TLN 09-25-19

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EGACY Yesterday. Today. Tomorrow.

WEDNESDAYS • Sept. 25, 2019

INSIDE • Local group wants to mobilize local workers to vote • VCU students learn ‘profund’ lessons on poverty • Show me the money: More than talk on reparations • Study reveals how to control your ‘dark impulses’

Richmond & Hampton Roads

LEGACYNEWSPAPER.COM • FREE

Veteran suicides increase despite host of prevention, mental health efforts

Veterans suicides rose in 2017 despite concerted efforts in recent years from federal officials and lawmakers to address mental health and emergency intervention services within the military community.

Veterans Affairs officials noted in a new analysis released Friday that because of a data delay, their report does not take into effect any new initiatives put in place over the last 22 months.

They also emphasized in the report that suicide prevention has become a major public health problem throughout the country, not just in the veterans community.

“Veterans do not live, work, and serve in isolation from the community, the nation, or the world,” the report states. “The issue of suicide in the U.S. also affects the veteran population.”

But the increase in the number of veterans who die by suicide represents another setback for advocates who have worked in recent years to address the problem through public awareness campaigns, easier access to psychological treatment and aggressive messaging against the stigma of seeking mental health care.

More than 6,100 veterans died by

suicide in 2017, about 17 individuals per day. That’s up about 2 percent from 2016 and about 6 percent over the previous 12 years.

The shift is even more pronounced considering that the total number of veterans in America is decreasing each year, as older generations of former military personnel age. The total number of veterans in America dropped almost 2 percent from 2016 to 2017 (about 370,000 veterans) and was down almost 18 percent from 2005 to 2017.

Department officials in recent years have quoted the rate of veterans suicides across the country as “20 per day,” reflecting past figures which included active-duty military, guardsmen and reservists who served on active-duty, and National Guard and reserve members who were never federally activated.

Officials said they changed this year’s report to focus solely on veterans to avoid confusion about the population they monitor and directly assist. If the other military and never-activated reservist numbers were included, it would have pushed the suicide rate for the total veteran-connected group to about 21 individuals per day.

Nearly 87 Americans die by suicide each day, according to federal statistics.

Women with prior military service are more than twice as likely to

die by suicide as their civilian peers, according to the report. Male veterans are 1.3 times as likely to die by suicide as men who never served.

Almost two-thirds of the suicide deaths among veterans in 2017 were individuals who had no contact with the Veterans Health Administration.

VA officials in recent years have focused on public outreach efforts to address that problem, noting limited opportunities to share information on support services with veterans who they don’t interact with regularly.

In a letter accompanying the report, Dr. Richard Stone — executive in charge of the Veterans Health Administration — said that suicide “is a national public health problem that disproportionately affects those who served our nation.”

He called upon community partners to work with the department on “actionable, manageable steps” to address the problem.

Earlier this year, President Donald Trump announced the formation of a new task force lead by VA Secretary Robert Wilkie to focus on the issue of veteran and military suicide prevention. Among the issues that group of federal officials is considering is how to more quickly compile national suicide data, to provide quicker analysis of how prevention programs are performing.

The task force is expected to issue a formal report early next spring. - S&S

The LEGACY

2 • Sept. 25, 2019

News

A remarkable journey to Major League Soccer Siad Haji is standing at a podium in a Chicago ballroom, about to take the next step in a journey that is remarkable by almost any standard. It is Jan. 11, the day of Major League Soccer’s annual SuperDraft, and Haji, at 19 and only two months removed from a brilliant season at Virginia Commonwealth University, has just been selected second overall by the San Jose Earthquakes.

He takes a photo with Don Garber, the MLS commissioner, and Garber hands him a jersey.

Haji steps to the microphone and looks out at the room of reporters, athletes and league executives.

He unfolds a sheet of paper and takes a breath.

He says this is “a dream come true.”

Then he begins to tell the story of his journey to professional soccer.

“Around 1991, a civil war broke in Somalia,” he said.

Haji’s long road to MLS has been told before. He was born in a refugee camp in Kenya, where his parents lived for years after fleeing Somalia. The family came to the United States when Haji was 4 and settled in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Haji taught himself English by watching PBS Kids. He played local soccer and in the sixth grade earned a spot on a club team, the New Hampshire Classics. Later, Haji played for the New England Revolution player development academy, and for U.S. Soccer’s under-15, under-17 and under-19 teams. He was a known talent, a gifted athlete who could pass and shoot and make plays all over the field. The coach at Manchester Central High School, Chris LaBerge, said Haji, even at 9 or 10 years old, “was the best player we’d ever seen.”

“In U.S. Soccer circles, everyone knew who he was,” said Dave Giffard, the men’s soccer coach at VCU. But Haji, for several reasons, kept disappearing from view. Manchester is not a cradle of soccer stardom, and Haji, the oldest boy in a family that had lived for years in displacement, took on more responsibilities at home as he entered his teenage years. The barriers to a future in soccer were numerous.

“For so many players in our country, it’s parentdriven. Your parents pay, they drive you around.

