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Hoosiers receive Big Ten honors
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By Grace Palmieri gpalmier@indiana.edu | @grace_palmieri
PHOTOS BY DAVID CROSMAN | IDS
Maccabee Griffin, 35, is starting his freshman year at Indiana University after serving in the United States Army for almost 10 years. Maccabee was medically discharged earlier this year after being diagnosed with a conversion disorder, a form of post traumatic stress that causes him to convert extreme stress into physical tremors. Along with the stress of combat memories and college classes, Maccabee also has the responsibilities of being a father to balance.
The shaking man IU student Maccabee Griffin left the Iraqi desert nearly a decade ago, but the war still rages inside him. The veteran fights tremors that wrack his body as he struggles to find peace. By Hannah Fleace hfleace@indiana.edu | @hfleace
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he tremors come quietly, uninvited. They come when he’s stressed. They come when he’s still. They overwhelm him on the bus, at parties, at the grocery store. They crawl through him while he drives and jangle his dog tags. Sometimes they hit Maccabee Griffin during his classes at IU, and wrench his right arm so violently he struggles to take notes. Other students shoot nervous glances at the shaking man. He ignores them and uses his left hand to grip his right wrist until the writing stops wobbling. While the professor lectures on, Maccabee closes his eyes and cradles his right arm in his left as he waits for the assault to stop. Maccabee served two tours in Iraq with the Army nearly a decade ago. But the war is still inside him. The spasms rattle his muscles and send shivers through his body. They knock him back and forth. They ripple across his face. Once, at his son’s Boy Scouts award ceremony, the tremors made his eyelids flicker so fast he couldn’t see. His wife, Angela, had to lead him like a blind man to the car outside. If he were still in the desert, driving in another convoy under attack, he’d revert into his military training. He’d shoot. He’d know how to fight back. But this enemy hides inside him. *
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Even without the tremors,
Maccabee’s family motivated him to join the military. When he and his wife first met, they were both managers in the fast food industry. Following 9/11 and the knowledge they were going to be having a baby, they decided that Maccabee should enlist to help ensure a better future for their family.
Maccabee is unlike other IU students. He left the Army on a medical discharge last year after a decade of service. He moved his family to Indiana to be closer to relatives. He had some college credit prior to his military service, but he is finishing his first year at IU at age 35. “This is a whole different beast,” Maccabee said. “The Army was one thing. This is a whole different kind of stress.” Building on his military experience, Maccabee is studying supply chain management and said he hopes to enter the Kelley School of Business. But he isn’t sure what he wants to do after graduation. He isn’t sure what his body will let him do. The first instance of the tremors came after his second deployment ended when he was stationed at Fort Polk, Louisiana. His
sergeant called Angela at home. “Maccabee’s in the emergency room,” he said. When Angela arrived, her husband was writhing on a bed. His abs were contracting so fast it looked like he was doing rapidfire sit-ups, she recalls. His sergeant told Angela at first he thought Maccabee might have been faking to get out of a workout. But no one could do sit-ups that long. That’s not faking, Angela remembers thinking. Something else is going on. Ultimately, the Army decided he was too battered, both physically and emotionally, and returned him to civilian life. Maccabee has battled memory problems and mood swings ever since. The tremors plague him most. The Veterans Affairs doctors call it a conversion disorder, a condition that takes the anxieties
and fears in his mind and converts them to tremors throughout his body. From 2001 to 2011, almost one million veterans were diagnosed with PTSD and other mental disorders, according to a Congressional Research Service study. Considerable stigma surrounds mental health issues in the military, and many don’t report their symptoms at all. Conversion disorders are more rare. “There isn’t much data in veterans,” Dr. Jon Stone wrote in an email. “But they certainly occur.” Stone is based in Edinburgh, Scotland, and specializes in conversion disorders and other functional neurological and psychiatric disorders. He said he sees patients with both PTSD and conversion disorders. Maccabee’s first psychologist at Fort Polk told him he just needed to find a way to relax. She encouraged him to talk about his experiences and find the underlying reason for the anxiety. “But here I am, a year plus of talking, and we still haven’t figured it out,” Maccabee said. When the tremors first hit him, he’d try to fight them and control what was happening. It never worked. Now, when his body shakes, he breathes deeply. He tries to relax. If he feels another attack coming on when he’s in a crowd, he looks for a quiet space. Angela tries to reassure curious onlookers. “It’ll go away in a minute,” she tells them. IU’s Veterans Support Services and Counseling and
By Sanya Ali siali@indiana.edu | @siali13
SEE MUSLIMS, PAGE 6
SEE LIGHT TOTEM, PAGE 6
Comthomp@indiana.edu | @CodyMichael3
TAE-GYUN KIM | IDS
Anna Maïdi, left, and Aubrey Seaders talk Monday at the Islamic Center. They have recently produced the project Muslims of Bloomington. It consists of two smaller projects, The Hijab Diaries and the Muslims of Bloomington Blog, to promote understanding of Islam and Muslim Americans.
