The Daily Egyptian

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Wednesday, October 28, 2020

Page 2 Contact Us

Email: editor@dailyegyptian.com

Letter from the editor:

It’s time for student news to step up

Kallie Cox | @KallieECox

About Us

The Daily Egyptian is published by the students of Southern Illinois University Carbondale on a weekly basis. Fall and spring semester editions run every Wednesday. Free copies are distributed in the Carbondale, Carterville, and Springfield communities. The Daily Egyptian can be found daily at www.dailyegyptian.com or on the new Daily Egyptian app!

Mission Statement The Daily Egyptian, the student-run news organization of Southern Illinois University Carbondale, is committed to being a trusted source of news, information, commentary and public discourse, while helping readers understand the issues affecting their lives.

Publishing Information The Daily Egyptian is published by the students of Southern Illinois University Carbondale and functions as a laboratory for the School of Journalism in exchange for the room and utilities in the Communications Building. The Daily Egyptian is a non-profit organization that survives primarily off of its advertising revenue. Offices are in the Communications Building, room 1259, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Carbondale, Ill., 62901.

Copyright Information

©2020 The Daily Egyptian. All rights reserved. All content is property of the Daily Egyptian and may not be reproduced or transmitted without consent. The Daily Egyptian is a member of the Illinois College Press Association, Associated Collegiate Press, College Media Advisers Inc. and the College Business and Advertsiing Managers Inc.

Submissions

Letters and guest columns must be submitted with author’s contact information, preferably via email. Phone numbers are required to verify authorship, but will not be published. Sutdents must include their year and major. Faculty must include rank and department. Others include hometown. Submissions should be sent to editor@dailyegyptian.com.

Local news is dying and is instead being replaced by enterprise giants such as Tribune, Gannett and Lee Enterprises.

Small town newsrooms are being overworked, underpaid, and as a result, rural communities are being underrepresented in the media and important stories aren’t being told. To prevent news desserts and to tell these stories, it is time for student newspapers to step-up and fill gaps in coverage.

The Daily Egyptian has been serving the Southern Illinois community since 1916 and now we are rebranding/ redesigning our print and online editions so that we can better serve our community and tell its stories.

We are expanding our circulation to Springfield and the School of Medicine so that the rest of the state and our representatives can be aware of what is happening in our region.

We are also excited to announce that we will be partnering with local high schools to help inspire the next generation of student journalists and to give them a platform to tell the stories of their communities (See pg.7 for a piece by a Belleville West student).

In addition to expanding our distribution, we are increasing our online presence by producing a new podcast “IsiDE,” launching a Daily Egyptian app (coming soon to android) and working to improve our social media presence so that our coverage is easily accessible.

Our goal is to enlighten our community, hold those in power accountable and to inform the rest of the state of what occurs in the southern Illinois region.

The Daily Egyptian will continue to cover the election, national unrest, COVID-19, the Black Lives Matter movement, and any other stories that arise. We will do so ethically, responsibly and as diligently as we can.

We hope other student newspapers in the state will join us in taking these steps, and attempting to fill in the gaps where local papers have vanished.

Editor-in-Chief Kallie Cox can be reached at kcox@dailyegyptian.com or on Twitter at @KallieECox.

Read us online at

www.dailyegyptian.com

Wednesday, October 28, 2020

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Outcry continues over conditions at Pulaski County Detention Center

An employee of the Pulaski County Detention Center watches over protesters during the Detention Protest on Saturday, Oct. 3, 2020, in Ullin, IL. The event was put on by the Southern Illinois Immigrant Rights Project and Midwest Council for Civil Rights. Jared Treece | @bisalo

A group of protesters marches towards the Pulaski County Detention Center on Saturday, Oct. 3, 2020, in Ullin, IL. The facility is operated by ICE and has 78 confirmed cases of COVID-19. The protest was put on by the Southern Illinois Immigrant Rights Project and Midwest Council for Civil Rights.

The goal was to demand health inspections for inmates. Jared Treece | @bisalo George Wiebe | gwiebe@dailyegyptian.com Eleven inmates are isolated and being monitored for COVID-19 at the Pulaski County Detention Center.

This April, the detention center in Ullin, Ill., reported an outbreak of COVID-19 among several detainees. As of Oct. 20, 82 coronavirus cases have been reported within the facility, according to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement database.

While no deaths have been reported within the facility because of the virus, the large number of infections coming from a single source have led to concern among the general public.

Illinois’ Senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth released a statement calling on the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Homeland Security to investigate health concerns in the detention center.

Several demonstrations have taken place to protest the living conditions at the center.

On Oct. 3, 45 protesters, organized by the Midwest Council for Civil Rights (MCCR) and the Southern Illinois Immigrant Rights Project, gathered outside the center to raise attention to the matter.

One week later, on Oct. 11, the Carbondale Interfaith Council (CIC) held a prayer vigil outside the facility.

One of the vigil’s attendees, Reverend Robert Flannery said the point of the gathering was to let the detainees know “they’re not forgotten.”

Flannery said the reason for a separate visit to the facility was to separate the protests, which were more about the legal or moral ethics of I.C.E., from the vigil, which was for “pastoral and spiritual care.”

Father Uriel Salamanca, also attended the vigil last month and has been going to the detention center for the last 10 years to pray for the immigrants.

But due to the COVID-19 lockdowns he is no longer allowed inside the facility.

“I used to go there and pray with them. I read the bible. I would say the eucharist,” said Salamanca. “They gave me 15 minutes to pray with the inmates.”

“No estás olvidado,” was a common chant during the council’s visit, said Flannery, which translates to “you are not forgotten.”

Because they no longer have the ability to visit, members of the CIC and MCCR regularly write letters to the detainees.

Both groups claim ICE officials denied donations meant to assist Pulaski inmates.

Concerns have continued to grow as cases have risen every month compared to the relatively stagnant numbers report by the ICE Chicago field office’s four other detention facilities.

Pulaski is not an isolated incident. ICE detention facilities

across the United States have reported 6,743 cases with eight confirmed deaths.

The detention center’s issues do not end with mismanagement of the pandemic.

Cindy Buys, a law professor at Southern Illinois University has directed the Immigrant Detention Project for the past 15 years. During this time she and her students visit detainees “to provide ‘know your rights’ information, and conduct interviews with the detainees about their legal situation,” Buys said.

Buys said there normally were no fewer than 150 immigrant detainees at the Pulaski Detention Center.

But since the start of COVID, to “engage in some level of social distancing” there are now only 70 to 80 immigrants held.

“We normally spend most of our time asking a number of detainees questions about their background and how they ended up at [Pulaski],” Buys said. “We then share that information with an organization in Chicago called the National Immigration Justice Center and they do any followup legal work.”

The NIJC helps more than 13,000 people a year with legal services.

The organization has provided services since 1983 with the help of about 1000 pro-bono lawyers.

On April 16, NIJC provided testimony from two of its clients detained at ICE facilities during the outbreak.

Sarah Sanders, left, Rev. Sarah Richards, and Becca Tally look to the Marco Gomez was held at the Pulaski County inmates in the yard at the Pulaski County Dentition Center during the Detention Center for over one year before being prayer vigil Sunday, Oct. 11, 2020, in Ullin, Ill. Jared Treece | @bisalo transferred to the McHenry County Adult Correctional Facility and released this spring.

The McHenry County Adult Correctional Facility is also under the ICE Chicago Field Office’s jurisdiction, “I felt insecure in the jail. We were hearing things, seeing things on the news, but we didn’t see the jail staff doing anything different,” Gomez said.

Gomez continued to describe events at the McHenry Facility, raising concerns about the close spaces and detainees lack of medical attention.

“While we were there there were a lot of people with coughs, and they would always tell us to put a sick call in, but they wouldn’t take a temperature or do anything else,” Gomez said.

Staff reporter George Wiebe can be reached at gwiebe@ dailyegyptian.com

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Wednesday, October 28, 2020

Black mother describes her time in historic ‘sundown’ town

Keaton Yates | @keatsians

Editor’s Note: It is the Daily Egyptian’s policy to censor racial slurs as they appear in writing.