It’s an upper-middle class, upper-class sport,” Giffard said. “And clubs try to help kids who don't have the resources to pay all the fees, but in the end, the kids still need to get there. Siad, it was very difficult to get to things outside his community teams. He had to rely on rides from

Siad Haji’s long path to pro soccer began in Kenya, where his parents lived for years after fleeing war-torn Somalia. PHOTO: ISI other people. Meanwhile, he’s a young kid doing more for his family than a typical 14- or 15-yearold in the U.S.” A prep school a few hours away recruited Haji, but he soon returned home. He never played for Manchester Central, instead developing his game intermittently through after-school programs offered by the Granite United Way and the Salvation Army. When Haji graduated high school in 2016, he wasn’t eligible to attend a Division I college.

“In a different environment, he would have been out of the U.S. with a club,” Giffard said. “But even with that early identification, he fell through the cracks.”

Adam Pfeifer knew that Haji was likely to begin his college soccer career at Division III and then transfer to a Division I school. Pfeifer, a friend of Giffard’s and a former standout at Boston College, is the men’s soccer coach at Norwich University, a Division III military college in Vermont. He had grown up facing his own academic challenges, and felt he could relate to Haji, at least a little.

“I’ve been really lucky in my life,” Pfeifer said.

“I have some learning disabilities and school was never easy for me. But I grew up in a family where my dad was a child psychologist, we had the means to provide me extra support and I happened to go to a high school with a great special education program. And I was fortunate to be able to use soccer as a vehicle to go to Boston

College. “[Siad] was a kid that … it was clear to me that he was a good person. It was clear to me that he was incredibly smart. And the soccer talent, everybody knew that part.”

Pfeifer believed he could help Haji get to a Division I school — and the financial and academic support Division I schools provide — as soon as possible. In the summer of 2016, he recruited Haji to come to Norwich. But Haji, due to family circumstances, did not enroll. July gave way to August. Haji remained in Manchester.

Pfeifer began searching for other schools.

“I wanted what was best for him, which was to get through a year at a four-year college and be able to transfer somewhere that would provide him with the financial and academic support he needed,” Pfeifer said. “I’ve seen lots of kids, myself included, where academics weren’t a strong point and because of the support provided to Division I student-athletes, you can thrive.

“I told [Siad] my goal was to help him achieve his goals. If I just turned my back on him after it didn’t work out at my school, I would have been a liar.”

Pfeifer called Dave DeCew, a friend from high school and the coach at New England College, a small liberal arts school 30 minutes northwest of Manchester. It was a Saturday, two days before the start of the fall semester.

“I asked [Dave], ‘Can you get him in and get him to school tomorrow?’ He knew Siad. Everyone knew him. And I sent over the transcripts and information I had and he was able to connect with Siad and got him into school.”

Haji arrived at New England College late in the 2016 preseason. He didn’t play the first four games. But the talent was there. He scored nine goals in 14 games, leading the Pilgrims to their first conference championship. He also improved his academics, and in the spring of 2017 was preparing to transfer to a Division I school when Pfeifer — who had stayed in touch — picked up the phone and called Dave Giffard at VCU. “Adam said Siad was available,” Giffard said.

“This was April, May. And I said, ‘Let’s chat and see if it can work.’”

There are 206 NCAA Division I men’s soccer teams in the United States. Haji was good enough to play for any of them. But he ended up at VCU

(continued on page 9)

www.LEGACYnewspaper.com

Sept. 25, 2019 • 3

Ai-jen Poo, Ghazala Hashmi, Sen. Jennifer McClellan, Sheila Bynum-Coleman, Alicia Garza, Del. Lashrecse Aird, Del. Marcia Price, Alexsis Rodgers

Group’s investment in Virginia elections to mobilize domestic workers Care in Action, working on behalf of more than two million care workers nationally, formally announced a six-figure investment in Virginia’s General Assembly to elect champions of a Care Economy.

The organization has endorsed 12 candidates – all women of color – for House and Senate races who will be the change needed in Virginia’s legislature to adopt stronger protections for domestic workers.

Care in Action plans on investing nearly $300,000 in a coordinated electoral campaign, including field organizers, digital advertisements and direct mail campaigns in key districts to mobilize voters.

“Virginia can be a gamechanger for domestic workers and securing the protections they need,” said Jess Morales Rocketto, executive director of Care in Action. “We’ve endorsed these women for the Virginia General Assembly because they will set a new legislative agenda

CIA Endorsed Candidates: State Senate Ghazala Hashmi (SD-10) Sen. Mamie Locke (SD-02) Sen. Jennifer McClellan (SD-09) House of Delegates Del. Lashrecse Aird (HD-63) Del. Hala Ayala (HD-51) Sheila Bynum-Coleman (HD-66) Del. Jennifer Carroll Foy (HD-02) Del. Kelly Convirs-Fowler (HD-21) Del. Elizabeth Guzman (HD-31) Darlene Lewis (HD-8) Del. Marcia Price (HD-95) Del. Kathy Tran (HD-42) to improve the lives of domestic workers and working people.”

