Paterson Colt into war in Florida and into countless skirmishes
in Texas, Captain Walker wanted his men to be armed with this new
innovation. Walker scoured the countryside for privately owned Paterson
Colts – there were few to be had – and he also contacted their
inventor, Sam Colt, asking for more. But in 1842, Sam Colt had gone
belly-up. He’d never stopped designing improvements for his Paterson
Colt, but having seen his company go into bankruptcy, he was in no position to manufacture them. <br /><br />A little
thing like bankruptcy wasn’t about to stop Captain Walker, however, and Colt was
more than happy to encourage him. Still, there was this little problem
of no money – and no factory. <br /><br />Enter Eli Whitney, Jr., son of
the inventor of the cotton gin and the first man to mass-produce
firearms. For “a consideration,” Whitney agreed to front Colt the money
to get him back into business. He also agreed to provide Colt a corner of Whitney’s
factory production line in Whitneyville, Connecticut. That line was busy
making muskets for the Army – there was, after all, a war on – but the
factory was not too busy to also manufacture Colt’s revolvers. So the
famous “Whitneyville-Walker Colt – officially the US Model 1847 – was
born. This was the first repeating handgun purchased by Army Ordnance,
and it was revolutionary. In the years to come, Colt kept instituting
improvements, until – by 1860 – his Army revolver had become the
standard U.S. Army sidearm, one widely used by both sides in the US
Civil War.<br /><br />The Whitneyville Walker Colt,known to the Army as the Model 1847, was a massive handgun – the largest ever made for the
US Army. It tipped the scales at 4 pounds, 9 ounces. This revolutionary revolver was a five-shot
weapon that fired a .44 caliber lead ball, propelled by 220 grains of
black powder. It had a mule-kick that even “Dirty Harry” would love. A
contemporary Army report on a test of the Colt revolver said that the
Model 1847 was “as effective as a common rifle at one hundred yards, and
superior to a musket even at two hundred.” This was at a time when the
standard military musket was never fired at ranges beyond 60 yards, and
then only in volleys, since muskets - which lacked rifling - could not be
aimed – at any range.<br /><br />The government ordered 1,000 of Colt’s
Model 1847 at $25 a revolver, plus another $3 for matching powder
flasks. Colt actually made 1,100 of these handguns, using the other 100
as VIP gifts. These were presented to the President, senior members of
Congress, the Secretary of War and other influential men of the times.
Colt knew how to keep the orders coming – and except for laxer laws
about gifts to officials, he did nothing different than today’s K-Street
bandits do every day of the week for their MIC clients.<br /><br />Here’s
how these remarkably innovative Model 1847s worked in combat. A unit of
Dragoons – roughly 100 men – would ride on horseback up to within
roughly 100 yards of a Mexican Army unit, then dismount. That 100-yard
distance was the effective aimed-fire range of the Whitneyville-Walker
Colt. The force they’d attack, a Mexican Army Regiment - would be generally from five to ten times
as large as the Dragoon unit, roughly 500 to 1,000 well-trained and
courageous Mexican soldiers. </div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
These enemies were a formidable force,
since at that time, the Mexican Army was world-class in every respect.
It was a classic “Napoleonic” army of hard-marching, hard-fighting
professional soldiers, trained up in the traditional European
“continental” system of fighting. However, the Mexican Army had one
critical drawback – one shared with all armies of the time. They used a
smooth-bore musket with an effective range of just 60 yards – and at
that range, these muskets couldn’t be aimed, but only volley-fired.<br /><br />However,
the Colt could accurately fire aimed shots out to 100 yards.