Easter Smith and her six children were one of the first Black families to live in Anna Ill., and her children were the first Black children to graduate from the town’s high school.

Anna is well-known as a sundown town, which is a town that is made up of either entirely or mostly white people and where it is considered unsafe to be a person of color after dark. These towns usually have histories of violent racism.

According to the 2010 census, Anna’s population is 95.7% white. Anna is also known for having the acronym “Ain’t No N***** Allowed.”

A well known incident in Anna’s history is the lynching of a man named William James of Cairo, which occurred in Cairo. James was accused of the rape and murder of Anna Pelley of Cairo. He was hung by an angry mob, but the rope snapped and they shot him instead. The mob then mutilated and burned his body.

Smith said she is originally from Phoenix, Ariz., but moved to Illinois in 2009.

“I got married,” she said. “I wanted to raise my children in a different type of environment than what we were in.”

In 2016, she said she moved to Anna for many reasons. The main ones were her kids’ schools were facing threats of closing because of budgets or strikes.

Her son was the one who wanted to go to Anna the most for his athletic career and, after thinking about it, they decided to go give it a try. She said she knew a few people in Anna before moving.

“I had people thinking we were going to get lynched when we talked about moving there,” Smith said. “Somebody had to volunteer to make that change.”

Smith said there was no diversity in Anna, but she still found it a pleasant place to live because of the community feel of the town.

Phoenix is like night and day compared to Anna, Smith said.

In Arizona, there are people of all ethnic groups, and it’s a very fast paced city while Anna has little to none diversity and it’s very rural, she said.

“They were very welcoming. I think, for the most part, they’re wanting change,” Smith said.

Smith said she didn’t struggle very much when living in Anna because she came from such a diverse background. She found it easy to talk and mingle with anyone, she said.

Her children, on the other hand, had to overcome some challenges while going to Anna schools.

There were some racist incidents in the schools where a student posted racist speech on social media about her son and one incident where her daughter’s teammate said racist things towards her.

“There was zero tolerance on a school level,” she said.

Brett Detering, principal at Anna-Jonesboro high school, said their school gets a spotlight because of Anna’s history, but he said he does not feel like their school is any different from others.

“It’s unfortunate for us that we don’t have a more diverse population,” Deterring said. “I think when there’s greater diversity in your school it provides greater acceptance.”

Smith said throughout her time in Anna she was reached out to by teachers and parents in regards to diversity. She said her and her family have received many questions from members of the community because of their differences.

A teacher once asked Smith how they should go about incorporating Black History Month as it had never been taught until her children enrolled.

Smith received phone calls and messages asking for advice and to ask her questions, which she never took offense to because she knew there was no harm behind them.

“My son was the first African American to walk the stage,” Smith said. “There were children that had been through the system, but

they never stayed.”

Overall, Smith said Anna is no different than any other place in America and not everyone can be changed.

Smith had decided to move from Anna and had a new lease ready when George Floyd was murdered. In June, the first ever Black Lives Matter was organized in Anna.

Smith said she had received messages of concern because she was going to attend the protest. Her children decided not to go for safety purposes.

Smith said the protest overall was not peaceful because of the counter protesters; the protest wasn’t peaceful because they had blocked off the protesters’ route.

The protest was very eye opening to Smith because it was the first time she saw councilmen and community members who supported her son at his football games and matches on the opposing side.

“When one of the protestors mentioned my son’s name, as a parent, I got goosebumps because most parents my color if their kids are mentioned at a protest there’s normally a ‘rest in peace’ to follow and my son’s alive. That meant a lot,” she said.

Takiyah Coleman, of Anna, one of the organizers of the first Black Lives Matter protests to take place in Anna, organized a second demonstration and counter-protested a Trump rally in Anna on Oct. 10.

Coleman said living in Anna has been difficult for her as a Black woman and Anna refuses to acknowledge the racism in their town. wwDespite this, Smith said Anna was not a bad place to live and she would move back and recommend others to live there as well “I’m glad we came,” Smith said. “We conquered and, when it was time to go, we left peacefully.”

Staff reporter Keaton Yates can be reached by email at kyates@ dailyegyptian.com or on Twitter @keatsians.

Knowledge Dedication Compassion Trust Real Change

Progress Jackson County Deserves

Vote Crawshaw for Coroner Paid for by Alex Crawshaw for Jackson County Coroner

Wednesday, October 28, 2020

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Avid Trump supporter raises funds for the president

Trump hats sit in a bin at Doris Miller’s Trump merchandise stand in Vienna, Ill. An avid Trump supporter, Miller sells Trump merchandise to raise profits for Trump. “We don’t even take our lunch money out of that, because we want every cent to go to Trump,” Miller said Saturday, Oct. 17, 2020. Jared Treece | @bisalo

Doris Miller, 87, sells Trump merchandise in front of her house in order to raise funds to be mailed to help President Trump Saturday, Oct. 17, 2020 in Vienna, Ill. Miller became an avid Trump supporter after she attended a rally. “I went to that rally and he said everything I believed in. He believes in the border. He believes people should come in legally. He believes in saving babies. He believes we should have our guns. And just says everything that I believe in,” Miller said. Jared Treece | @bisalo Jared Treece | jtreece@dailyegyptian.com If you find yourself driving down West Vine street into Vienna, Ill. on any given Saturday.

There’s a good chance you’ll see a white house with a white picket fence and a red tent in the front yard. Underneath of this, you’ll find Doris Miller, 87, sitting at a table selling an array of Trump merchandise.

Miller has lived in the same house in Vienna for 52 years where she proudly flies both an American flag and a Trump 2020 flag. Miller’s support of President Donald Trump was ignited when she went to one of his rallies.

“I went to that rally and he said everything I believed in. He believes in the border, he believes people should come in legally, he believes in saving babies, he believes we should have our guns and just says everything that I believe in,” Miller said.

Miller went to more of Trump’s rallies, including one in Evansville, In. on Aug 30th, 2018, where Doris was able to shake hands with the president as he left the stage.

After the rally, Miller said she wanted to learn how she could be more involved in helping Donald Trump.

“So I thought, ‘I’ll go home and join the Republican Women’s Group.’ When I came home,

Doris Miller, 87, smiles as she removes a part of the Trump flag that got blown into her face Saturday, Oct. 17, 2020, in Vienna, Ill. Miller, an avid Trump supporter, sells Trump merchandise in her front yard to help raise money for President Trump. “Every Saturday, I’m going to sell whatever I can get that says Trump and send the proceeds to help him. That’s what I’ve done,” Miller said. Jared Treece | @bisalo

Doris Miller adjusts the shirt tags at her stand outside of her house in

I found out they haven’t Vienna, Ill. on Saturday, Oct. 17, 2020. Miller sells Trump merchandise met in months. So, they to help raise money for President Trump. “Because I said I wanted gave me some phone numbers and I got them to send him $5,000 dollars. Then, I reached that. Like I said, I’m still saving up, I’m still counting. I’m still sending. “And I’m getting close started back,” she said.

She didn’t think to $7,000 dollars,” Miller said. Jared Treece | @bisalo that would be enough to directly help the president, so she had another 3rd, the current COVID-19 pandemic has altered plan. “I remembered my son, Bobby, has a red tent campaigns that once held large in-person events that he takes to car shows. So I said, ‘Bobby, I want and some are choosing to vote by mail-in ballots your red tent in my front yard,’” Miller said. instead of in-person.

Ever since then, Miller has spent her Saturdays “Well, of course, I don’t get to go to the rallies and some Sundays selling Trump merchandise in now. But, the ones I see on TV, he draws big her front yard. All the profits she makes, she sends crowds. Their hollering, ‘We love you, Trump!’” to Donald Trump.

Miller said. “I am proud to be 87 years old and “I send him all the proceeds,” she said. “So I standing for our God, our family, our country, and send it weekly or maybe every two weeks. But, I you bet our president, Donald J. Trump.” send it all to him. We don’t even take our lunch money out of that, because we want every cent to go to Trump.”

Staff Photographer Jared Treece can be reached at Miller set a goal of $5,000 to help President jtreece@dailyegyptian.com.

