Pain still acute as Hungary's Jews mark liberation of Budapest ghetto

By Marton Dunai, Reuters•January 17, 2020


Pain still acute as Hungary's Jews mark liberation of Budapest ghetto
Man stands front of the Memorial Ghetto Wall during the commemoration of the liberation of the Budapest ghetto by the Red Army, 75 years ago in Budapest

By Marton Dunai

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungarian Jews on Friday marked the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Budapest ghetto and the end of the Holocaust, which killed more than 500,000 Jews and destroyed a once-vibrant Jewish culture across Hungary.

"I lost 49 family members," survivor Eva Fahidi told a small crowd at the Holocaust Memorial Wall, part of the wall that once surrounded the ghetto in central Budapest. "I was 19 years old and suddenly so hated anything could be done to me."

"Hate is the most horrific sentiment," she warned. "Hate yields more hate, a cycle that never ends."

Budapest today boasts a large and vibrant Jewish community, but anti-Semitism remains a persistent problem. Nearly 20% of people dislike Jews, according to a 2018 CNN poll, the highest proportion among seven European countries polled.

In 1944, about 100,000 Jews remained in Budapest. When the fascist Arrow Cross party seized power that fall, about 70,000 were gathered in a small area comprising 162 apartment buildings, surrounded by wooden planks.

Starvation, freezing temperatures and ongoing violence killed thousands within weeks. Arrow Cross gunmen often herded groups of Jews to the banks of the Danube and shot them into the icy river.

The guards fled only when the Soviet Red Army laid siege to Budapest. The wooden perimeter planks were burned immediately in the harsh winter.

Hungary has grappled with that past. Leaders, including Prime Minister Viktor Orban, first deflected part of the blame to a German occupation, but eventually acknowledged Hungary's role in the genocide.

The reckoning continues. Zoltan Pokorni, a prominent member of the ruling Fidesz party, teared up as he recalled last week that his own grandfather took part in the killings.

"(Citing) the German occupation is no excuse but at most an attempt to whitewash the past," he said at a recent event marking the murder of Jews at another Budapest location. "The victims were Hungarians, as were most of the killers."

"We must see the victims as more than Jews, complete in their existence. Likewise we must see the killers as more than that: we must see how they became killers. I am here to tell you, this pain makes us one and the same.

(Reporting by Marton Dunai, editing by Larry King)

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BOMB CYCLONE, POLAR VORTEX, SNOWNADO IT'S COMING FOR YOU

Winter storm takes aim at northern tier, bringing blizzard conditions

A storm gathering strength in the Plains is poised to drop snow along a 1,500-mile stretch from North Dakota to Boston.

• By Matthew Cappucci

• ‘The single most intense storm I’ve experienced in my life’: Powerful blizzard slams Newfoundland

SEE 

Winter storm to make travel 'hazardous' across U.S.

MEANWHILE AS YOU SIT AROUND THE FIREPLACE ROASTING CHESTNUTS AS YOU GET SNOWED IN 

National Archives exhibit blurs signs in Women’s March image critical of Trump

The original, unaltered photo of the 2017 Women’s March in the District. An altered version appears in an exhibit at the National Archives. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Officials acknowledged making multiple alterations to a photo of the 2017 Women’s March showcased at the museum. Some signs held by marchers criticizing the president or referencing  women’s anatomy were blurred.

WASHINGTON POST BEHIND PAYWALL 

WHY TILLERSON CALLED TRUMP A FUCKING MORON

Trending

‘You’re a bunch of dopes and babies’: Inside Trump’s rant at generals

The new book “A Very Stable Genius” documents how Trump lashed out at attempts by military leaders and diplomats to teach him about U.S. alliances.

• By Carol D. Leonnig and Philip Rucker

Life in a Troubled Mississippi Prison, Captured on Smuggled Phones

PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX USA 

Life in a Troubled Mississippi Prison, Captured on Smuggled Phones

Rick Rojas,The New York Times•January 16, 2020

An image provided by an inmate at the Mississippi 

State Penitentiary, who says it shows the clothing 

of a fellow inmate who was hit by nonlethal ammunition.