Approaching the enemy, the dismounted Dragoons would take careful aim
and fire five quick shots per revolver, then mount up and withdraw – and
reload. Since Dragoons often carried two revolvers per man, this meant
they could loose 10 aimed shots in a matter of seconds. But because the
Mexicans were out of range for their own weapons, those brave soldiers
could either “take it,” or they could fix bayonets and charge, hoping to
cross 40 yards of ground, then form up and volley-fire before the Americans
pulled back. They were brave, and they usually charged – however, in full
gear, they could never charge fast enough to catch the Americans.<br /><br />To
reload the Whitneyville-Walker Colt, the entire cylinder could be
easily removed from the gun’s frame. This meant – if the Dragoons had
several pre-loaded cylinders per revolver – that the entire unit could
reload their two-per-man weapons in about a minute, then ride back into
battle. However, reloading the five cylinders took a trained man less than two minutes, so either way, they'd soon be back in the fight. Again, they’d stop 100 yards out from the winded and
increasingly demoralized Mexican soldiers, fire their quick five or 10
rounds of aimed fire, then again withdraw to reload their cylinders. As
long as their powder and cast-lead bullets held out, those Dragoons
could keep this up indefinitely – without risk of injury to themselves –
but with deadly impact on the Mexican soldiers.<br /><br />That is why
Captain Walker so desperately wanted those Colt revolvers for his
Dragoons. These five-shot revolvers were the first example of firepower
being used as a “force multiplier” – a common concept today, but one
totally unknown before 1846.</div>
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<br />This revolutionary weapon was only possible because three strangers came together for a common cause. Eli Whitney Jr. continued his father's course as an inventor and industrialist, a pioneer in manufacturing of goods both civil and military. And Sam Colt went on to lead a revolution in what both soldiers and civilians could do to protect themselves from the hostility of others.</div>
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</div>
<div>
However, there’s a sad footnote to this
story: Captain Sam Walker died in combat before the revolver that bore
his name could be delivered to his unit. Yet Captain Walker lived long
enough to create a dual legacy – he re-launched Colt Patent Firearms
Company, which still makes precision firearms for the US Army today, and
he served as midwife to the birth of the Military-Industrial Complex. </div>
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</div>
<div>
And despite President Eisenhower's sage warning, this ability of Americans to produce the weapons they need won for us the Cold War, and allows us to remain as the sole world superpower, a force for good around the world.</div>
</div>
Ned Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03061911547748210995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3660691756340163469.post-40641693066021223832014-02-05T13:42:00.000-08:002014-02-05T13:42:08.685-08:00Dr. Soheila Rostami – Great American Success Story<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><b> A Refugee From Oppression Is a Role Model For the American Dream</b> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> By Ned Barnett</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0o0L8EO5OA2QAddUeaqVXQEWWqIJh7-SezhH2WtuhDJIgIdRkulIdu3HitILHPo1RYpQ-wuAebUgu0BWiLUdBmTv4ZV8szoqkKKT_XJod4S2aFYGCfUD2q_SGExCjOh1hkfDGwlQMtxkO/s1600/Dr.+Soheila+Rostami.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0o0L8EO5OA2QAddUeaqVXQEWWqIJh7-SezhH2WtuhDJIgIdRkulIdu3HitILHPo1RYpQ-wuAebUgu0BWiLUdBmTv4ZV8szoqkKKT_XJod4S2aFYGCfUD2q_SGExCjOh1hkfDGwlQMtxkO/s1600/Dr.+Soheila+Rostami.jpg" height="320" width="255" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">America is a nation of immigrants, a
nation built by people who fled oppression – political, economic, religious,
ethnic or social – and came to America to build a new and better life … and
along the way, to help build a newer and better America.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Our nation traces its colonial roots
first to the Pilgrims who fled religious oppression to come to America, and
carve a new country out of the wilderness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In turn, they were followed by others who came here to escape religious
or economic conditions in their homeland that kept them from creating the kind
of life they’d dreamed of.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Catholics
fled from Protestant England to help create the Maryland colony. Quakers fled
the established Church of England to help found Pennsylvania.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Huguenots fled Catholic France to help create
then-Dutch New Amsterdam (now New York) and New Jersey, and then a half-dozen
other colonies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Economic prisoners fled
debtors’ prison to help create the Georgia colony.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">This tradition remained strong after the
Revolution, as new waves of refugee immigrants came to America, fleeing
political, religious, ethnic or economic oppression from all over Europe, and
then later from Asia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Following each of
the world wars of the 20<sup>th</sup> century, oppressed minorities migrated to
America to create a new life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jews
fleeing pogroms of the late 19<sup>th</sup> century, and the aftermath of
Hitler’s “Final Solution” flocked to America, as did those who fled Communist
oppression beginning with White Russians and continuing until the fall of the
Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact – and they continue to flee from Cuba to this
day.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">This is a tribute to a more recent
fugitive from oppression, a remarkable woman – Dr. Soheila Rostami – who, as a
teen-aged girl, risked everything she had, including her life, to flee her
country. She came to an America still suspicious of “Iranians,” seeking only the