Domestic work is a woman-driven workforce, where the majority of that workforce are women of color

and immigrants. Care workers help meet the physical, emotional and social needs of families, yet do not have basic rights and labor protections. There are limited federal and state labor protections for this workforce.

“We know the best way to support women of color is to elect women of color leaders who will make a difference in the lives of workers and their families,” said Morales Rocketto. “They will fight for fair wages, paid family leave, access to childcare and the protections we desperately need for housekeepers, nannies and all care workers.”

Last year, the group coordinated the largest independently funded ground game in Georgia, backing candidates like Stacey Abrams and rallying women of color voters, especially black women, across the state.

Now they’ve turned their sights to Virginia. This is the first time Care in Action has invested money in

Virginia’s state legislative elections and is the only electoral work they are focused on in 2019.

Currently, Virginia does not provide paid family leave or sick leave, nor protections for pregnant workers. The state also does not require worker’s compensation or overtime pay for live-in employees and when work is performed on a holiday. As an underpaid and overlooked workforce, Care in Action is focused on making a Care Economy a key electoral issue for Virginia voters.

“Domestic workers and home care workers make up an important part of the electorate,” said Alexsis Rodgers, Virginia state director for Care in Action. “Women of color, especially black women, are the most reliable voting bloc in the U.S. We’re going to tap into this network to build the future we want to live in and elect leaders that represent our values in Virginia.”

The LEGACY

4 • Sept. 25, 2019

Outside NRA HQ, Virginia Democrats focus on gun violence ANTONIO OLIVO The importance of guns in Virginia’s fall elections was on display Friday outside the headquarters of the National Rifle Association, as Democratic candidates — joined by former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords — vowed to mandate background checks, age limits and other gun restrictions if their party seizes control of the General Assembly.

“These are scary times,” said Giffords (D-Ariz.), who suffered a brain injury in a shooting in Tucson in 2011. She attended the rally along with former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) and about a half-dozen Democrats being endorsed by her pro-gun-control organization, the Giffords group.

“Now is the time to come together and be responsible, Democrats and Republicans,” Giffords said. “We must never stop fighting.”

McAuliffe was more pointed, saying the NRA’s presence in Fairfax County is “a disgrace to the Commonwealth of Virginia.”

“If you don’t like our bills, you can move your headquarters somewhere else,” the former governor said, addressing NRA chief executive Wayne LaPierre.

An NRA spokesperson did not return a request for comment.

Democrats are seeking to overcome narrow Republican majorities in the House of Delegates and the Senate this fall. It is the only election in the country this year where control of the state legislature is at stake.

They see a path to victory in highlighting the NRA-friendly stances taken by GOP lawmakers in Richmond in the wake of several mass shootings around the country, including one in Virginia Beach in May that killed 12 people.

The Giffords group is supporting

41 Democratic candidates across the state, with plans to pour money into key races and canvass those areas for votes.

Everytown for Gun Safety — another national group, started by billionaire ex-New York mayor Michael Bloomberg — is backing 25 Democrats in Virginia, targeting Republican incumbents in suburban swing districts with a $2.5 million advertizing blitz in Northern Virginia, Richmond and the Hampton roads area.

On the opposite side, the NRA — which has been embroiled in internal controversy and leadership battles as of late — recently donated $200,000 to the political action committee of House Majority Leader Todd Gilbert (R-Shenandoah). It was by far the organization’s largest one-time contribution in Virginia in at least the past 20 years, according to the nonpartisan Virginia Public Access Project.

“My guess is that this is going to become an animating issue in the closing weeks of several of these races,” said Quentin Kidd, director of the Wason Center for Public Policy at Christopher Newport University.

A recent Washington Post-ABC News poll found that a vast majority of the country — including political independents and women who could play vital roles in upcoming elections — strongly supports gun-control measures such as background checks. Republican elected officials have general opposed such legislation.

In July, Virginia Republicans abruptly ended a special legislative session focused on gun bills — convened by Gov. Ralph Northam (D) in the wake of the Virginia Beach shooting — without considering a single bill.

The GOP lawmakers referred

more than 60 pieces of legislation to the State Crime Commission, which heard testimony from experts and presentations from the bill’s sponsors. Garren Shipley, a spokesman for Gilbert, said Republicans are waiting for recommendations from the commission before taking action.

“Today, our children, because of the cowardice of the people in our legislature, have to practice drills to learn how hide from gun violence in their classroom,” Del. Kathleen Murphy (D-Fairfax) said Friday. “It’s a disgrace.”

With corporations also calling for a debate on gun control, some Republicans in Virginia have adopted a softer stance. Mary Margaret Kastelberg, who is running for a Richmond-area House seat, called this week for background checks, limits on magazine size and a “red flag” law that would allow authorities to temporarily take guns away from people deemed a danger to themselves or others.

Last month, Del. Tim Hugo (R-Fairfax), who is locked in a high-profile race against Democrat Dan Helmer in the only GOP-held House district in increasingly blue Northern Virginia, expressed his support for a “red flag” bill.

“When you start getting Republican candidates, who are supported and endorsed by the Republican party, advocating for gun

control, that’s a sure sign that the electorate is pretty solidly aligned on the issue,” Kidd said. “And, candidates, whether Democrat or Republican, are starting to pick up on that.”