 (The New York Times)

ATLANTA — The cellphone rang once before someone picked up. On the other end was an inmate inside Unit 29 of the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman. “Hello,” he said.

Then, in a steady voice that competed against a cacophony of rowdy conversations and a fuzzy signal, he urgently described to a complete stranger the turmoil he said existed on the inside. Some inmates needed medical attention, he said. All of them could use a hot shower.

“Mold everywhere, rats everywhere,” said the inmate, who was serving time for armed robbery, aggravated assault and other charges.

Then the line suddenly fell silent. When the inmate returned a moment later, he explained that an officer had walked past and that he had needed to quickly stash his phone. He had paid $600 for the smartphone — contraband in prisons nationwide. If caught with it, years could be tacked onto his already lengthy sentence.

He then handed the phone to another inmate. “They’re treating us like animals,” that inmate said, before passing the phone on yet again.

And so it went, from one prisoner to the next, in a phone call with a reporter that stretched on for roughly an hour. The inmates complained about unreliable electricity and water, injuries that had not healed, and the vermin that forced them to hang leftover food from the ceiling. One inmate mentioned his girlfriend; another, the countdown to his release, now almost a month away.

The meandering conversation was punctuated by lulls, as the phone was hidden or passed around, capturing the ambient noise of life inside the maximum-security prison.

Parchman, the oldest prison in Mississippi, with a notorious reputation for harsh conditions, has descended into dilapidation and chaos, including a recent burst of violence that left several inmates dead.

Inmates have used illegal cellphones to capture and transmit images — inmates fighting, broken toilets, holes in prison walls, dangling wires and dead rodents caught in sticky traps — that have come to define the crisis in Mississippi. Many photos were texted to The New York Times.

Across the country, prisons are rife with smuggled cellphones, allowing inmates access to the internet, social media and their old lives outside the prison walls. But state officials said the phones have been used by inmates to propel unrest, and by gangs to orchestrate attacks on rivals, inside and outside of prison.

Officials said the pervasiveness of cellphones — nearly 12,000 were seized in Mississippi in 2018 — has threatened prison security. And, by providing an uncontrolled link to the outside world, they also have undermined the very notion of incarceration.

“There is a lot of misinformation fanning the flames of fear in the community at large, especially on social media,” Pelicia E. Hall, the state corrections commissioner, said in a recent statement. “Cellphones are contraband and have been instrumental in escalating the violence.”

Gang warfare, decrepit accommodations and a severe shortage of corrections officers has attracted widespread attention and come to dominate the state’s political agenda. Activists and others say the problems are long-standing, but they credit the images with igniting a surge of outrage.

“The story never really would have broke” without cellphones, said Honey D. Ates, whose son is serving a 15-year sentence at the state prison in Wilkinson County.

“We can hear all about it,” she said, “but actually seeing it, it’s times a hundred.”

It has been nearly impossible for corrections officials to curb the use of cellphones, as they have been difficult to ferret out. “As fast as you take them out, they’re back in,” said Martin F. Horn, a former top corrections official in New York City and Pennsylvania, who teaches at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

“It sort of defeats the purpose of a prison wall, if you will,” Horn said.

In recent years, an inmate on death row in Texas used a smuggled phone to make threatening phone calls to a state senator. After an hourslong riot killed seven prisoners at a state prison in South Carolina, officials there blamed phones as a reason for the violence. Even Charles Manson, the closely guarded notorious mass killer who died in 2017, was repeatedly caught with phones.

In Mississippi, inmates, their relatives and activists said that phones are often brought in by corrections officers and case managers, and the devices, usually pay-as-you-go burner phones, can cost upward of $300 inside. Elsewhere, visitors have sneaked them in, and there have been documented cases of phones being shot over prison fences with potato guns and deposited by drones.