right to pursue a higher education, and the right to build a life based on
freedom for her, and for the children she planned to have one day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">While all refugees face hardships, few
faced more difficulty than those fleeing from religious and social oppression
in the Iran of the Ayatollahs.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Those like this young woman, refugees
coming to America from Iran, took greater risks, and faced stiffer obstacles,
than other refugees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Free-thinking
Iranians – those who chose to try and escape the oppression of the Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini and his Islamic extremists – the strict and fanatical Islamic
fundamentalists who replaced the Shah of Iran in the late 70s – not only had to
find a way of escaping a country sunk into oppression and fighting a bloody war
to the death with neighboring Iraq, but they had to come to a country which
wasn’t always welcoming them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">America had first abandoned the Shah –
opening the door to Khomeini’s revolution – then suffered humiliation during
the 444-day embassy hostage ordeal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That
crisis created ignorance, anger, humiliation and fear among Americans that unfairly
raised our collective suspicions about all Iranians.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">For that reason, many Iranian refugees
insisted on being called Persians, just to remove the “taint” of being known as
Iranians in their new adopted country.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">First, getting out wasn’t easy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the years after the fall of the Shah and
the rise of Khomeini and the Mullahs, Iran was largely surrounded by countries
that did not welcome refugees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
Soviet Union wanted nothing to do with people seeking freedom. Pakistan and
Afghanistan were Islamic nations, largely supportive of the new Iranian
leadership.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Iraq was at war with Iran,
and that border was not only closed, but the site of warfare that killed
millions on both sides.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Only Turkey
seemed to offer a safe haven, but getting to that nation’s remote border, and then
safely crossing the border, were both daunting challenges.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">It took a great desire for freedom, or a
great fear of oppression, to risk Turkey.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br />
Yet that is exactly what one young Iranian woman, Soheila Rostami, did, once it
became clear that she would be denied both an education and even basic human
rights, primarily because she was a young woman, and “too politically
active.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>During the reign of the Shah,
she attended private schools that mixed her education between English and
Farsi.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, the revolution occurred
while she was in middle school, and while she was in high school, and despite her
consistent top-of-her-class grades, it became clear that her desire to go to
university was to be blocked, because of her religious beliefs, her ideology
and gender – along with her belief that education should not be denied to
girls.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br />
With the help of her supportive parents, she fled Iran for Turkey, thinking
she’d go to college in Turkey.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Airports
were closed because of the war, and the road to Turkey was long, and
dangerous.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet the danger of the trip
was less than she feared the danger of staying might be.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In Turkey, she was lucky – it was akin
to winning the lottery – and she obtained a student visa to come to America to
study.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With that came the requirement
that, to stay in the country, she had to stay in school, which raised the issue
of Finance, and the near-impossibility of bringing funds out of Iran.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, she was offered a series of
scholarships to Howard University in Washington, based on her grades, which
were exceptional.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This took her through
her undergraduate years as well as her Medical School.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 1992, scholarships for students here in
America on student visas became a political football, and – in compliance with
changing regulations – she was only able to receive a half-scholarship, which
meant she had to support herself while going to Medical School – an difficult burden,
but one she was able to overcome.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Following medical school, she received
internships at Washington Hospital and at Howard, followed by a University of
Maryland Fellowship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>During her
residency, she not only scored top marks again, but during her term as Chief
Resident, she also gave birth to her son, Armon – she became a mother during
her last week of Residency, proving again that she had remarkable talents to do
what others deemed arduous.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Continuing with her work in medicine,
she first received her “green” card, allowing her to remain in the country, and
then to eventually become an American citizen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Along the way, she discovered that, while she loves the land of her
birth (though neither its leaders, nor their intense focus on fundamentalist
Islam), she loves America far more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“It’s a wonderful country,” she says,
“because of its freedom of speech and its freedom of ideology.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br />
To those who take America for granted, she says, “You don’t know what you have.