Trump from the profits made from selling Trump merchandise. Since then, she has beaten that goal and is now eyeing to raise a total of $7,000 to send Scan the code to to him before this coming election day. check out our When asked about the type of feedback video that she receives from people when selling Trump merchandise, she notes for the most part they are accompanies the story! supportive, but she did have an incident with one person.

“I only had one that was bad and he parked in the middle of the street. And he got out screaming just as loud as he could. He called me everything you could think of white supremacist, nazi, he used the f word, everything,” Miller said.

“I’ve really enjoyed it. I’ve met people from all over. And it’s been a pleasure to do it,” Miller said. “But most of the time, it’s people pumping their arms and thumbs up and all good. Very few thumbs down do I get.”

With the 2020 election approaching on Nov.

Wednesday, October 28, 2020

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SIU School of Medicine Opinion: Compassionate Care

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In the last 50 years, SIU School of Medicine’s physician practice has grown from a small medical school providing patient care with the help of community clinicians to a robust institution, partnering with hospitals, clinics and associations across Illinois. Today, SIU School of Medicine is a key player in the continued advancement of medical care in Springfield, Decatur, Quincy, Carbondale and dozens of towns in between.

SIU Medicine, the health care arm of SIU School of Medicine, is the largest multi-specialty physician group in the region, with nearly 300 full-time physicians and other medical professionals who provide patient care to more than 125,000 individuals each year.

Some have interpreted the school’s mission as filling the region with primary care physicians. Certainly, the numbers represent that: about half of the school’s nearly 3,000 graduates chose primary care. According to the Association for American Medical Colleges, SIU School of Medicine has the highest percentage of graduates in the nation practicing in rural areas, serving citizens who have few medical resources.

SIU Medicine now includes the largest university-owned and administered Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) system in the U.S., which serves the region with 13 clinics in eight cities.

SIU’s FQHC facilities offer a gamut of services: comprehensive primary medical, dental and mental health care, the largest network of medically assisted treatment options for opioid use disorder, neighborhood assessments with community health workers and hot-spotting for

comprehensive care of the most vulnerable and underserved populations.

Many of our downstate citizens also rely on our physicians for specialty care. SIU’s clinical efforts have grown to include sub-specialties and innovative therapies: neonatology and other pediatric specialties, advanced cancer care, robotic surgeries, new psychiatric and neurological treatments, gastroenterology therapeutics and more. This maturation into highly specialized care means offering more educational opportunities to students and residents. They are equipped with the additional knowledge, skills and attitudes to excel when they venture into their own careers.

SIU School of Medicine coordinates the largest network of mental health and psychiatry services in downstate Illinois through combined efforts with its FQHCs, Department of Psychiatry and telehealth network. The teams also provide psychiatry services to some of our most underrepresented population downstate through a telemedicine partnership with the Illinois Department of Corrections and county jails.

SIU Medicine has the top infertility treatment rates in the country. The South-Central Illinois Perinatal Center, led by SIU Medicine providers, is the largest group in downstate Illinois and provides tertiary care services to 30 hospitals and 36 counties. SIU Medicine’s telemedicine network provides maternal-fetal medicine services to rural hospitals and clinics in central and southern Illinois.

SIU is providing accomplished team-based, multidisciplinary care through the following state-designated centers:

CALL 6185366621 TO SCHEDULE YOUR APPOINTMENT.

Neuroscience Institute at SIU Medicine Simmons Cancer Institute at SIU Medicine SIU Medicine Center for Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders SIU Medicine Parkinson’s Disease Center • SIU Center for Rural Health and Social Service Development (based in Carbondale) Amid all this growth, SIU Medicine physicians continue to provide compassionate care to communities with the help of hospital partners and more than 700 volunteer faculty.

Working together, physicians, nurses, staff and administrators not only bring the knowledge and skills to keep pace with the ever-evolving practice of medicine, but they also have the empathetic attitudes to function with care and conscience. We never lose sight of patients as people.

Our doctors have a commitment to lifelong self-directed learning, to expressing cultural humility and ethical practices toward patients. No matter what direction health care takes in the future, these humanistic qualities will always be vital to caring for neighbors and loved ones.

Jerry Kruse, MD, MSPH Dean & Provost, SIU School of Medicine CEO, SIU Medicine

Wednesday, October 28, 2020

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At protests around the country following the killing of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, one of the calls to action is to “defund the police.” For those who may not understand the message, this demand makes it sound like there would be no law enforcement at all and conjures up images of lawlessness and anarchy. Some have even likened a world without police to the movie “The Purge.” But that’s not what the message is about.

Defunding the police is not about eliminating police departments entirely. You will still be able to call for help if someone steals your car. You will likely still get a ticket for speeding. You will still be able to call for help if your business, home, or life is in danger. The difference is that police departments would be funded, but they would not be overfunded.

By defunding the police, city budgets would turn from providing armored vehicles and military grade weapons to law enforcement but rather spend that money investing in the community it serves. According to the Charles Koch Institute, “the Department of Defense’s 1033 program has provided local law enforcement agencies access to military-grade equipment.” Their studies further indicated that “over 8,000 law enforcement agencies have utilized the 1033 program to access more than $6 billion worth of military equipment such as night-vision goggles, machine guns, armored vehicles, bayonets, grenade launchers, and military aircraft.”

The list begs the question “why would a small town police department need machine guns or grenade launchers to enforce local laws?” Tear gas is also available through this government program but, according to the 1925 Geneva Convention, is classified as chemical warfare and therefore a war crime when used in battle (and should never be used on our own citizens).

There are more long-term, positive benefits of using that $6 billion dollars through other programs that don’t result in serious bodily injury or death.

For example, money that has previously been spent on ineffective mental health training for police can instead be spent on mental health resources and forming new partnerships between police departments and local mental health professionals.

According to the Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law “approximately 1,000 people in the United States were fatally shot by police officers during 2018, and people with mental illness were involved in approximately 25 percent of those fatalities.” Crisis Intervention Teams (CIT) are costly and offer modest results according to a study conducted by the College of Nursing at University of Kentucky, Lexington, and the Mood Disorders Research Program at Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Louisville School of Medicine, Kentucky. “Based on an average of 2400 CIT calls annually, the overall costs associated with CIT per year were $2,430,128 ($146,079 for officer training, $1,768,536 for hospitalizations of patients brought in by CIT officers, $508,690 for emergency psychiatry evaluations, and $6823 for arrests).”

Despite this investment in trying to make those who direct traffic somehow capable of dealing with complex mental illnesses and those who may be acting as a result of that condition, Connecticut police, as an example, have killed 21 people in the last five years, all of whom were considered Emotionally Disturbed Persons (EDP). It’s not hard to understand. Police are not counsellors! Psychologists, psychiatrists, and licensed social workers spend years of studying to obtain licensing in their field. In contrast, police undergo a few hours of training every year.

Think of it this way: If you needed to have life saving surgery would you want a licensed surgeon or the guy who cleans the operating room doing your surgery? In this case, imagine a situation where your brother, mother, sister, father, aunt, or uncle suffers from schizophrenia. They’re threatening an innocent person because their disease makes them think that someone is out to get them. They truly believe their life is in danger and that possibly harming someone else is their only

way to save their own life.

In Illinois, law enforcement is only required to attend a 40 hour course AFTER two years of field experience according to the Illinois Law Enforcement Training And Standards Board.

If it were you or your loved one, would you want a cop with 40 hours training in mental health issues or a medical professional with years of first hand experience resolving the situation?

Defunding the police reallocates money that is spent in mental health training and instead spends that money on developing partnership programs where situations involving what police refer to as “emotionally disturbed persons” or “EDPs” a professional is called to the scene to assist police in assessing and de-escalating the situation.

Since 2016, Denver has had professionally trained social workers responding with police officers to calls involving EDPs. According to an article in The Denverite, they have 14 social workers on staff at the department, and in 2018 “clinicians made contact with 1,725 people, according to city documents.

Of those people, 3 percent were arrested and 2 percent were either ticketed or given a citation. About a quarter of people contacted by clinicians went on to the Mental Health Center for support and recovery.”