State officials in Mississippi have resorted to a range of measures, including seeking court orders to get service providers to shut down specific devices. In a statement, the Mississippi Department of Corrections said that it also used technology to interrupt cellular signals, regularly conducted shakedowns and used dogs to sniff out the devices.

Mississippi’s prisons have been rocked by an outbreak of violence and disorder in recent weeks. Five inmates have been killed, including three at Parchman, and many others have been injured. In the chaos, two inmates escaped but were later caught. For several days, all of the prisons were locked down.

Critics said the unrest reflected a pattern of problems in state prisons, which are stretched thin under the weight of an inmate population still swollen from the tough-on-crime measures of the 1980s and 1990s. Some elected officials and civil rights groups, in a complaint calling for a federal investigation, described “extreme” staff vacancies despite having the third-highest incarceration rate in the country.

State leaders have acknowledged the severity of the concerns, and corrections officials have warned of a brewing crisis as they press lawmakers for more funding. On Monday, Hall, the corrections commissioner, issued a statement reiterating concerns over Unit 29 at Parchman, quoting a letter she had sent in August describing a facility that was “unsafe for staff and inmates due to age and general deterioration.”

As the violence flared, inmates broadcast live on Facebook as fires raged inside one prison. They posted images of faucets spewing discolored water, and walls splotched with mold.

Those images catapulted the crisis into public, coming at a pivotal moment as a new legislative session begins and Gov. Tate Reeves, a Republican, was sworn in on Tuesday.

Officials and others have said that much of the unrest has quieted. The state Department of Corrections has lifted lockdowns at all of its facilities except for Parchman. But the recent turmoil has brought new scrutiny, including from the rappers Jay-Z and Yo Gotti, who filed a lawsuit on Tuesday on behalf of prisoners, assailing what they described as an “utter disregard” for inmates and their rights.

State officials have countered that the depictions shared on social media only added to the discord. The outgoing governor, Phil Bryant, told reporters recently that the inmates craved limelight. “You’re making them stars,” he said, “and they’re convicts.”

Albert Sykes, an activist on criminal justice issues, said many inmates feared repercussions over cellphones, a lifeline for staying in touch with families, especially as rolling lockdowns caused by staffing shortages have curtailed visitation.

The inmates’ fears have been fueled by the case of Willie Nash, who was sentenced to 12 years in prison for having a cellphone in a county jail. He was being held on a misdemeanor count when he asked a jailer if he could charge his phone’s battery, an inquiry that led to the new charge. The sentence was upheld last week by the Mississippi Supreme Court, even as justices noted that it was “obviously harsh” and “seems to demonstrate a failure of our criminal justice system.”

Ates said that her son had expressed his own fear, but that she had encouraged him to be defiant. “You can’t shut all of us up,” she said, “and you can’t take all the cellphones.” In recent weeks, she has become something of a switchboard operator, receiving messages on Facebook from inmates across the state.

One video that has been widely shared showed an inmate at Parchman, who spoke on the phone briefly the other day, with an open wound that he said he had received after being struck by what he thought was a rubber bullet. His back was covered in blood and he walked over to a sink, where he turned the knobs but no water came out.

“Please try to help us,” said the inmate, who was convicted on aggravated assault and gun possession charges. “Let the world know.”

He then passed the phone back to its owner. Its battery was draining, and the electricity had flickered out again. The inmate apologized for cutting the conversation short, but said he needed to go.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

© 2020 The New York Times Company

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Khamenei downplays protests, says Iran foes exploiting plane tragedy

AFP•January 17, 2020



Leading the main weekly Muslim prayers in
Tehran for the first time since 2012, Khamenei
said the Jan. 8 downing was a “bitter” tragedy

Tehran (AFP) - Iran's supreme leader said Friday that demonstrations at home over the accidental downing of a Ukrainian airliner were unrepresentative of the Iranian people and accused the country's enemies of exploiting the disaster for propaganda purposes.

Leading the main weekly Muslim prayers in Tehran for the first time since 2012, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the January 8 incident was a "bitter" tragedy but should not be allowed to overshadow the "sacrifice" of one of Iran's most storied commanders, assassinated in a US drone strike.