Be happy for what you have – it’s wonderful to be here, with no gun to your
head telling you what to do, or what to believe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But,” she adds, “You have to keep it that
way.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br />
She knows, because her birth-country once had those freedoms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“It is easy to lose those freedoms,” she
says, from experience.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br />
While she’s proud to be an American, she has neither turned her back on her
native country, nor its people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She is
on the board of a group, “Children of Persia,” which helps children in both
America and in Iran.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Despite the embargoes
against trading with Iran, those bans do not include humanitarian medical aid
to the children of Iran.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her group has a
license from the U.S. government to provide that aid, which has helped to
build, open and operate a children’s hospital in an impoverished part Iran.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“Helping children in poverty is not
‘helping the enemy,’ and the U.S. government agrees with and supports our
efforts to help children in need,” she explained.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">She also works with another
organization, one dedicated to helping girls in Iran between the ages of 13 and
21, “girls who are helpless and who have been taken advantage of.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">She believes that women are the key to
transforming the Middle East into modern and open cultures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Right now, in Iran, “half the population
there is treated like animals – it’s unbelievable to Americans raised in
freedom and equality, but it’s true.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You
have to wonder why the men do this – why they don’t have respect for their own
wives, their own daughters.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br />
The Middle Class still care about their daughters, but they’re leaving Iran, or
being forced out of the middle class.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The Working Class – who have been brainwashed by the government – don’t
have the same attitude toward their daughters, which is troubling and puzzling
to Dr. Rostami.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“We in Iran used to have the most
advanced culture in the Middle East. We had women judges, women doctors, women
in parliament.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, little by
little, women have been limited by what they’re allowed to do, and their rights
are evaporating.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br />
For instance, under the Islamic government, it takes the testimony of two women
to “prove” facts in court, but it only takes the testimony of one man to prove
the same thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So an assault against a
woman must be witnessed by another woman – who is brave enough to testify to
that fact – before any justice can be given.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“Women in Iran still fight for their
rights – but it’s an uphill fight against a downhill slide for the
country.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is why Dr. Rostami works
with causes that help those helpless girls and young women in Iran.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br />
She and her husband and her two sons are a tight family.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“We are trying to create a ‘community center’
within our family, to show our children their heritage and their culture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We wanted them to learn Farsi – our oldest
son has learned to speak but not read Farsi, but not our youngest son.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our sons right now are more interested in
being Americans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They face the problems
faced by millions of first generation immigrants, such as acceptance by
society, and “being American” helps them with that.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">As an American who’s proud of his own
immigrant roots, and who is proud of a country that welcomes refugees yearning
for freedom, I am proud to know Dr. Soheila Rostami, and I offer her example to
all those who value America’s freedoms too lightly.</span></div>