Seader said. “The goal of the project is to help people get to know Muslims,” Maïdi said. “A lot of people in the United States probably don’t know a Muslim, and when
Energy use by Totem offset by new panels
you don’t know someone that is a part of a particular group, and you hear a lot of misinformation about that particular group, especially
SEE VETERAN, PAGE 3
By Cody Thompson
New York. The project began in January. The blog has one continuous story while the podcast has two episodes. The project is owned by the Islamic Center of Bloomington,
SEE AWARDS, PAGE 6
The Light Totem at the IU Art Museum has long been a highly visible part of students’ daily commutes. The museum’s Green Team recently added a more sustainable element to the fixture. Now, solar panels installed atop the IUAM building will collect light, which help offset the energy used by the massive light installation. Abe Morris, manager of public relations and marketing for IUAM, said though the panels will not directly power the Totem, they are expected to collect equivalent energy to compensate for energy used by the piece. “The museum has had a Green Team for a number of years — we’d been looking for a way to make the museum more sustainable,” Morris said. “We’ve done past projects like putting recycling bins out in the atrium.” Created by Professor Emeritus and professional lighting designer Robert Shakespeare in 2006, the Totem uses about 4700kWH of energy each year. Placing solar panels on the roof of IUAM will hopefully help compensate that energy usage, Morris said. Morris said in preparation for this project, Jeanne Leimkuhler, former president of the Green Team, applied for a grant with the Student Sustainability Council, a group that provides funding for green initiatives. The Council was able to grant $5,000 toward funding the project, but Morris said the Green Team quickly realized that would not be
2 women begin project for Muslim tolerance Anna is a Muslim and Aubrey is not, but the two women became close friends by creating a project to educate the public about what Islam really is. Muslims of Bloomington is a project produced by Aubrey Seader and Anna Maïdi, and is part of the Openhearted Campaign seeking to promote tolerance and understanding of Muslim Americans. Muslims of Bloomington consists of two smaller projects — The Hijab Diaries and the Muslims of Bloomington Blog. Both of these tell stories of local Muslims to show people that Muslims are no different from anyone else. “Telling people’s stories is so powerful,” Seader said. “They break down barriers so much more than them having to explain themselves.” The Hijab Diaries is a podcast featuring Muslim women from the Islamic Center that speak of their lifestyle and experiences with prejudice. Muslims of Bloomington is a blog that features the stories of other Muslims in a style similar to Humans of
IU Coach Tom Crean is the 2016 Big Ten Coach of the Year, the conference announced Monday night during its end-of-season awards show on the Big Ten Network. Crean led his team to a 25-6 (153) season and the Hoosiers’ second regular season Big Ten Championship in four years. When he found out about the honor, Crean said he stayed quiet for 10 minutes before telling his wife. Crean was also named Big Ten Coach of the Year by the Associated Press earlier Monday. “I was really flattered,” he said. “When you get the respect of your peers, and of the media that cover this league on a daily basis, it means a lot.” IU senior guard Yogi Ferrell was one of three unanimous selections on the All-Big Ten First Team. Michigan State’s Denzel Valentine and Iowa’s Jarrod Uthoff joined him. Purdue’s A.J. Hammons and Wisconsin’s Nigel Hayes rounded out the five-man team. Ferrell was also named to the All-Big Ten Defensive Team and was selected for the Associated Press All-Big Ten team earlier in the day. He finished the regular season averaging 17.1 points and 5.5 assists per game. “He went from a confident individual to a confident leader,” Crean said of his point guard. The Big Ten Player of the Year award, which some thought could go to Ferrell, was given to Valentine. The Spartan guard averaged 19.6 points and 7.5 rebounds in his senior season. During his interview on the awards show, Valentine echoed something Ferrell has said throughout his senior season. “I just want to be remembered as a winner,” Valentine said. “That’s what separates you at this school.” The Spartans, who beat the Hoosiers 88-69 back on Feb. 14, are a likely final-four pick in the NCAA