His sermon came after a traumatic month for Iran in which it approached the brink of war with the United States and mistakenly shot down the Ukrainian jet, killing all 176 people on board.

"The plane crash was a bitter accident, it burned through our heart," Khamenei said in an address punctuated by cries of "Death to America" from the congregation.

"But some tried to... portray it in a way to forget the great martyrdom and sacrifice" of Major General Qasem Soleimani, the head of the foreign operations arm of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards who was assassinated in Baghdad on January 3.

Khamenei said Iran's enemies had tried to use the plane tragedy to undermine the Islamic republic.

"Our enemies were as happy about the plane crash as we were sad," he said.

"The spokesmen of the vicious American government keep repeating that we stand with the people of Iran. You're lying," Khamenei said.

He also slammed Britain, France and Germany, which on Tuesday decided to trigger a dispute mechanism in the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, following US threats to impose tariffs on European cars.

"It has been proven now, after about a year, that they are, in the true sense of the word, America's lackeys," he said.

President Donald Trump reacted by tweeting that Khamenei should watch his words.

"The so-called 'Supreme Leader' of Iran, who has not been so Supreme lately, had some nasty things to say about the United States and Europe," Trump tweeted.

"Their economy is crashing, and their people are suffering. He should be very careful with his words!"

- 'The deceived ones' -

The air disaster triggered scattered protests in Tehran and other cities, but they appeared smaller than nationwide demonstrations in November in which Amnesty International said at least 300 people died.

On Friday, anti-riot police staged a massive deployment in Tehran, an AFP correspondent said.

Khamenei said the protesters were unrepresentative of the Iranian people, who had turned out in their hundreds of thousands in what he called a "million-strong crowd" for Soleimani's funeral.

Praising the slain general, Khamenei said his actions beyond Iran's borders were in the service of the "security" of the nation and that the people support "resistance" against its enemies.

It was people like Soleimani, not the protesters, who had devoted their lives to Iran, Khamenei told thousands of worshippers who crammed into the mosque and spilled into the snowy streets outside.

- 'Divine help' -

Khamenei's sermon came at a tumultuous moment for Iran, which had seemed headed for conflict earlier in January after Soleimani was killed on January 3 outside Baghdad airport, prompting retaliatory strikes against Iraqi bases housing US troops.

Khamenei hailed the strikes as a "sign of divine help".

"It was a strike to their reputation, to America's might. This cannot be compensated by anything ... sanctions cannot return the lost prestige of America," he said.

The animosity between Washington and Tehran has soared since US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from a landmark nuclear deal in 2018 and reimposed biting sanctions.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday urged a "de-escalation" of the tensions and an end to the "constant threats".

The plane tragedy "is a very serious red flag and signal to start working on de-escalation and not on constant threats and combat aviation flights in this region", Lavrov said.

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Friday he had met his Canadian counterpart Francois-Philippe Champagne in Oman to discuss cooperation among nations affected by the disaster.

The Boeing 737 was carrying 63 Canadians among other nationalities when it was shot down.

"Politicization of this tragedy must be rejected. Focus on victims' families," Zarif tweeted.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urged Iran to hand the plane's black boxes to France, saying it has one of the few laboratories capable of properly examining them.

In June 2019, Iran and the United States had also appeared to be on the brink of direct military confrontation after Tehran shot down a US drone it said had violated its airspace.

Trump said he called off retaliatory strikes at the last minute.

President Hassan Rouhani said Thursday that Iran was "working daily to prevent military confrontation or war", and maintained that a dialogue with the world was still "possible".

---30---

SEE  https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=IRAN

MEANWHILE BACK IN CANADA

Five things to know in the case of Huawei's Meng

AFP•January 16, 2020


The arrest of Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou 

(C, pictured October 2019) has put her at the centre of the 

US and China's battle over Huawei's growing global reach 

(AFP Photo/Don MacKinnon)

Shanghai (AFP) - Hearings into whether a Huawei executive can be extradited to the United States will begin on January 20 in Vancouver, in a case with potential repercussions for ties between the US, China and Canada.

Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of the Chinese telecom giant and daughter of its founder Ren Zhengfei, was detained in the Canadian city on a US warrant in late 2018.

Her arrest put the 47-year-old at the centre of the US and China's battle over Huawei's growing global reach.

Here are five things to know about the situation:

- Technology giant -

Founded by former People's Liberation Army (PLA) engineer Ren in 1987, Huawei has grown into one of the world's biggest technology firms.

It is now the top producer of telecommunications networking equipment and the number-two supplier of smartphones, behind Samsung and ahead of Apple.

Huawei equipment carries much of the planet's data and communications traffic, making it a key player in the coming advent of hyper-fast 5G networks that will enable revolutionary new technologies such as artificial intelligence.

- Distrust in Washington -

Ren's military background and privately held Huawei's opaque culture have long fuelled suspicions of close ties to China's one-party security state.

This has stoked US fears that Beijing could use the firm as a Trojan horse for espionage or cyber-attacks, accusations that company executives strenuously reject.

The Trump administration has essentially barred Huawei from the US market and waged a global campaign to isolate the company.

- 'Double criminality' -

Meng, seen as a possible successor to Ren as chief executive, was held on a US warrant for allegedly lying to banks about violating Iran sanctions and put under house arrest. She denies the allegations.

In hearings opening Monday, her lawyers will maintain that she cannot be turned over to the United States anyway because violating US sanctions against Iran is not a crime in Canada -- failing the "double criminality" test.

Canada's attorney-general, however, is expected to argue that her banking interactions amounted to fraud, which is a crime in Canada.

Meng's legal fight could take months or even years.

- Ripple effect -

The case is being watched in part because of its potential ripple effect on ties between the three countries.

Meng's arrest caused an unprecedented rift between Canada and China, which was followed up by detaining former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor on espionage suspicions.

Their arrests have been widely interpreted as retribution by Beijing aimed at pressuring Canada to free Meng. The two men remain in China's opaque penal system.

On the other side is the United States, which on Wednesday signed a truce with China in their lengthy trade war.

Donald Trump has pushed hard for the agreement between the two economic giants and has previously suggested that he may intervene in Meng's case to keep trade negotiations on track.

- High (tech) stakes -

The US has pushed its global allies to ban Huawei equipment from domestic networks, but the campaign has met with mixed success.

Australia and Japan have taken steps to block or restrict the Chinese company's participation in their 5G rollouts, and European telecommunications operators including Norway's Telenor and Sweden's Telia have passed over Huawei as a supplier.

But several other European countries have not blocked the firm, with Germany resisting US pressure and even close ally Britain indicating it may be open to using some Huawei equipment.

Still, Huawei executives are concerned, with Chairman Eric Xu saying in a New Year message to staff that revenue for 2019 was likely to be lower than originally forecast.

"Survival will be our first priority" in 2020, he said.

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SEE  https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=HUAWEI

Rainstorms douse bushfires across eastern Australia

AFP•January 17, 2020


Volunteer firefighters watch as a bushfire rages on the outskirts of the town of Tumbarumba in New South Wales (AFP Photo/Kiran Ridley)


Sydney (AFP) - Rain and thunderstorms doused long-burning bushfires across much of eastern Australia Saturday, but they also brought a new threat of flooding in some areas.

Major bushfires continued to rage in regions of the south and southeast of the country that have so far missed out on the rain, including in wildlife-rich forests on Kangaroo Island off the southern coast.

The fire service in New South Wales (NSW) state, the country's most populous and the hardest hit by the crisis, said 75 fires continued to burn Saturday, down from well over 100 a few days earlier.

"Rain continues to fall across a number of fire grounds," the state's rural fire service said, adding that "benign conditions" of rain and cooler temperatures were helping efforts to contain the remaining blazes.


To the north, Queensland state was hit by severe storms overnight, causing some flash flooding and road closures though no deaths or injuries were reported.