Ned Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03061911547748210995noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3660691756340163469.post-29936403009189910712014-02-05T13:36:00.000-08:002014-02-05T13:36:41.654-08:00A Great American - What would Joe Foss do? <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjrEOYUiMibpSGb9GI5tVVLt_sfMvOcva8wjLQ05EF7yoZVqcVfgzXidFrDTnFC7kKg7YM9P7QYKLNAKl7SGE8VkHYUd2DsIsf61EK0M4vqdOx6x28zTuw0wkKzMmSOlnS3g8sIeOUt_ZL/s1600/Joe+Foss+Fighter+Pilot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjrEOYUiMibpSGb9GI5tVVLt_sfMvOcva8wjLQ05EF7yoZVqcVfgzXidFrDTnFC7kKg7YM9P7QYKLNAKl7SGE8VkHYUd2DsIsf61EK0M4vqdOx6x28zTuw0wkKzMmSOlnS3g8sIeOUt_ZL/s1600/Joe+Foss+Fighter+Pilot.jpg" height="320" width="226" /></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz9tdDK35G6asZtfZmLB4b-Kiutik_KUsxdnSp-5uH-A9NDZfU_W_2sjXcWf62EFuGUYDxGIVHOJY5cVMsTUpVQF7fmRSCT7a42FIlrcLJpHHnpyhomob7QMKbZRljM8RHZwxAZAr38HhN/s1600/Joe+Foss+Hero.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz9tdDK35G6asZtfZmLB4b-Kiutik_KUsxdnSp-5uH-A9NDZfU_W_2sjXcWf62EFuGUYDxGIVHOJY5cVMsTUpVQF7fmRSCT7a42FIlrcLJpHHnpyhomob7QMKbZRljM8RHZwxAZAr38HhN/s1600/Joe+Foss+Hero.gif" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">One Of America's Greatest Fighter Pilots is Also One of Our Best Role Models</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br />Joe Foss was a poor kid from South Dakota, growing up in the Depression, when his dad died.<br /><br />He
had a dream, though - he'd met Charles Lindbergh in 1928 and seen a
Marine Fighter Squadron barnstorming through his neck of the prairie in
1930 - and that dream required college - a tough act for a poor orphaned
kid, but he managed to do it, earning both a bachelor of business
administration and a private pilot's license.<br /><br />His dream was to be
a Marine aviator - but in those pre-war days, the odds against even
qualified applicants were two in 100 - he hitchhiked 300 miles to
Minneapolis, took the test with 100 young men, and was one of the two.<br /><br />After
completing training and a 9-month tour as an instructor (something only
the best trainee pilots were assigned - and few liked) he was assigned
to an observation squadron (aka "target") in San Diego instead of a
fighter squadron - but he noticed that a lot of trainee aviators were
"buying the farm" - he went to the base commander (a Navy Commander who
hated Marines) and offered to trade duty as "funeral officer" for
stick-time in a fighter. In three months, he racked up more than 150
hours in a Wildcat - that was more than 3 hours per day for 47
consecutive days (all while fulfilling his assigned duties as an
observation-unit pilot AND funeral officer).<br /><br />As the only
carrier-qualified Marine aviator in San Diego, he was named Exec of a
squadron about to sail into combat, even thought many thought of him as
"the old man" - too old for fighter combat (he was 27 - average age of
new fighter pilots, 23).<br /><br />His first combat mission over
Guadalcanal he had his engine shot out and made a "hot" dead-stick
landing - but only after he'd shot down the first of many deadly
Japanese Zeroes to fall under his guns.<br /><br />The fourth time he was
shot down, he realized that "one more and I'll be a Japanese Ace" - but
by that time he'd shot down something like 19 confirmed first-line
Japanese planes (mostly Zeros, piloted by the cream of the best in the
Imperial Japanese Air Force - the Tainan Wing).<br /><br />One time, after
downing three or four Japanese fighters, combat damage to his engine
forced him to ditch his Wildcat two miles of the beach of Malaita Island
(about 50 or so miles from Guadalcanal). The plane sank fast, his foot
caught in his seat, and before he knew it, he was 30 feet under and
"breathing" seawater. Convinced he was going to die, instead of
panicking, he calmed himself, figured out how to free himself and used
his Mae West life preserver to get him back to the surface (breathing
more seawater along the way). To tired to swim, he decided to float on
his back until his strength came back - until he saw a couple of
shark-fins. Then he saw a couple of canoes - convinced they were Japs
looking for him, he decided to "face down" the sharks - until he heard
an Australian voice and surfaced again. The next day, Major Mad Jack
Cramm - the personal pilot to the Marine Air Commander (General Geiger) -
taxied his PBY Catalina right up onto the beach to retrieve Foss - and
two days later, he was back in combat, shooting down a couple more
Japanese fighters in the process.<br /><br />He finished his tour of duty
with 26 confirmed kills - tying Eddie Rickenbacker (WW-I American Ace of
Aces) - but unlike some self-centered Aces, Foss led a unit that fought
with him - together with Foss, his flight (Foss's Flying Circus) shot
down 72 confirmed enemies - literally all of those young-buck
grass-green fighter pilots he'd brought into combat (except the two who
didn't survive) became aces in their own right under Foss's masterful
training and leadership. Aces like von Richthofen often couldn't
remember the names of their wingmen - Foss made medal-bedecked aces of
them.<br /><br />His technique was simple - he flew so close to the enemy
that he couldn't miss (of course, they couldn't, either, which is why he
was nearly a Japanese ace, too) - his flight-members used to joke that
he'd leave "powder burns" on his targets by holding fire until he was in
slow-pitch softball range of his enemy. The results - 26 confirmed
kills leading a team of eight "novice" pilots that together scored 72
confirmed kills - speak for themselves.<br /><br />Amazingly, Foss did all
this while flying a plane considered obsolete even before the war began
(the F4F Wildcat was slower in level flight, slower in the climb and
much less maneuverable than the Zero - it also had much less range). He
was the highest-scoring ace in Marine history, and won the