Sen. Amanda F. Chase (R-Chesterfield), a staunch advocate for increasing the rights of gun owners, tweeted a photo of herself at the shooting range Friday. The caption read: “I’m not afraid to shoot down gun groups,” and was later amended to “anti-gun groups,” according to Chase’s campaign spokesman Philip Search.

The post was widely circulated by Democrats expressing outrage.

At the Giffords rally, about 50 supporters waved signs at the glass NRA office building across the street that read “Dayton, OH” and “El Paso,” references to two recent mass shootings.

“Universal background checks? We should know who we’re giving guns to,” said Senate Minority Leader Richard L. Saslaw (D-Fairfax). “You gotta be 21 to drink, you ought be 21 to buy a gun, for God’s sake.”

Del. Hala S. Ayala (D-Prince William), who is in a competitive race with former Del. Rich Anderson (R-Prince William), told the group that gun violence took the life of her father, who was shot by his brother in the 1970s in Washington, D.C. “I was two years old,” Ayala said.

“This is how gun violence affects families.” - WaPo

www.LEGACYnewspaper.com

Sept. 25, 2019• 5

EO43 meant to help power Va.’s electricity carbon-free by 2050

‘It’s choreographed chaos’: Just two hours of poverty teaches students a profound lesson After being evicted, 25-yearold Jack Jolly paid his rent and returned home only to find that his girlfriend, 19-year-old Joyce Jacobi, had lost their baby, Josh.

Jacobi had been concentrating so hard on paying their bills that she had forgotten the baby at home, where social services found him.

Thankfully, this horrifying scenario was not real, but rather part of the inaugural interprofessional poverty simulations at Virginia Commonwealth University designed to sensitize its health profession students and create a broader awareness of the realities of poverty.

The Virginia Cooperative Extension in partnership with the VCU Center for Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Care ran the simulation.

“We take care of so many patients that face so many barriers in life,” said Alan Dow, M.D., assistant vice president of the center and professor of internal medicine at the VCU School of Medicine. “As a doctor, it’s actually not all that hard to figure out what’s wrong with them and what we need to do. But at times, it’s really hard to figure out how to actually make that happen. Poverty is one of those barriers. There’s lots of other barriers, but poverty is one of the biggest barriers that we just struggle with.”

More than 400 students participated in the simulation where they had to provide for basic necessities and shelter on a limited budget during the course of four

15-minute “weeks.”

“During those 15 minutes, the participants actually have to go through and meet goals,” said Elizabeth Micalizzi, administrative director of the Center for Interprofessional Education and Collaboration. “For example, you need to feed your family. You need to go to work. You need to keep the lights on.”

However, as in real life, unexpected obstacles arise.

“We throw in some reality,” Micalizzi said. “Not everybody has a car. You need public transportation and sometimes public transportation is late. If you’ve arrived to do your job late, you don’t get paid, therefore you can’t feed your family.

“It’s designed to be fast-paced and stressful. It’s choreographed chaos.”

The entire simulation takes place in a large room with the impoverished families housed in groups of chairs. The room’s perimeter is lined with various services, such as a utility company, a school and a child care facility.

Players are randomly assigned a persona and household. Some houses are multigenerational, while others might be occupied by an older adult who lives by himself.

A police officer can put people in jail based on how they look, what they're doing or where they are. A professor might kick a student out of class if she brings her baby. An illegal activities person goes around selling drugs and laundering money.

Kayla Burfoot, a first-year master

An ambitious plan in the form of Executive Order 43 is meant to expand renewable energy in Virginia and address the climate crisis. Gov. Ralph Northam signed the order last week during the inaugural Virginia Clean Energy Summit.

In addition to establishing energy efficiency requirements on state buildings and a goal for 30 percent of Virginia’s energy to be powered by renewable sources by 2030, the executive order sets Virginia on the path to zero carbon pollution by 2050. It also ties plans for clean energy to jobs, focused on pathways out of poverty.

While the plan to meet the goals laid out by Northam will not be finalized until July 1, 2020, his administration notes there will be steps towards the transition that go into effect almost immediately.

This includes: DMME initiating a competitive power purchase agreement for distributed solar, state agencies and universities looking at their energy of social work student, played 57-year-old Lester Locke, who lives with his daughter’s family.

“He has had a mild stroke that has left him with a partial paralysis, so he really can't do that much so that's why he stays at home,” Burfoot said.

Her classmate Mary Barnett roleplayed Lester’s daughter Linda, who is unemployed because that’s the only way she has enough time to take care of the household.

“My husband is a general employee and works 40 hours a week and makes above minimum wage at $8.50 an hour,” she said. “State minimum wage is $7.50. After taxes we make $1,241 per month, which is about $310 each week,” Barnett said. “I feel so frazzled right now to be honest. I wasn't able to care for my child and be able to get her the Valentine's Day thing that she was

consumption and implementing energy efficiency, and 3000 MW of wind and solar development by 2022.

