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National
Navy To Name Aircraft Carrier For Pearl Harbor Hero Doris Miller
Mother Of 9-Year-Old Black Girl Who Committed Suicide After Being Bullied Sues School
McKenzie Adams, a 9- year-old girl who had dreams of becoming a scientist, com- mitted suicide at her grand- mother’s home in Linden, Alabama in December 2018. Now, her mother is suing her elementary school for failing to protect the young girl.
Jasmine Adams is re- portedly suing U.S. Jones El- ementary School not only for allegedly failing to stop the bullying she received, but for punishing her when she made repeated pleas for help.
A boy allegedly told McKen- zie to kill herself, instructed her how to do it and said she’d be “better off dead” the day she took her life. The law- suit also claims she endured racial and obscene slurs from the boy and wrote about the bullying by at least one other boy in her diary.
Filed on Thursday (Janu- ary 16), the suit claims that Jasmine and McKenzie’s grandmother Janice Adams complained to the school about the bullying, but
MCKENZIE ADAMS
officials failed to act. Instead, administrators at
the young girl’s school showed “deliberate and bla- tant indifference” to the bul- lying. Her teacher, Gloria Mims, allegedly told McKenzie to “tell it to the wall because I do not want to hear it.”
The family's attorney
Diandra Debrosse Zim- merman, condemned the “morally appalling” behavior of the school.
On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Monday, at Pearl Harbor, the Navy announced that a $12.5 billion aircraft carrier will be named after Mess Attendant 2nd Class Doris Miller, the first African American to receive the Navy Cross for valor for his actions on Dec. 7, 1941, when he manned a machine gun on the USS West Virginia to fire back at attacking Japanese planes.
“I think that Doris Miller is an American hero simply because of what he represents as a young man going beyond the call of what’s expected,” said Doreen Ravenscroft, pres- ident of Cultural Arts of Waco (Texas) and team leader for the Doris Miller Memorial.
In 1941 an African Ameri- can was not allowed to man a gun in the Navy, and as far as
COURTESY U.S. NAVY
U. S. Navy Mess Attendant Doris Miller was the first African American awarded the Navy Cross for his heroism during the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941.
rank was concerned, “he could not really get above a messman level,” Raven- scroft said. Miller’s actions
started to turn the tide, she added.
“Without him really knowing, he actually was a part of the civil rights move- ment because he changed the thinking in the Navy,” Ravenscroft said Friday.
“In the end, the fact that he didn’t think about what could be repercussions — that wasn’t a thought when, at the time and in war, he did what was needed in his way to defend the United States of America,” she said.
He will be the first African American to have an aircraft carrier named after him, ac- cording to Navy records. The big ship is not expected to be home-ported in Hawaii.
Two of Miller’s nieces are expected to be at Pearl Har- bor for the announcement, including 66-year-old Flos- etta Miller.
Marijuana Legalization May Hit 40 States
More than 40 U. S. states could allow some form of legal marijuana by the end of 2020, including deep red Mississippi and South Dakota — and they’re doing it with the help of some conser- vatives.
State lawmakers are tee- ing up their bills as legislative sessions kick off around the country, and advocates push- ing ballot measures are rac- ing to collect and certify signatures to meet deadlines for getting their questions to voters.
Should they succeed, every state could have mari- juana laws on the books that deviate from federal law, but people could still be prose- cuted if they drive across state lines with their weed, because the total federal ban on marijuana isn’t expected to budge any time soon. The changes could usher in even more confusion for law en- forcement and escalate the pressure on Congress to act. Federal bills are crawling through Congress, with Sen- ate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell firmly against legalization.
But at the least, hopes will be high that federal hurdles to researching the effects of pot and restrictions on bank- ing in the cannabis sector will ease.
“We’re cautiously opti- mistic that we can win more marijuana reform ballot ini- tiatives on one Election Day than on any previous Elec- tion Day,” said Matthew Schweich, deputy director of the Marijuana Policy Proj- ect. Schweich cited growing public support for the issue among both liberals and con- servatives.
The measures that make the ballot could drive voter turnout at the polls and by
extension affect the presiden- tial election.
Liberal states that allow ballot petitions have largely voted to legalize marijuana, including California, Oregon and Massachusetts. “Now, we’re venturing into new, redder territory and what we’re finding is voters are ready to approve these laws in those states,” said Schwe- ich, who, along with leading legalization campaigns in Maine, Massachusetts and Michigan, served as the co- director of the medical mari- juana legalization campaign in Utah.
“If we can pass medical marijuana in Utah, we can pass it anywhere.”
National organizations like his are eschewing swing states like Florida and Ohio, where the costs of running a ballot campaign are high during a presidential elec- tion. They are intentionally targeting states with smaller populations. For advocates, running successful cam- paigns in six less-populous states means potentially 12 more senators representing legal marijuana states.
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