Defunding the police also means investing more in taking preventative measures instead of reactive measures that can go tragically wrong. Instead of spending money on vehicles that can do 120 mph on tires that never go flat, cities could spend that money on social services like after school resources run by professionals and volunteers who can keep kids off the streets and out of trouble.

The After School Alliance published a study of the Bayview Safe Haven in San Francisco, California proving that the recreational center resulted in fewer police calls. It also noted that those young adults who participated in programs at the Bayview Safe Haven, even those who had juvenile criminal records, were less likely to be offenders or to reoffend.

Defunding the police also means that more money can be spent on social programs.

Social workers, along with mental health professionals and after school programs, play a pivotal role in our society in potentially curbing crime, especially in communities with a high number of homes that fall below the poverty line, teen parents, or single parent households. Increasing funding for social programs like parenting classes, household budgeting, and respite child care can provide these households a new way to function.

According to a study done by the Canadian Council on Social Development, “social interventions can yield positive, measurable benefits within three years, with reductions in crime of 25% to 50% within 10 years.” “Closer to Home,” a study conducted by Cynthia L. Rowe, Research Associate Professor at University of Miami School of Medicine found that a Multidimensional Family Therapy program based on the recognition that many factors contribute to drug use initiation and drug abuse, including social–cognitive factors, psychological functioning, values and beliefs, family and peer factors, and environmental and social–cultural influences resulted in reduced recidivism, and showed promising results for reducing antisocial behavior and substance use, and improving psychological functioning and school performance.

The movement to defund the police is not about eliminating the police department entirely, but about rethinking the role law enforcement plays in our society.

Defunding the police, as a movement, is focused on reallocating money typically spent on issues that police shouldn’t be handing to start with. Prevention, intervention, and social services are not a matter for law enforcement.

Police should be focused on crime and criminals. Changing how law enforcement is funded allows new partnerships with mental health professionals, new opportunities to provide prevention programs, and worthwhile social services that can benefit the entire community.

The time is now to defund the police and reinvest in our cities and citizens.

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Mason Hagarty | Belleville West High School Student

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What “Defunding The Police” means and why it’s the right thing to do

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Ronan Lisota | @r_lisota

Hey high schools!

We want to hear from

YOU!

Want your school’s works to reach all of southern Illinois and Springfield? We do too!

Send articles to:

editor@dailyegyptian.com

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Wednesday, October 28, 2020

One Fist, One Podium, One Large Reprim her Pan-American protest and the p Tamar Mosby | @mosbytamar One minute and fifty-five seconds. In this short amount of time, the life of Olympic hammer thrower and SIU alumna Gwen Berry was changed forever.

After winning the gold medal in the women’s hammer throw at the 2019 Pan-American Games, Berry took the podium to be honored. Minutes later the “Star Spangled Banner” rang throughout the stadium.

What happened next was neither expected by the crowd, nor planned by Berry. As the anthem came to an end, she balled her hand into a fist and raised it high to protest racism and the plight of Black people in the U.S. “It was unintentional and I didn’t plan it: it was just a spur-ofthe-moment thing, because I felt the national anthem didn’t speak for people like me in this country. I feel like the national anthem is hypocritical, and so for the national anthem, I just decided to protest,” Berry said.

After protesting, Berry was almost immediately met with serious consequences, the bulk of which were handed out by the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee.

“Immediately afterwards of course, I was in trouble. I had meetings with the USOPC [United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee] and with the Pan American Committee to acknowledge that I did something ‘wrong’ and that I breached my contract. I was punished for 12 months after that,” Berry said.

During the 12-month period, where she was placed on probation, Berry said she could not make any political statements in the field of play, on the podium or at any track and field event.

In the athletes’ declaration the International Olympic Committee requires athletes to, “Comply with applicable national laws, and the rules of the qualification processes and competitions, of the sport, and of the relevant sporting organization, as well as the Olympic Charter.”

Berry was punished for breaking Rule 50 of the Olympic Charter which states, “No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas.”

A case of déjà vu Berry’s protest is not the first instance where a Black athlete has been punished by the IOC for demonstrating on an international platform.

In 1968, USA Olympic track and field athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised gloved fists in the air during the “Star Spangled Banner” after taking the podium for placing first and third in the 200-meter dash. The photograph taken of this demonstration is now one of the most famous in sports history and shows the pair raising their fists on the podium.

The two were suspended from the U.S. team and banned from Olympic Village. Financially, the pair suffered a great deal, even becoming homeless at one point.

In 2019, it was announced that both Smith and Carlos were being inducted into the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Hall of Fame.

More recently, outrage has been directed at former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who knelt during the playing of the national anthem, first in September 2016 and continued to do so until leaving his team at the end of the season.

Kaepernick has not officially retired but has not played for an NFL team since 2016. There has been speculation as to whether or not his unemployment is a form of punishment for his demonstration on the field

Breaking Rule 50 and her silence to promote change

Image provided to the Daily Egyptian by Gwen Berry.

Photographed by Gary Land

Since her punishment for violating Rule 50, Berry has partnered with Color of Change, a non-profit civil rights advocacy organization, to push the International Olympic Committee to eliminate this clause from the Olympic Charter.

“I am working with Color of Change, which is an organization that helps champion Black people and their movements, and so I’ve been doing a lot of things with them. We’ve been in contact with the IOC [International Olympic Committee] to help change that rule,” Berry said.

Wednesday, October 28, 2020

Page 9

mand: Olympian speaks about punishment that followed it Berry also lost several sponsors and grants as a result of her protest.

“I was defunded by companies and corporations and I was not granted a lot of grants because of my protest.

So, besides my probation I was significantly defunded, and it almost ruined my career,” Berry said.

Berry and Color of Change are also working to create a fund for athletes who have suffered financially after using their platform to speak out about social justice issues.

“We are honored to support Olympian Gwen Berry, who is a shining example of the bravery and boldness it takes to take a public stand against injustice no matter what,” Color of Change President Rashad Robinson said in a Sept. 8 press release. “Corporations must step up and fully support Black athletes who fight for racial justice. It is not enough to merely issue Black Lives Matter statements. Companies that make an enormous profit off of athletes of color, like Nike, have an opportunity now to move from words to actions in order to truly stand in solidarity with Black communities.”

The organization has also started a petition for individuals across the globe to sign in support of Berry.

Berry has also partnered with organizations like Athletes Igniting Action and the LA84 Foundation.

Athletes are human too or Pushing the censorship of the pedestal Berry said she feels athletes are no different than regular citizens and should be allowed to protest the issues that are affecting their communities.

“I definitely feel that it [sports and protesting] should go hand-in-hand, because athletes are human beings too. We have feelings, we pay our taxes and we are part of this country and community. Just because we are athletes and we entertain people as well, doesn’t mean that we can’t speak out about certain things that are happening in going on in our communities.”

Michael Champion, Berry’s mentor since her freshman year at SIU in 2008, said he feels athletes like Berry, who protest on the field, allow for issues affecting many voiceless people to be put in the spotlight and seen around the world.

“I hope that they [the sports world] learn that these athletes aren’t robots and that they aren’t here strictly for the entertainment purposes of those of us who watch them. They are people with their own life experiences and are people who are representations of long lines of family ancestry who have fought, bled and died for equal justice for the rights of all people,” Champion said.

Activism or Performative Activism?

In the wake of police killings of unarmed Black men and women including George Floyd and Breonna Taylor during the Summer of 2020, the Black Lives Matter movement has emerged from its place as an outlier into the mainstream where it is being recognized by organizations and individuals worldwide.

According to the Washington Post , the USOPC sent a letter to U.S. athletes earlier in June that said it would be forming an, “athleteled group to challenge the rules and systems in our own organization that create barriers to

progress, including your right to protest.”

Champion said the USOPC’s handling of Berry’s situation was unfair, and can now be seen as hypocritical, as they are only now making changes.

“I thought it was unfortunate [and] unfair, particularly now that social justice has kind of made its way again to the forefront of society, and now they’re looking kind of hypocritical with how they handled the situation with her making that statement a few years back,” Champion said.