“We commend the governor for setting goals today that will make Virginia a leader in fighting the climate crisis,” said Kate Addleson, director, Sierra Club Virginia Chapter.

“Virginians have long demanded the benefits of transitioning to a clean energy economy and deserve a future free of fossil fuel pollution.

To reach these goals in a way that benefits all Virginians, the state will need to increase energy efficiency and reject fracked-gas.

Doing so will chart a path to create more good jobs, lower electric bills, and support healthier communities.

Later this week, thousands of young people will march to send a powerful reminder to leaders, like state lawmakers who will be needed to see this plan through, that future generations are counting on them to make the right climate decisions.” supposed to do.

“I don't know how I'm supposed to take care of my father. I know that's a burden that a lot of people face and is such a part of reality, and the cost of care is getting so expensive and Medicaid doesn't cover everything.

And so I don't know.”

In the role of Lester, Burfoot feels as though she can't contribute.

“I can't help,” she said. “I'm sitting and waiting for things to kind of just fall into place.”

The simulation opened her eyes to what it means to live in poverty, Burfoot said.

“It highlights what populations may be at a disadvantage when it comes to trying to obtain certain services or access to certain services and just the day-to-day tribulations that they may go through in trying to get basic needs.”

6 • Sept. 25, 2019

Op/Ed & Letters

The LEGACY

Biden’s words on racial equality ring hollow ZACHARY R. WOOD “I think the Democratic Party could stand a liberal George Wallace — someone who’s not afraid to stand up and offend people, someone who wouldn’t pander, but would say what the American people know in their gut is right.”

Former Vice President Joe Biden uttered these words in an interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer in 1975. But before we proceed, I have to ask: Are you surprised?

Perhaps Biden’s humor is lost on me, but I have a hard time understanding how any American leader could make a statement like that and truly believe in racial equality. At first glance, I thought to myself: If Biden wants the support of African American voters, he is going to have to recant this opinion, and apologize for the anger and distrust his words have unjustly ignited. On second thought, I am not sure if it would be a good idea for Biden to address this horrendous comment because I fear that if he tried, he might only succeed in making some aggravated potential threat to our public safety somewhere think that statements like this are in the The LEGACY NEWSPAPER Vol. 5 No. 39 Mailing Address P.O. Box 12474 Richmond, VA 23241 Office Address 105 1/2 E. Clay St. Richmond, VA 23219 Call: 804-644-1550 Online www.legacynewspaper.com

ballpark of being “OK.” Instead of discussing the reasonable expectation that Biden fumble around and flub a partial apology, here I want to make the case briefly as to why I believe Joe Biden does not deserve the support of the African American community.

My thesis: Biden’s 36-year Senate history scarcely reflects a strong, honest commitment to fighting for racial justice.

To start, as many journalists, and even two presidential candidates have contended, Biden fiercely and persistently opposed busing as a mechanism for desegregation.

In his own words, “no issue has consumed more of my time and energy.” This battle in which Biden The LEGACY welcomes all signed letters and all respectful opinions.

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was an outspoken crusader put him in cahoots with unapologetic white segregationists such as Jesse Helms and Strom Thurmond. Making matters worse, his commentary on the issue was flagrantly foul.

In one interview, Biden called busing efforts to integrate schools “asinine” because it would “stunt the intellectual growth” of the “children of good citizens who are not racist” and “fill them with hatred” for being sent to “inferior schools.” I prefer not to unpack this one.

On top of that, Biden advocated ruthlessly for mass incarceration.

He even attacked George H.W. Bush, a Republican president, for not being aggressive enough on crime. His language again was on many occasions shocking and recklessly offensive. What is more, Biden willfully authored several of the most harmful policies undergirding the war on drugs.

He wrote legislation increasing policing and the number of prisons, maximizing prison sentences for drug offenses, devising racially disparate punishment for crack cocaine.

Less often discussed are some

of the detrimental neoliberal economic policies Biden has fought hard for that have particularly disadvantaged African-Americans.

In 2005, Biden championed a bankruptcy bill that made it harder for individuals facing overwhelming financial challenges to file for bankruptcy and get out of debt. This bill also made it much more difficult for low-income and first-generation college graduates to discharge their student debt. Similarly, Biden has pushed for welfare cuts that constrained the life chances of many families struggling to make ends meet.

While I certainly appreciate Biden’s loyal service as Barack Obama’s vice president, I have a hard time reconciling some of his more recent positions on racial equality with his long history of fueling rhetoric and spearheading legislation that have severely hurt African-American communities.

Wood is an assistant curator at TED and the author of “Uncensored: My Life and Uncomfortable Conversations at the Intersection of Black and White America.”

www.LEGACYnewspaper.com

Sept. 25, 2019• 7

P.T. Hoffsteader, Esq.

Harmful policies

Soldier speak As an enlisted loyal soldier, I will go AWOL before I take part of Trump's private army to aid the murderous country responsible for 911. In reality we are being asked to risk our lives for Trump's criminal malfeasance by paying back personal favors to the Saudi Sheik.

I am not the only one feeling this way. Please understand we will not be deserters of America but of a criminal president who is a traitor giving illegal orders by which a complicit criminal Congress is aiding and abetting.