Congressional Medal of Honor - the highest award available to American
servicemen (most who earn it do so posthumously).<br /><br />After the war, a
bureaucratic bungle denied him a "Regular" commission in the Marines -
so he founded the South Dakota Air National Guard. He served in the
regular Air Force in Korea, and retired a Brigadier General.<br /><br />Retiring
from the Guard, he became the Governor of South Dakota, the
Commissioner of the American Football League, the host of two TV
programs (running, together, for about 10 years) and - late in life (as
in, during his 70s) he became President of the National Rifle
Association.<br /><br />At age 87, airport "security" in Phoenix (this was
after 9/11) tried to stop him from boarding a plane for a flight to New
York (where he was scheduled to address the Cadets at West Point) for
carrying a "dangerous weapon" - the five-pointed star of his
Congressional Medal of Honor.<br /><br />What would Joe Foss do? Apparently, he laughed it off (I understand he actually let the idiot security guard live).<br /><br />Now,
when I'm in a tough spot, I ask myself, "what would Joe Foss do?"
(hint - move in close before opening fire - never give up - never slow
down - and never take "no" for an answer).
Ned Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03061911547748210995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3660691756340163469.post-39803697335226683752014-02-05T13:29:00.000-08:002014-02-05T13:29:11.380-08:00A Great American - Rehabilitating General-and-President Grant's Image <h3 class="post-title">
</h3>
<div class="post-body">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Our Most Misunderstood President Was Also One of Our Greatest Americans</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
By Ned Barnett </div>
<div>
<br />Recently, I got into two
unconnected discussions about Ulysses S. Grant, the first Lieutenant
General in the US Army after George Washington, and the 18th President
of the United States - and I've concluded that Grant has an image
problem - a PR challenge for the ages. First, I'll give a lot of
background (if you don't have the background, you won't be able to think
about solutions), then I'll ask you to consider how Grant's image could
be rehabilitated through PR.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">
***</div>
<br />As a General, many 20th
and 21st century historians consider Grant a "butcher" for the way he
won the Civil War, though the facts don't bear this out. As a
President, Grant has often been considered both ineffectual as a leader
and an amiable dupe of a group of corrupt men who stole the country
blind while Grant presided in serene ignorance of their perfidy. Again,
however, the facts don't bear this out.<br /><br />Both of these charges were, in my opinion, politically motivated <span style="font-weight: bold;">during Grant's lifetime</span>
for short-term political advantage by those who would attack his
presidency, or by Confederates "smarting" over the way this uncouth
commoner could have consistently whipped that epitome of the
aristocratic Southern Gentleman, Robert E. Lee. More later on how and
why latter-day historians came to the same unsubstantiated conclusions.<br /><br />In
the bloodiest war in US history, General Grant was remarkably
economical of his soldiers' lives, and he felt their loss keenly (he was
also "economical" of his enemies' lives - eager to end the war before
more Americans from either side had to die). Grant fought but one battle
where loss of life was excessive and preventable, and he never forgot
that horror - or those bitter lessons - of Cold Harbor. Still, fewer
soldiers died at Cold Harbor than died in Lee's last throw of the dice
at Gettysburg (Pickett's Charge) or at Lee's own successful charge on
Malvern Hill during the Peninsula (Seven Days) campaign. And of course,
Lee presided over Antietam (or, to the South, the battle of Sharpsburg)
- the bloodiest one day in American History. <br /><br />Both of these
great men felt their losses deeply, but in the cauldron of war, it was
inevitable that each would have made mistakes that cost mens' lives. It
is instructive that while Lee had relatively few of those awful days -
Grant had only one day of disastrous casualties. Yet it is Lee who is
remembered for the care in which he husbanded his troops - perhaps
because he was more public with his feelings - while the more stoic but
no less feeling Grant is unjustly smeared with the title "Butcher."<br /><br />Lincoln,
who deeply felt each American death (North and South), respected Grant
as he respected no other man - and Lincoln was personally unable to
support any man who was a "butcher." Once, when Grant's opponents in the
war department snivelingly came to Lincoln claiming that Grant was a
drunk (a calumny based on a bout of depression Grant experienced in the
mid-1850s while he was in California in Army service, forced to be
separated for years from his wife and children), Lincoln said, in
effect, "What brand does he drink? I want to send a case to every one of
my Generals." <br /><br />While Grant was leading the Union Army during the
last two years of the war, Lincoln was - along with Grant's home-town
Congressman and friend, Elihu Washburn - Grant's strongest advocate.