Head coach of the Saluki track and field team Rosalind Joseph said reprimanding athletes without having a conversation addressing the necessary changes that should be made is not helpful to overall progress.

“It’s tough. I understand that there is a rule in place, so I think it’s something that [the committee] had to do, but also, you’ve seen it with the NFL now and universities, where administrators are going back and asking, ‘Are we on the right side of history? Are we doing the right thing?’. I think that more than anything, rather than just reprimanding and moving on, you can have a conversation about how you can change, improve and do this in a way that both parties are satisfied with the platform that is being given,” Joseph said.

Homeschooled in Black history

From an early age, Berry learned Black history and the African American struggle for equality from her father, Michael Berry and her grandfather James Berry.

“My grandfather and father are both selfeducated about Black history,” Berry said. “They studied a small amount of this history in school, but we all know that universities don’t teach much.”

According to Berry her grandfather has a collection of Black history artifacts in his home.

“My grandfather collects old books discussing the period of slavery. His artifacts include articles from [slavery] days like old whips, cups, books etc. He has a whole room in his house dedicated to his collection,” Berry said.

Berry said her father, who is a teacher and football coach in the St. Louis public school district, taught her about the intersection of Black protest and sports.

Berry said after seeing her protest, her grandfather wrote her several letters.

“My grandfather has shared these same stories with me and wrote me beautiful pieces after my protest. He was so happy and proud of me, and he framed two beautifully written letters telling me how I am like my ancestors and how they are looking down on me,” Berry said.

Berry grew up in St. Louis with what she described as a happy childhood that had its drawbacks and struggles.

“I feel like my childhood, even though I was really happy and my grandparents, my dad and my aunt made sure that I was a happy child, I feel like it wasn’t the best childhood,” Berry said.

“We didn’t have the best living situation, that much money or financial stability. So, I feel like growing up, I was naive to a lot of things. I was happy growing up, but we were poor.”

As one of the oldest children in a household consisting of 13 family members, Gwen took on a leadership role among the children, according to her sister Quincy Berry.

“She was the older sibling out of all of the cousins, so from early on, she took a leadership

role even though she might not have wanted to.

You could just always tell she was mature and sometimes bossy. She was what a good big sister should be,” Quincy said.

From STL to SIU Despite becoming a world-class athlete in the sport, Berry was not introduced to track and field until her sophomore year at Mccluer High School. She didn’t pick up a hammer until her sophomore year of college at SIU. “Basically, my high school basketball coach wanted me to do track just to stay in shape for basketball,” Berry said. “I started my sophomore year and at the end of my senior year, I found out that I kind of wanted to do track more than basketball because I wasn’t big enough to be a star basketball player, so I went to college for track.”

During her time at SIU, Berry earned multiple conference honors and titles, several All-American honors and numerous national championship qualifications.

In 2017, Berry was inducted into the Saluki Athletics Hall of Fame. Her path to success wasn’t a traditional one.

At the age of 15, Berry gave birth to her son and spent time away from him while attending university and competing.

“I feel like that was a hard experience because I was always away from my son. My son was raised by his father and his grandparents on his father’s side, and they did an amazing job with him while I was away,” Berry said. “It definitely was hard, you know, I think I suffered from depression and anxiety just being away from my family, so it was a struggle.”

According to Champion, her determination to achieve what others may deem impossible makes her someone for young people to look up to.

“Gwen came to college as a triple jumper and to go from an 18-year-old triple jumper, to the best hammer thrower in the world takes quite a bit of commitment and dedication. She has an elite level of determination and I think those are things that young people can look at and say that, ‘I can put my mind to something and achieve it, regardless of how unrealistic it might seem to others.’ She’s an example of what commitment and dedication can do for a young person,” Champion said.

Risking it all: finding financial stability before and after Rio Determination and strength seem to define Berry, even in the later stages of her career.

After graduating from Southern Illinois in 2011 and becoming a professional athlete, she worked two jobs to help support her family, while also training for the 2016 Olympic Games.

“Anytime any professional athlete is training and working it takes away from their recovery and it takes away from certain things and aspects that they need to be an elite athlete,” Berry said.

“When your competition is not working three jobs, and you are, they do have a one up on you all of the time. It was really hard because I would work all day, train in between my jobs, and then work all night just to maintain my financial stability and help my family out. It definitely was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”

After the 2016 games, Berry gained sponsors and grants that financially support her, but all that was lost after her protest in 2019.

According to Quincy, Gwen had always vocalized her stance on social injustice, but had not done so publicly because of those sponsorships.

“I feel that she has always been vocal about it [social justice] and made her opinions known, but before with her sponsors, she knew she had to tread lightly when she said the things she said publicly,” Quincy said. “She knew that she could potentially lose everything after saying how she felt. Once they backed out and stopped sponsoring her, she decided she would go for it and do what she wanted to do. She has lost almost all of her sponsors at this point, but she’s gained new ones which is nice too.”

Joseph said she saw Berry’s protest as an act of bravery and something that spoke to who she was as an individual.

“I really thought it was brave and I thought it spoke to who she was just as an individual.

I didn’t coach her, but I have been around her and know her coaches, and so it was something that you could tell was really genuine and true to what she felt and believed,” Joseph said.

Hoping for change

Despite Berry’s protest receiving national attention, it didn’t garner the attention of similar protests by popular male athletes.

Quincy said the reason for this is the nation’s lack of attention given toward Black women who are a part of the Black Lives Matter movement.

“I hope they [the sports world] will learn to listen to Black women when they protest the same things that Black male athletes are. With the WNBA, they were early champions of social justice as well. [...] They didn’t get as much attention as Colin Kaepernick, the NBA, MLB and all of these other male dominant sports,” Quincy said.

Champion said his hope is for Berry’s protest to inspire those outside of minority communities to have more empathy and understanding.

“My hope is that Americans as a whole, will just start to view everybody as human and look at these situations with a little bit more empathy,” Champion said. “[I hope] that they can attempt to put themselves in the shoes of other people and try to understand and listen to what other people are going through and try to do something about it.”

Athlete and activist: embracing her new role The Tokyo Games are scheduled to take place in the Summer of 2021, but Berry said if she is to protest, it will likely be done spontaneously.

“I think it will be spur of the moment. I want to keep that to myself and decide what I’ll do then.”

Berry’s focus is on training for the upcoming Olympic Games and activism in her own community.

Berry had a message for younger athletes who wish to champion social justice: “I feel like they need to know what they can lose and what repercussions they can face, but I also think they should be encouraged and inspired,” Berry said. “I think they should be bold and brave because I feel like nothing changes until people speak out about different controversial issues. I feel it is important for them to be encouraged, put on a brave face and fight for what’s right.

Editor Tāmar Mosby can be reached at tmosby@ dailyegyptian.com or on Twitter at @mosbytamar.

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Wednesday, October 28, 2020

Flu Vaccine important for reducing dual infection risk

Jason Flynn | jflynn@dailyegyptian.com Healthcare service providers are expecting added complications this winter as a result of simultaneous spikes of seasonal flu and COVID-19.

A combination of risks associated with co-infection, added safety precautions in reaction to COVID-19 and an overlap in symptoms of both illnesses mean people will need to plan ahead and take precautions.

One precaution health providers and disease experts are stressing is incredibly important this year is a flu vaccine.

“Anybody over six months of age is at risk for influenza. Get the flu vaccine this year. If you have a pulse, get a flu vaccine this year,” Dr. Kurt Martin, Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at Southern Illinois Healthcare, said.

Healthcare providers don’t know yet what additional complications will arise as a result of co-infection, but there’s certainly a risk that having a weakened immune system from one of the diseases could make the other worse Martin said.

Health providers are also having to deal with providing care while COVID-19 infections are still spreading.

“All of the years we’ve done flu vaccine before this, it’s always been a walk-in, but this year because of what’s going on with COVID we cannot do that because we we can’t have people congregating in the waiting room,” said Annette Greer, the Director of Nursing at Jackson County Health Department. “If they say they are waiting for a COVID test, or that they have any symptoms at all, we are turning them away and asking them to reschedule. We don’t want anybody coming in who, who is sick at all or has any symptoms.”