Both states have suffered from one of the longest droughts in modern Australian history and some areas saw more rain Friday and Saturday than had fallen in more than a decade.

Fires continued to burn out of control in southern New South Wales and neighbouring Victoria state, but forecasters expected significant rainfall in those areas Sunday and Monday, raising hopes that some of those blazes could be brought under control as well.

The unprecedented fires, fuelled by climate change and a years-long drought, have claimed 28 lives over the past five months.

They have scorched massive tracts of forest and bushland in eastern and southern Australia, decimated livestock on already barren farms and destroyed more than 2,000 homes.

On Kangaroo Island, known as Australia's "Galapagos" for the large number of unique animals and other wildlife endemic to the area, fires continued to rage in a big national park.

The flames have already taken a heavy toll on the island's population of koalas, birds and other endemic marsupial species.

Authorities have warned the crisis could worsen again with Australia only halfway through its summer.

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SEE  https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=AUSTRALIA

            SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=CLIMATE+CHANGE 

SEE  https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=WILDFIRES

                              SEE  https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=BUSHFIRES

'You have not seen anything yet,' climate activist Greta says ahead of Davos

'You have not seen the last of us': Greta Thunberg

Her global climate change movement isn't going anywhere. 

By Marina Depetris and Cecile Mantovani

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (Reuters) - Swedish activist Greta Thunberg marched with 10,000 protesters in the Swiss city of Lausanne on Friday and said "you have not seen anything yet" before some head to Davos next week to challenge the global financial elite to fight climate change.

The 17-year-old, who launched the #FridaysforFuture movement that has sparked worldwide protests, denounced a lack of government action to cut heat-trapping emissions before it is too late.

"So, we are now in a new year and we have entered a new decade and so far, during this decade, we have seen no sign whatsoever that real climate action is coming and that has to change,” Thunberg said in a speech in Lausanne.

“To the world leaders and those in power, I would like to say that you have not seen anything yet. You have not seen the last of us, we can assure you that. And that is the message that we will bring to the World Economic Forum in Davos next week.”

Protesters held signs including "Wake up and Smell the Bushfires" and "It is late but it is not too late".

Hundreds will take trains over the weekend and then march to Klosters near Davos, the annual gathering of world political and business leaders that Thunberg is attending for the second year in a row and will take part in two panel events.

Climate change and environmental destruction top the risks highlighted by global decision-makers in a survey ahead of the 2020 gathering of the global elite.

This year's meeting of 3,000 includes U.S. President Donald Trump who once described climate change as a "hoax" and whose administration in November filed paperwork to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement, the first formal step in a one-year process to exit the pact to fight climate change.

The latest World Economic Forum annual meeting takes place against the backdrop of some of Australia's worst ever bushfires. While the government there has avoided making a link to climate change, the fires have deepened public concern about the heating of the planet.

Last year was the Earth's second-hottest since records began, and the world should brace itself for more extreme weather events like Australia's fires, the U.N. World Meteorological Organization said on Wednesday.

“We are...an alliance that is organizing next week in 20 countries to say 'time is up' to the World Economic Forum in Davos. Time is up," a Kenyan activist, Njoki Njoroge Njehu, told the crowd in Lausanne.

"It is time to abolish billionaires. It is time to abolish billionaires, because we cannot afford them, the planet cannot afford billionaires," she said.


(Reporting by Marina Depetris, Cecile Mantovani and Johnny Cotton; Writing by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

View reactions (4,722)

'Teacher of the Year' was nervous to kneel during anthem at college football championship: 'My leg was shaking'

Elise Solé, Yahoo Lifestyle•January 17, 2020

"Teacher of the Year" Kelly Holstine kneeled during the

 National Anthem at the College Football Playoff National

 Championship game on January 13, with President

 and Melania Trump in attendance. (Photo: Getty Images)

A “Teacher of the Year” who skipped last year’s White House awards ceremony to support marginalized communities, kneeled during the national anthem at a college football game with President Donald Trump and Melania Trump.