Lincoln was shrewd judge of character - he defended those, like Grant,
who had the highest personal integrity, coupled with military
effectiveness. And that support from Lincoln says more than anything
else about Grant the man, and about Grant the General.<br /><br />As a
peacemaker, there was no-one more generous than Grant. For example,
when Lee surrendered, Grant immediately ordered that Lee's men be fed
from the Union's own stock of rations (not the typical action of a
bloodthirsty conqueror). Further, out of respect, he ordered that
Confederate officers - rather than going to prison for treason and
rebellion - could keep their swords and sidearms (and their
self-respect), and that all Confederates - regardless of their rank -
could take their horses and mules home to facilitate the Spring
planting. <br /><br />Finally, in that surrender document, Grant
specifically forbade the US government from arresting or prosecuting any
surrendered Confederate for his role in the war, with that amnesty
remaining in force for as long as that Confederate abided by the terms
of the surrender (basically, to not take up arms and fight the American
government anymore). This latter provision tied the hands of those in
Washington who wanted to try and execute General Lee, at the very least.<br /><br />As
a President, Grant brought to an end the shameful "reconstruction" era
in the South, and insisted that Southerners were once again Americans,
with all the rights, privileges and obligations of American citizens. He
was also the first president to specifically (and deeply) care about
the fate of the Indians in America - he took positive steps to stop the
war on the plains and bring an honorable peace between settlers and
Indians, and to ensure their long-term protection of (and role in)
America. <br /><br />This wasn't a "new" position - on Grant's wartime
staff, at a very high level, was an officer who was a full-blooded
Native American - a man Grant treated as he did every other officer on
his staff. This at a time when there was not only strong racial
prejudice against Indians, but also at a time when the only Indians
formally participating in the Civil War were Cherokees fighting on
behalf of the Confederacy against the Union in the "trans-Mississippi"
theater of operations (Arkansas, Missouri, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoman
Territory). <br /><br />Grant was equally concerned with the fates of
former slaves, putting the full force of the Federal Government
(including the Army) behind ensuring that these men, women and children
had the rights of American citizens, fighting the rising tide that led,
shortly after Grant's death, to the widespread adoption of Jim Crow
laws. He had been one of the first (and relatively few) Union advocates
of enlisting and arming "contrabands" - former slaves - during the war,
and giving them the same status as white soldiers. This might seem all
the more remarkable because Grant was no abolitionist and had even
(briefly) owned a few slaves - gifts from his father-in-law, who was a
prominent Missouri slave-holder. It's my personal belief that Grant's
brief and painful experience owning another human being turned him
against slavery and reinforced his view that all men were equal before
God and should be equal before the bar of justice.<br /><br />Grant did much
that was good as President - so much so that he had to actively refuse a
"draft" to make him the first American president to serve three
consecutive terms (and if he'd accepted this draft, he would have won
hands-down - he was that popular). He was also courted to run again
after his successor's first term as President, and would have won had he
run. In short, his fellow citizens - North and South - honored him
despite the scandals (common to all Administrations in the era between
Andrew Johnson and William McKinley) that never touched him. Nobody who
knew him questioned his integrity - his biggest flaw was that he trusted
men who'd once proved trustworthy, but who (tempted by money or power -
usually money) had failed to live up to that trust. That is hardly the
worst sin a sitting American President has committed.<br /><br />Grant was a
man of immense integrity and deep personal responsibility. Upon
learning that he had throat cancer - the byproduct of his habit of
smoking a dozen or more cigars every day - and knowing that he wouldn't
be there to support his beloved Julia, Grant set out to write his
autobiography, something his natural modesty had kept him from doing