Non-emergency clinics and doctors offices are screening potential patients with questionnaires and temperature checks.

If it appears the potential patient has COVID-19 they may be

refused to prevent spreading the infection, and referred to a center that does treat COVID-19.

“If somebody has symptoms of influenza, they can’t come into the clinic, because those are exclusionary criteria, right? If they have fever, cough, you don’t know if they have COVID-19, or influenza,” Martin said.

Healthcare providers are building in work arounds and taking additional measures to try to mitigate potential issues.

JCHD ordered additional flu vaccines to guard against running out, SIH is setting up testing for flu and COVID-19 to monitor both illness rates, and Martin said if patients exhibit symptoms he’ll be treating them “liberally.”

“I’m going to tell them to test [for COVID-19], and I’m going to send in a prescription for Tamiflu. Because again, if they have influenza, it’ll help. The medicine’s pretty well tolerated. By treating that, maybe we can reduce some of the comorbidity that you would get if your symptoms of influenza last and you have COVID as well,” Martin said.

While COVID-19 does not have a vaccine the other precautions for COVID-19 and flu are basically the same.

“The precautions we’re taking come from COVID-19 should go a long way towards preventing the flu, or even the common cold, because we’re talking droplet transmission for those types of things,” said Thomas Cerny, Pharmacy Director for SIU Student Health Services.

The Illinois Department of Public Health recommends what it calls “the 3 W’s” for preventing COVID-19 and flu: Wash your hands. Watch your distance. Wear your mask.

“Mitigation efforts for COVID should help with influenza, and I think in the southern hemisphere that has been the case.

They did have a great reduction in influenza because of mitigation efforts for COVID,” Martin said.

Vaccines are available at a variety of locations throughout Southern Illinois. Southern Illinois University Student Health Services is taking student walk-ins.

The vaccine is free under SIU’s student insurance plan and $20 for those that opted out of student insurance.

Vaccines are also available by phone appointment at the Jackson County Health Department clinic, which accepts most insurance.

The Centers for Disease Control has an online portal of additional locations at vaccinefinder.org

Staff reporter Jason Flynn can be reached at jflynn@ dailyegyptian.com.

Jacqueline Boyd | @jacqueline.ciera

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Wednesday, October 28, 2020

SIU professors contribute to COVID-19 research

Janae Mosby | @mosbyj

The SIU community is playing an active role in conducting research about COVID-19.

The Saluki Sanitizer project has produced a hand sanitizer that is being distributed across the SIU campus and Associate Professor of chemistry and biochemistry Keith Gagnon is conducting research on how COVID-19 travels within populations.

The research that Gagnon is conducting can be very useful in understanding how COVID-19 spreads and it could provide information that can help city officials moving forward.

Gagnon is looking for mutations in the virus and these mutations can change the way the virus spreads, causing it to spread slower or faster.

This is useful because it shows how the virus can mutate and by seeing where different mutations appear and can show how the virus has been traveling.

Gagnon’s research is funded by the Chicago Coronavirus Assessment Network grant of $500,000 with approximately $360,000 allocated for SIU “The COVID-19 project is focused on sequencing the genomes of the virus that causes COVID-19, that virus is called SARS-CoV-2,” Gagnon said.

Gagnon and his team are extracting the virus’s RNA genome, converting it to DNA and sequencing it.

A genome is a complete set of biological information.

Gagnon converts the RNA of SARSCoV-2 into DNA in order to work with and analyze genetic information.

“We want to know how the virus is moving and changing over time in a big mid-western state like Illinois and use all this to learn more about how the pandemic spreads,” Gagnon said.

The sample of the inactivated SARSCoV-2 virus comes from the Illinois Department of Public Health, Gagnon said.

“When we receive the virus it is in a solution where it has been inactivated.

Nonetheless, it could have impact viral genomes. If an impact viral genome were to enter one of your cells it could reproduce the virus,” Gagnon said.

Gagnon said the virus container does not get opened unless they are in a Mandy Rothert, lab manager at the Fermentation Science Institute at SIU, “Campus had biosafety cabinet and they perform all of us make ten 55-gallon drums for them and then they took them to a centralized location the RNA extraction inside the cabinet. and that’s where they pump it out and then put it in containers to distribute, but then “After we extract the RNA it is relatively we had made this [stock] and planned on selling it at some point,” Rothert said. “It seems safe but we still continue to do the next like the demand has really slowed down and people aren’t buying it anymore, so the SIU steps under the hood,” Gagnon said.

Any plastic wear or surfaces that touch Foundation bought a bunch of these little bottles from us and they would send them out the virus are autoclaved or bleached, to their alumni with a Saluki mask,” Rothert said. Leah Sutton | @leahsuttonphotography Gagnon said.

The lab has established new safety protocols to “We had to establish all new protocols. Luckily amounts of ethanol in the building. keep the researchers safe from COVID-19. these have been established by other investigators “We had to work with campus entities and around the world and a lot of it was online. We the environmental health and safety center for pulled from online resources to develop new determining how much volume we could have protocols for my lab,” Gagnon said. and how to handle it properly,” McCarroll said.

Automated liquid handlers are being used in Another area of research that McCarroll and the lab to help facilitate, speed up and improve his team went through was the scent of the the safety, Gagnon said. sanitizer.

“When we started this project it was very “Our formulation uses a high grade of USP, much a team effort, probably close to 10 people or United States Pharmaceutical grade ethanol have helped out. There are one or two students which has a really high purity standard,” who are really taking the lead on this project at McCarroll said. this point,” Gagnon said.

McCarroll measured the impurities in the Gagnon said they decided to pursue this different hand sanitizers that were on the market project in the middle of April and they got and Saluki Sanitizer is the most pure out of the clearance for it in August. product tested.

In April, Fermentation Institute director Matt The first batch of this sanitizer was made in McCarroll began producing a hand sanitizer August with 55 gallon drums and now McCarroll called Saluki Sanitizer that was distributed across has produced close to 600 gallons in total. campus.

“We have produced close to 600 gallons “We have completed the first round of in total. That was in the plan of what we were commitment that we had for central campus [...] expecting to do and now we are in a holding and we have also been producing hand sanitizer pattern to see how the sales are and where things for other units on campus and other entities off go from there,” McCarroll said. campus as well,” Matt McCarroll said.

McCarroll said there will be a continued need Saluki Sanitizer is being sold to the members for the sanitizer and the demand will depend on of the Carbondale community as well as on how the pandemic proceeds. campus.

“It kinda went as we expected. We are happy “We’ve had some outside entities that have that we are getting some interest outside, we’ve already purchased. The Foundation has already probably sold the equivalent of 10 or 15 gallons purchased several two ounce containers and they to the outside community,” McCarroll said. are distributing those to alumni,” McCarroll said.

The sanitizer is being sold to nonprofits in the Saluki Sanitizer is being sold to non-profits in community and to the RSOs, McCarroll said. the community and RSOs, McCarroll said.

“It kinda went as we expected. We are happy McCarroll is not thinking about any new that we are getting some interest outside, we’ve research now, but he has thought about expanding probably sold the equivalent of 10 or 15 gallons the sanitizer research. to the outside community,” McCarroll said.

“We haven’t really thought about anything One part of research that was conducted to new. One thing that I thought about doing is a produce Saluki Sanitizer included background second formulation. There are two types of hand research on how to produce it safely and under sanitizer, the liquid type that we are producing the correct regulations, McCarroll said. and the gel type,” McCarroll said.

“The World Health Organization put out a McCarroll said they did not pursue the gel type formulation for hand sanitizer and their goal was because it was not in the WHO formulation and to make something that could be [reproduced] it has a more extensive approval process. all over the world and be effective for killing the coronavirus,” McCarroll said.

Staff reporter Janae Mosby can be reached at McCarroll said a lot of the research was jmosby@dailyegyptian.com or on Twitter at @ figuring out the regulations for handling large mosbyj.