We understand we may never be able to return to the country we love after such actions and it is a consequence we are prepared to undertake.

God bless America but most of all, God help America as she is under attack from within.

Unsigned

Today, we have a president who relishes stoking the fears of his right-wing base by relying on age-old racist tropes of immigrants as lazy, unwilling to work and a threat to national security.

One of his first acts in office was to institute the Muslim ban, and he has followed that up by cancelling the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which is currently being litigated; ended Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for people from targeted countries; increased immigration enforcement and border security; ordered the construction of detention facilities along the U.S.-Mexico border; limited asylum; and signed an executive order that penalizes sanctuary cities that refuse to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The president describes immigrants as “an invasion,” and he regularly uses racist slurs while talking about immigration policy.

This is more than a rhetorical move. His words have material consequences for people that are fleeing horrific violence in countries that have been destabilized by U.S. foreign policy.

When the president says that “immigrants are taking over” or that “they want to take American jobs” he is doing so knowing that his supporters understand that

his words are more than just speech acts. The man that killed 22 people in El Paso, Texas, targeted Mexicans, and blamed what he called “the Hispanic invasion of Texas” for his actions. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, “Antiimmigrant hate groups are the most extreme of the hundreds of nativist and vigilante groups that have proliferated since the late 1990s, when anti-immigrant fervor began to rise to levels not seen in the United States since the 1920s.”

School administrators and faculty like me cannot pretend that the campus and classroom and the “real world” do not intersect in significant ways.

For students from underrepresented groups, which have their attire and language policed whenever they walk out of their homes, dress codes and English-only policies are reminders that they are not safe anywhere.

We cannot expect students to read and think critically about history or current issues, and then proceed as if dehumanizing policies and the conditions of learning don’t matter.

This, too, is a type of violent erasure.

For students from underrepresented groups, dress codes and English-only policies are reminders that they are not safe anywhere.

In my course we read and talked about the Black Student Movement of the 60s and how universities were

sites of struggle.

We also talked about selfdetermination, what it means to receive a culturally relevant education, and other social struggles that were happening around the same time that black studies was emerging as a discipline.

We read and talked about the Civil Rights Movement, Third World Liberation Movements, the Vietnam Movement and the Black Power Movement. I also pointed out that Africana Studies, as Maulana Karenga argues, is an inherently activist discipline that is intellectually rigorous and concerned with social justice.

On the first day, I emphasized that the discipline, the course and my philosophical, political and pedagogical commitments are rooted in collective black liberation, and that I would not in any way support or traffic in the pathologization of black or brown people. Yet, of course, the program itself — like so many around the country — was doing just that.

We owe it to black and brown students to have the moral courage to speak out against oppressive policies like dress codes and English-only policies.

Underserved, underrepresented and first-generation students are not liabilities to be managed or policed.

Kim Wilson

8 • Sept. 25, 2019

The LEGACY

Faith & Religion Va. seminary at forefront of reparations debate Virginia Theological Seminary took what appears to be an unprecedented step this month by announcing that it had set aside $1.7 million for a slavery reparations fund – something considered but not yet enacted by other institutions of higher education that historically benefited from slave labor.

Enslaved African Americans worked on the Alexandria campus of Virginia Theological Seminary, which was founded in 1823, and at least one building, Aspinwall Hall in 1841, was built with slave labor.

Black students were excluded from attending the Episcopal seminary until the 1950s.

“As we seek to mark [the] seminary’s milestone of 200 years, we do so conscious that our past is a mixture of sin as well as grace,” VTS Dean Ian Markham said in a press release. “This is the seminary recognizing that along with repentance for past sins, there is also a need for action.”

Income from the endowment fund for reparations will be put to use in a variety of ways, from encouraging more African American clergy in The Episcopal Church to directly serving the needs of any descendants of the enslaved Africans who worked at the seminary.

The seminary’s announcement comes amid a growing national conversation over reparations as one way to atone for the American systems of slavery and segregation, rooted in the Colonial era and still showing lingering effects on society today. While Democratic presidential candidates have been asked for their views on the subject this year, Episcopal Church leaders have taken a lead in speaking in favor of reparations, most recently Maryland Bishop Eugene Sutton.

“Everyone living in our great nation has inherited a mess created

by the institution of slavery,” Sutton testified in June at a congressional hearing on reparations. “None of us caused this brokenness, but all of us have a moral responsibility to fix it.”

Speaking a month after his diocesan convention approved a racial reconciliation resolution that raised the prospect of reparations, Sutton noted in his testimony that reparations are not simply about monetary compensation, but rather repairing what is broken. “An act of reparation is an attempt to make whole again, to restore, to offer atonement, to make amends, to reconcile for a wrong or injury.”

The issue has been particularly active in the academic world, with numerous colleges and universities founded before the Civil War grappling with their own histories of racial injustice. More than 50 of them, including Sewanee: University of the South in Tennessee, have joined a coalition called Universities Studying Slavery to research that history.