until necessity over-rode humility. It was and is one of the most honest
and objective (and remarkably well-written) autobiographies I've ever
encountered - certainly it stands head and shoulders above the rest of
the General officers' autobiographies coming out of the Civil War. <br /><br />To
make this book happen, a Missourian and Southern sympathizer (though
not a combatant) named Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) created a publishing
company and borrowed against everything he owned to ensure the
publication of this remarkable work - and he did this all long before a
word had even been written. If that book had failed, Clemens would have
been ruined - but thanks to the generous advance he had given to Grant,
Mrs. Grant would have been provided for even if the book failed -
though it turned out to be a huge best-seller. Grant finished this book
barely two days before he died, and that honest work of
self-exploration is a worthy monument to a great man's memory.<br /><br />When
Grant died, the largest parade in American' history was held, in New
York City, to honor his passing. This funeral parade was decades after
the Civil War, and more than a dozen years after Grant had last served
as President - yet Americans, including tens of thousands of Americans
not yet born when the Civil War ended, came out in unprecedented numbers
to honor his memory. Leading that parade in Manhattan was a group of
Confederate veterans - wearing the Gray one more time - honoring the man
who defeated them in battle, but who then treated them so honorably and
compassionately in victory that Grant stood higher in the minds of
these ex-Confedrates than many of their own Generals and leaders. <br /><br />When
Grant's autobiography came out, it became the best-selling book in
American history - except for the bible - which was and remains far and
away the best-seller in American history. The public, though Grant was
now beyond honoring, still poured out their love and regard for this
brave and great man by buying his book in record numbers. <br /><br />The
judgment by those who knew him during his lifetime - and the judgment of
the people he served and those who fought against him - was clear.
Grant was a great general, a President of no mean accomplishment, and a
man of the highest personal standards. Lincoln judged him the best man
in uniform on either side of the war, and Lincoln had been burnt so
often by his generals that he was not eager to praise any one of them.
The people judged him as a President worthy of an unprecedented third
term - and in death, long after he was out of the limelight, Grant was
again honored as no other President has been who was not assassinated in
office.<br /><br />It was only a generation after Grant's passing that
revisionist historians began to tarnish his name and reputation. They
were eager for something new to say, and as a result they were equally
eager to give life to the worst calumnies of Grant's contemporary
political opponents. Being academics, they were eager to "say something
new" so they could get published and earn tenure. For all the wrong
reasons, these men, who were not worthy to polish Grant's mud-stained
boots, began grinding away at this great man's reputation. With no
contemporaries left to defend Grant, with no academics "with a dog in
the fight" to dispute the lies, those lies stuck. <br /><br />Butcher. <br /><br />Failed President. <br /><br />Loser. <br /><br />Drunk. <br /><br />None
of these calumnies, of course, were true, but "dish" is generally more
salable than honesty and integrity. Fortunately, and more recently, yet
another generation of historians have looked at Grant - this time
through documents and statistics, and through the perceptions of those
who knew him best. In doing so, they have once again completely revised
"history's assessment" of Grant as General and as President, finding him
to be worthy of admiration rather than condemnation, respect rather
than contempt - yet to the public, his image is still tarnished, his
name as mud-stained as his combat boots.<br /><br />***<br /><br />Which brings
us back to the original question - what can be done to restore this
great and good man's reputation? What can PR do in the face of
generations of ignorance imposed on Americans by scholars' self-serving
assessments and public schools' parroting of those assessments?
</div>
</div>
Ned Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03061911547748210995noreply@blogger.com0