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Wednesday, October 28, 2020

A tale of two theaters struggling to keep the arts alive during COVID-19 Jamilah Lewis | @jamilahlewis

Theaters that provide entertainment to live audiences have been impacted significantly by COVID-19. Many have lost a lot of money because their main source of income was the people in their communities.

Carbondale Ill.-The Varsity Nathan Colombo, a Board member and volunteer at Carbondale’s Varsity theater, said he is making the best out of the bad situation that COVID-19 has put upon the community.

Prior to COVID-19, the Varsity would have around 150 to 700 people coming to their weekend shows, Colombo said.

Colombo said they closed down a few days before Gov. JB Pritzker announced restrictions going into place on March 18, wanting to get ahead.

“We had already been for the past couple of years working towards integrating live performances and multimedia,” Colombo said. “So this has really been an opportunity to engage this space as a laboratory for multimedia without having to stumble through multimedia with a live audience.”

Colombo said the Varsity started live streaming performances for most of their time being closed to the public.

There is about 15 to 20 feet of space between his workspace and the performers on stage, so they don’t have to wear masks while they’re performing and Colombo doesn’t have to while he’s working.

“So up until maybe a month-month and a half ago, we had kept it to a select number of performers at a time, so we really didn’t have more than four people in the building at any given point in time,” Colombo said. “The only time we’ve expanded that was when we had a larger band on, like Lone Howl, where

it’s a six-person band.”

Colombo said one of the biggest limitations COVID-19 has put on Varsity Theater is the limited amount of people.

“It’s the limited ability to apply people power,” Colombo said. “Our biggest struggle was figuring out how to work through a single individual to execute both a vision and the technical aspect of something that is a combination of the work of five or six people from remote space.”

To make up for the money the theater lost during the Pandemic, they started to raise money to make $80,000 over a two-year span.

Springfield Ill.-The Hoogland Theater Center Gus Gordon, executive director of the Hoogland Theater Center in Springfield, Ill., said the theater was always busy before COVID-19.

“We were packed all the time. We had events every single weekend of the year,” Gordon said. “We maybe have maybe one weekend a year off where we weren’t doing something, but from New Years to Christmas, to Halloween, all the way through the year, we’re very busy all the time either with meetings, or rehearsals, or classes, or performances.”

When the Pandemic first came to the U.S., Hoogland was a little anxious because they’ve sold hundreds of tickets for the shows during that time.

“At that time in early to mid-March, things were changing so quickly it just became obvious to us. We talked to the Department of Public Health in Sangamon County which is where the Hoogland is located,” Gordon said. “We talked with them and then it just looked like the best thing we could do is shut down, so we shut down on Friday the 13th [of March].”

The heartbreaking part, Gordon said, was canceling events

with children in their education program with some of them being seniors in high school and it would have been their last show.

“It was a heartbreaking decision but it was not a difficult decision because it was really our only choice,” Gordon said.

“We had to do what was right to keep everyone safe.”

What they have done to keep their community active is to move their education courses online and stream their live performances Gordon said.

“That is one of the biggest things that’s happened,” Gordon said. “The licensing houses-the people who have the rights to plays and musicals, they were losing a ton of money. So they finally said ‘ok guys, during this problem you can stream shows,’. They had never allowed that in the past.”

Staff reporter Jamilah Lewis can be reached at jlewis@ dailyegyptian.com or on Twitter @jamilahlewis.

Wednesday, October 28, 2020

Page 13

If not us then who?-Activists fight against police brutality

Ore Ojewuyi | @odojewuyi

The Black Lives Matter movement has influenced social and political change in the United States and confronts issues of police brutality and racism.

The movement has received support from activists of all different backgrounds who seek out justice in a multitude of ways for Black and Brown communities affected by the impacts of racism and police brutality.

SIU alumnus and grassroots activist, Travis Washington, created “The Hands Up Act” to pass a law that would punish officers with a 15 year prison sentence for shooting unarmed citizens.

Nancy Maxwell is a community organizer, and member of the Southern Illinois Unity Coalition, an organization aiming to end gun violence and racism in the Southern Illinois region.

Lonita Baker, attorney for Breonna Taylor’s family, helped the family receive a $12 million dollar settlement from the city of Louisville.

Travis Washington-“If Harriet Tubman can run 180 miles to freedom, I can deliver the Hands Up Act.” “I’m at 2.7 million signatures. In 2020 when George Floyd, Shawn Bell, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor were murdered, the petition reached about a million signatures within a day,” Washington said.

Washington was inspired to create the petition because of a disconnect between the police and

Black and Brown communities.

“The criminal justice system has been shaped and warped to protect the predator instead of protect the prey,” Washington said. “If you’re a brown or Black person being abused and you look on the internet and see the police killing unarmed Black people you’re not going to call the police.”

Washington’s petition has received support from the mothers of Michael Brown, Tamir Rice and Antoine Rose. The Hand’s Up Act has not been made into a law, but Washington said activism and protest have influenced change already.

“Louisville banning no knock warrants is a wonderful thing because that tells me that change happens when people come outside to protest and do whatever they can to be heard,” Washington said.

Washington said he believes demilitarizing the police and voting will also begin discussion on police reform.

“Black Lives Matter voices are being heard.

If you’re not listening, you will be voted out,” Washington said.

Washington credits protests for raising the level of social consciousness throughout the United States.

“It makes us realize systemic racism on all levels not only in the criminal justice system. It’s a universal sign of truth that brutality happens in every single form of government or organized positions,” Washington said.

Nancy Maxwell-“We can’t help people all over the country until we fix where we are at.”

Maxwell said quite a few towns in Southern Illinois are sundown towns, the goal of the Southern Illinois Unity Coalition is to address racism in the Southern Illinois area first. Maxwell said she believes activists must start at the local level in order to create social and political change.

“When I first moved down here, it felt like I had been transported to the past. Things have improved but some things are still the same and some places make you say a prayer before you step foot inside,” Maxwell said.

The Coalition is currently planning a “Stop the Violence” event to combat racism, police brutality and gun violence in the Southern Illinois region.

One city from each county in Southern Illinois has been planning their own Stop the Violence events. On October 23 the Southern Illinois Unity Coalition held a candlelight march in Carbondale to commemorate the lives lost to gun violence.

On Saturday October, 25 community members enjoyed painting, free food and prizes. The weekend ended on Sunday October, 25 with a prayer vigil.

Maxwell said allies are an integral part of organizing events and creating change in the Southern Illinois community. Allies visited Vienna, Illinois prior to a protest organized by the Southern Illinois Unity Coalition to ensure the town would be safe for Black protestors to march without danger.

“Allies can support us by standing back and helping us spread our platforms and messages.

They can also provide protection,” Maxwell said.

Maxwell said she doesn’t want the momentum of the protests to die down.

“There are always protests and outcry and then it goes quiet and the cycle begins again.

Here in the southern Illinois area we’re going to keep it going. This time George Floyd is the last straw. This time we don’t want to stop. We have planned events all through the winter,” Maxwell said.

As a former police officer, Maxwell said the four months she spent in the police academy cannot adequately prepare officers for the things they will encounter in the communities they’re meant to serve.

“By no means does the police need to go all the way away. We need to add people to deal with the extra stuff that [police officers] aren’t even trained for. I’m a rape crisis counselor and advocate, I would love to be on call for the police and give them that relief,” Maxwell said.

Maxwell said diversifying the police force is important.

“Not having officers of color is a problem.

If you haven’t walked in a Black person’s shoes you will never know what they go through.

A Black person doesn’t have time to explain their whole struggle to you. But if I’m a Black officer or counselor there’s no need to explain the added struggle [of race],” Maxwell said.

Maxwell said if people don’t vote they won’t be able to bring about any change in their communities.

“I feel like I owe it to the people who gave up their lives, to go out and vote today. They suffered so much so that I can go to the polling place and put my ballot through and make a decision to help a person who can help make changes in our communities,” Maxwell said.

Maxwell said it takes everyone being a spokesperson for change in order to combat racism and violence in the United states.

“At the end of the day everyone will have to come together for this to end. It can’t just be some of us it has to be all of us,” Maxwell said.