Sewanee has not yet taken up the topic of reparations directly, though its Robertson Project on Slavery, Race and Reconciliation includes among its goals “to consider the obligations that Sewanee’s history places on us in deciding how we can become a more equitable, inclusive, and cohesive university community.”

Students at Georgetown University have pushed a measure that would raise a reparations fund at the Jesuit university in Washington by adding a fee to students’ tuition bills. Georgetown is a prominent case because of its own research into the 272 campus-owned slaves who were sold in 1838 to save the school from closure.

The proposal to raise money for reparations through student fees has been called unprecedented. A headline in The Atlantic from April

The Very Rev. Ian S. Markham described the student proposal as “The First Reparations Attempt at an American College,” and a Politico article from the same month carried the headline “This Could Be the First Slavery Reparations Policy in America.”

If that was hypothetically true for Georgetown in April, VTS actually might be the first now.

The seminary’s Office of Multicultural Ministries will administer the fund “as part of our commitment to recognizing the racism in our past and working toward healing and reconciliation in the future,” the seminary said in its press release.

It specified five ways the income from the fund might be spent: * On needs identified by local congregations with ties to VTS; * On the needs of descendants of enslaved people who worked at VTS; * To support the work of black alumni, especially at historically black congregations; * To raise up African American clergy; and * Other activities that promote justice and inclusion.

“Though no amount of money could ever truly compensate for slavery, the commitment of

these financial resources means that the institution’s attitude of repentance is being supported by actions of repentance that can have a significant impact both on the recipients of the funds, as well as on those at VTS,” the Rev. Joseph Thompson, director of VTS’ Office of Multicultural Ministries, said in the seminary’s release.

Thompson, in an interview with Episcopal News Service, said the seminary expected to be able to spend about $70,000 a year from endowment income. The seminary has engaged in racial reconciliation efforts for a while, he said, but those efforts took a big step forward about 10 years ago when Markham, the dean, issued a public apology for the seminary’s complicity in slavery.

Conversations at VTS about reparations grew in urgency in recent years as the national debate over racial relations intensified.

“With everything that’s been going on in society around us and more attention being paid to the idea of reparations, people began to think about the material consequences of slavery and of racism and wanting to do something to repair that,”

(continued on page 17)

www.LEGACYnewspaper.com

Sept. 25, 2019• 9

(from page 2) in part because Pfeifer, a coach at a school Haji never attended, cared enough to help when there was no personal benefit.

Pfeifer prefers to downplay that rhetoric. He said he was happy to help Haji — “that’s what we’re supposed to be doing,” he said.

Giffard, though, sees the situation differently. Sitting in his office on an overcast afternoon last winter, he starts to unpack the first half of Haji’s story, beginning in Kenya and ending with his enrollment at VCU. With so many starts and stops, it’s extraordinary to think that it ended with Haji attending a Division I university at 18, Giffard said.

“Everybody knows who Siad Haji is, and everybody would like to have Siad Haji on their team. Not everybody was going to go through all the things that needed to be done to make it a reality,” Giffard said. “That’s where a guy like Adam [Pfeifer] — the kid didn’t even go to his school. In his first phone call to me, his perspective was, ‘Dave, if this kid grew up in my house, he would play in Europe right now.’”

You can paint this part of Haji’s life with a broad brush, Giffard said, hopping along a geographic timeline from Kenya to New England to Richmond. But you would miss the important details beneath the surface: the early signs he could be a star, the cracks he fell through that cost him years of development, the responsibilities he shouldered helping his family build a life in the United States, the near miss at Norwich.

“He’s a remarkable kid,” Giffard said.

His voice cracks. He pauses for a moment to collect himself.

“Sorry. As I think about it, it’s really amazing.”

Giffard and Haji talked constantly that summer as Giffard worked to help Haji enroll at VCU. Meanwhile, a woman in Manchester purchased a bus pass to send Haji to Richmond for preseason training camp. But when Haji arrived at the bus station, he was turned away. His given name isn’t Siad, it’s Abdulkadir. And when the woman purchased the ticket she misspelled Haji’s first name by a

letter.

“They wouldn’t let him on the bus,” Giffard said. “That is a sad thing to think about. My name is Dave Giffard. If my ticket said ‘Drave Giffard,’ I’m pretty sure they’d let me on the bus. But a young, black, Muslim boy with that name …”

Giffard’s voice trailed off.

“To go back home and figure out the money for a new bus ticket, it took five days.”

For a second consecutive year, Haji was late to camp. The day he arrived, VCU was playing Georgetown in a preseason match.

Giffard sent Haji into the game. He looked lost.

“He went in and he had no idea what he was doing or where he was going,” Giffard said. “When you do stuff with U.S. Soccer, you pop in for a week or 10 days, you play a little bit and it’s not a lot of structure. It’s more for the coaches trying to get a feel for where people are developmentally. Aside from God-given, a lot of [Siad’s] development probably happened on the playground, playing pickup with his friends.”

Haji scored a goal that day, and created some good scoring chances, Giffard said. He had a lot of ability but needed structure.

“The first couple weeks for him were a really big adjustment,” Giffard said. “[But] by the end of the season, his learning curve was so quick, he was a guy we didn't want to take off the field. The first jump he made here, we crammed in eight to nine years of tactical development into two months. That was exciting to see him improve as much as he

did.