Kelly Holstine, 46, Minnesota’s 2018 Teacher of the Year and the director of educational equity at OutFront Minnesota, an LGBT+ civil rights group, attended the College Football Playoff National Championship on Monday in New Orleans. Before the Louisiana State University-Clemson University game at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, the first couple took the field amid chants of “USA, USA” and “Four more years!”

The former English teacher from Shakopee, Minn., who was the first openly-gay teacher to receive the award, lined up for the national anthem with her colleagues, only 15 feet from the president and the first lady. As singer Lauren Daigle performed, Holstine took a knee.

“We were told that putting our hand over our hearts during the national anthem was optional, but that wasn’t enough for me,” Holstine tells Yahoo Lifestyle. “Kneeling is a way to show respect for the military and our country, while also supporting oppressed and marginalized humans.”

Related Video: Teachers Boycott White House Event for Teachers of the Year

Holstine considered Colin Kaepernick, who in 2016, sat during the national anthem to protest police brutality against people of color, and then kneeled during other games. The controversial demonstration inspired professional and amateur athletes to do the same. In 2017, Kaepernick opted out of his contract and has not been rehired in the National Football League. Also top of mind was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose legacy is celebrated annually on January 20.

Honored as State Teachers of the Year at NCAA Champ FB Game. Given platform to stand up for marginalized and oppressed people. Like many before, I respectfully kneeled during Nat’l Anthem because, “No one is free until we are all free” (MLK). #imwithkap #blacklivesmatter #LGBTQ pic.twitter.com/DimP3pBtBn

— Kelly D. Holstine (she/her) (@kellydholstine) January 14, 2020

“When I heard thousands of people chant ‘USA,’ I felt it in my chest,” Holstine tells Yahoo Lifestyle. “It seemed as though they were chanting for a different belief system than the one I hold.”

Although Holstine’s supervisor at work, her wife, and her friends had her back, on the field, she was conscious of her physical safety. “But then I thought about people who don’t have a choice — teens beaten up for being LGBTQ, children in cages or refugees,” she tells Yahoo Lifestyle. “I can’t decide to be comfortable when there’s an opportunity to continue conversations that started long before me.”

President Donald and Melania Trump attended the January 

13th College Football Playoff National Championship game

 between Clemson and Louisiana State Universities, where

 a Teacher of the Year kneeled during the National Anthem.

 (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)More

“I feel honored to follow in their footsteps,” she adds. “There is so much hatred [in the world] and disrespect. If I can stand up for people, I will.”

Holstine admits, “But my leg was shaking the entire time.” However, during her silent protest, the president and first lady were making their way further down the field. “The attention had shifted by that point.”

On Monday, Holstine tweeted, “Honored as State Teachers of the Year at NCAA Champ FB Game. Given platform to stand up for marginalized and oppressed people....” which was retweeted by Kaepernick himself.

A representative from the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), the organization behind the Teacher of the Year awards, tells Yahoo Lifestyle, “The Council of Chief State School Officers appreciates the opportunity for outstanding teachers to be recognized on the national stage. The decision by an individual State Teacher of the Year was not coordinated by the National Teacher of the Year program or CCSSO.”

Holstine, who shared her plan with her peers before the game, says that all freedom of expressions are respectable, whether it's people choosing to stand or those who “strongly considered” taking a knee.

In April, Holstine and Kentucky’s 2019 Teacher of the Year Jessica Dueñas skipped a White House ceremony with Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and Vice President Mike Pence, as well as a photo opportunity with President Trump. “As a gender-nonconforming lesbian,” Holstine told Yahoo Lifestyle at the time, “the policies of the Trump administration have been hateful, and I see the painful impact in my students.”

Read more

More Than 25K Teachers Strike in Chicago Over ‘Core Issues,’ Leading to Class Cancellation

SEE Trump snubbed by 'teacher of the year' who knelt in front of him during anthem at college football game

SEE  https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=EDUCATION

SEE  https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=TEACHERS