“Get out there advocate boots on the ground understand what it is you’re fighting for” Legal activism is an integral part of forming police reform. Months of protests following the death of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor resulted in one of the largest wrongful death settlements for a victim of police brutality.

Baker built up an aggressive civil case to receive the historic settlement for Taylor’s family.

“In March we immediately began to investigate the night that Breonna was killed. We started interviewing neighbors, taking pictures, investigating the scenes, and requesting records from the city and police department,” Baker said.

Taylor’s legal team has been aggressive in how they pursue the case, according to Baker.

“We retained experts in the law enforcement field as it relates to how search warrants are executed, excessive force experts as well as economists to project the loss of income Breonna would’ve made over her life,” Baker said.

Although Taylor’s legal team was successful in receiving the settlement on September 14, Baker was disappointed by the ruling to not charge the officers involved in Breonna’s case.

“I am a former prosecutor so I know that the law was incorrectly applied. It’s our belief that Daniel Cameron didn’t even present charges on behalf of Breonna Taylor,” Baker said.

Baker said police officers are discriminatory in who they receive no knock warrants for, like the one that resulted in the death of Breonna Taylor.

“The vast majority of no knock warrants are gotten for Black and brown individuals. They’re too dangerous for both the law enforcement officers as well as the individuals they’re looking for and bystanders,” Baker said.

Baker is continuing to fight for justice for Breonna Taylor by requesting for a different prosecutor to be assigned to the case.

“Double jeopardy isn’t applied to a grand jury decision. Further, the grand jury was never asked to determine whether or not the officers should be charged. So no, her case is not closed in our eyes,” Baker said.

Baker credits protests for helping get legislation introduced, like Breonna’s Law, that was passed that banned no knock warrants in Louisville, Kentucky.

Baker said her life experiences have made it possible for her to relate to the people she is representing and to be a more well rounded attorney.

“My father was murdered when I was ten years old. I grew up raised by a single mom and had to overcome those obstacles. I’m able to relate more to certain individuals who may not make the best decisions in life,” Baker said.

Baker said everyone should be given a shot at rehabilitation.

Baker said protests have provided a platform to get people to understand the criminal justice system, the importance of elections and down to ballot races.

“Without those protests our elected leaders may not be as responsive to change,” Baker said. “We have to look at the overall political landscape and picture and know the roles that everyone plays. All the way from city hall down to the president.”

Baker said people who support the cause should get on the ground and understand what they’re fighting for.

“We are important because we can’t stand by and continue to allow unarmed black and brown and marginalized people to be unjustly treated by the justice system. If we truly want change we don’t have to like politics we have to love it because that is the only way we can get true change,” Baker said.

Reporter Ore Ojewuyi can be reached at oojewuyi@dailyegyptian.com or on twitter @ odojewuyi.

Wednesday, October 28, 2020

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Turbulence through time: 50 years separate canceled commencements

Photo courtesy of John Lopinot | Daily Egyptian Rana Schenke | rschenke@dailyegyptian.com In spring 1970, SIU was shut down and the commencement ceremony was canceled due to Vietnam War protests, marches and riots that had taken place at the beginning of May. Fifty years later in 2020, SIU seniors saw the university close and their commencement ceremony canceled amid a pandemic.

Tom Britton, SIU class of ‘70, said he sees parallels between the unrest of 1970 and the current protests going on today.

“I see youth seeking to claim its own identity and its own territory, seeking to have a voice and not just have a voice but be heard. So I think some of those dynamics are the same,” Britton said.

Britton said the pressures on students from the threat of war were different and he wasn’t sure what current pressures would be comparable, but named the COVID-19 situation as something stressful that might be comparable.

In May 1970, days of protests against the Vietnam War, sparked by the attack on Cambodia and the Kent State incident, caused the closure of the university.

Thomas Busch, who graduated from SIU in 1970 with a bachelor’s in political science, said there were a lot of similarities between SIU and Kent State.

“I can say probably the best thing that ever happened at SIU during that period of time was that neither side was very well organized and thank God nobody got killed,” Busch said.

Busch was a Vietnam veteran when he came to SIU, after spending almost a year in the hospital due to injury. He said veterans weren’t welcomed in many communities around that time.

“I remember being asked to leave the American Legion club in Carbondale because they didn’t want Vietnam veterans who had lost or weren’t doing well to be part of their organization,” Busch said. “It really divided even the military community at that time.”

Roland Rose, another graduate who received his bachelor’s in music education from SIU in 1970, was student teaching that semester, so he didn’t experience most of the protests.

“They kept the high school open, so we were able to complete our degree. So a lot of that stuff I kind of missed because of the fact that I wasn’t on campus,” Rose said. “That’s the one thing I really remember about it, I felt kind of isolated

away from it.” felt the effects of the pandemic on their senior Rose said he agreed with what the students year with SIU’s closure. were protesting, but was mostly focused on Vincent said she felt she missed out because keeping the dorm he was a resident fellow at of the transition to online learning. safe.

“I definitely feel like the level of instruction, As in spring of 1970, classes were canceled the level of knowledge and learning, wasn’t and students were sent home in spring 2020, obviously the same as it would be if it was in but for a different reason: the COVID-19 person,” Vincent said. pandemic.

Holden said he feels bad for people who had The pandemic not only affected students’ to return in the fall and deal with going back to classes and living situations, but affected the school during a pandemic. plans of 2020 seniors as well.

“I consider myself pretty lucky for this to have Dakota Holden, a class of 2020 graduate with happened at the time that it did just because I a degree in radio, television and digital media, feel bad for people that have to go back to planned to move to Nashville in August. school in a very adjusted and really tedious way,” “There were just so many different questions Holden said. “I’m glad that people are going to and concerns around that time that it made a school, I’m glad that people are continuing to be whole lot of sense to remain here [and] move able to do cool things, but for the most part it somewhere where I could remain isolated,” was a good time to be where I was.”

Holden said.

Both classes also saw their commencement Holden said his plan is to make the move and ceremonies, typically seen as the culmination of try his best to keep up in the music industry, one’s college career, canceled. which he said is “already chaotic.”

Britton said his reaction to the 1970 “That’s really been my plan my whole life cancellation at the time was indifference. since I started playing music and right now it’s “I think that students [...] felt alienated from just a waiting game,” Holden said. “I’m very those kinds of traditional things, and so I don’t lucky to be in a position where I can keep up remember being terribly disappointed. My week by week by myself and try and make ends parents were disappointed, I can tell you that,” meet locally until I can make the big move.”

Britton said. “I was the third of three kids to go Olivia Vincent, a 2020 graduate with a bachelor’s in aviation management and associate’s in aviation flight, said her after-college plans were also disrupted when she was unable to find an aviation job after graduation.

“Normally in SIU Aviation, there’s kind of a precedent set where once you graduate from SIU with your flight instructor certificate, you kind of transition into working for SIU,” Vincent said.

Vincent said the university can usually use more flight instructors because of the amount of students, but because of the pandemic, they weren’t doing any flight instruction.

“Normally when I would have gotten at least a part time flight instruction job over the summer, at the end of the spring semester, that wasn’t available to me because there was no flight going on,” Vincent said.

Both Holden and Vincent said they Photo courtesy of John Lopinot | Daily Egyptian

to SIU and graduate and I know my father was very disappointed that he wasn’t able to see me graduate.”

Rose said the cancellation was a disappointment.

“You wanted your parents to come and all of that and basically they just shut down the campus and that was the end of it,” Rose said.

Rose, who came to SIU from Chicago, said his parents were very interested in coming to the ceremony.

“Two years later, I graduated with a master’s degree, and they were able to come to that one,” Rose said. “That was at Southern also. So they sort of got it made up, but missing the bachelor’s degree, that was very disappointing.”

Vincent said she was disappointed about the cancellation of the 2020 ceremony.

“I was looking forward to walking across the stage, I know a lot of my classmates were kind of like over it at [that] point,” Vincent said. “Like their four years throughout college, they’re kind of bored with the whole thing, but I actually wanted to do it and I was just kind of sad that it got canceled.”

Editor Rana Schenke can be reached at rschenke@ dailyegyptian.com.

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