“Those first months were a big learning curve — academically, socially. I think he grew considerably, just being able to stand on his own two feet.”

“I mean everybody knows who Siad Haji is, and everybody would like to have Siad Haji on their team. Not everybody was going to go through all the things that needed to be done to make it a reality. That’s where a guy like Adam [Pfeifer] — the kid didn’t even go to his school.

In his first phone call to me, his perspective was, ‘Dave, if this kid grew up in my house, he would play in Europe right now.’”

Haji scored two goals and added eight assists as VCU won the 2017 Atlantic 10 championship.

He followed with a breakout 2018 season in which he scored five goals, distributed 10 assists and was named the conference’s top midfielder. He had three assists in VCU’s upset of No. 20 Old Dominion on Sept. 19. In the A-10 opener against La Salle, he dribbled across midfield, raced away from two defenders and fired a rocket into the back of the goal from 30 yards out.

A week later, he scored two goals against Massachusetts, smoothly weaving untouched through the UMass defense before finishing with low driving shots into the net.

By the end of his second season at VCU, Haji had emerged as one of the top playmakers in the country, Giffard said, setting up scoring opportunities for his teammates, slicing through opposing defenses like a speedboat through water.

Haji was named a first-team AllAmerican by TopDrawerSoccer. In the classroom, he declared a major in sociology and made the College of Humanities and Sciences’ dean’s list.

Two months after the season ended, Haji signed a professional contract with Generation Adidas, a partnership between Major League Soccer and Adidas that provides promising underclassmen a path to MLS. In January, he became the highest-drafted player from VCU in any sport.

“To me, it’s a blessing,” Haji said after being drafted. “Two or three years ago, I did not know I’d be in

this position.”

Giffard and Haji stay in touch, usually by text message. Pfeifer reaches out to Haji every now and then — “I’m trying to get him to send me a jersey,” Pfeifer joked.

Both coaches are bullish on Haji’s future. Some of the top U.S. players started their careers through Generation Adidas, including U.S. national team members DaMarcus Beasley, Clint Dempsey and Jozy Altidore. Haji could one day join their ranks, Giffard said.

“He is a guy, who in the right environment with the right people, has a senior national team ceiling,” Giffard said. “He still needs to develop. But long term, he’s going to do really well. And crazily, he’s a better person than he is a player.”

Haji has played sparingly in his first professional season, appearing in only four games. But there have been memorable moments. He made his professional debut May 11 at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, 90 minutes from Manchester.

“It was like home,” Haji told The Commonwealth Times. “Friends were there, coaches were there, family was there, so being able to make my debut was just amazing and life changing. Just a lot of emotions I really can’t explain, but it was a happy moment.”

His two-minute speech at the MLS SuperDraft was widely shared, and Haji’s story has spread in the subsequent months. MLS wrote a short feature about Haji. The Earthquakes uploaded video of the speech to YouTube. A few clicks online and there he is, standing at the podium — dark jacket, red tie, white shirt — speaking about Kenya, about coming to the United States, about soccer, and about his family.

“Leaving their home country left my family heartbroken — leaving everything they had behind and taking nothing but memories they had made,” he said. “But our lives changed [in the United States] because this gave my family an opportunity to live free, it gave my family an opportunity to grow. And it gave me an opportunity to be someone.” - VCU News

10 • Sept. 25, 2019

The LEGACY

Is this is what a geek looks like?

ARIANNA COGHILL The creatives behind Quirktastic grew up without a space for black youth in nerd culture… so they made their own.

“You’re not really the right race to dress up as that character.”

“You don’t really look like a geek.”

“Are you pretending just for guys’ attention?”

Lauren Grant has heard everything in the book. But together with Bryanda Law and Larissa Orakunda, she’s cultivated an inclusive space for geeks, nerds, and weirdos to freely be themselves with no judgement.

Quirktastic is a website dedicated to all things alternative, featuring articles, videos and quizzes on everything from anime to crystal healing. Beginning as a blog in 2014, Quirktastic has grown into a full fledged, LA-based media company.

Law’s goal when creating Quirktastic was to make an outlet that people wished existed when they were growing up quirky, alternative, and black.

“There was no other site dedicated to creating black-business lists that cater to quirky black women, or anyone writing love letters to black men who play with LEGOs,” Law stated in a 2017 interview. “I wanted to be that site.”

Grant, a VCU Broadcast Journalism alum, joined the team in 2017, two days after leaving the worst job of her life. One of her best friends tweeted her Quirktastic’s call for writers. When she saw the website, it was love at first click.

“When I clicked on the website, I couldn’t believe that I had never heard of Quirktastic before!” says Grant. “Quirky black girls like myself were writing pieces that related to me, pieces I actually wanted to read not only from the perspective of a nerd, but from the perspective of being a woman of color.”

Grant has moved through the ranks and is now the Chief Content Officer of Quirktastic, producing all of their video and podcast content.

They grew up without a space for black youth in nerd culture… so they made their own.

Grant has always known life as a geek. She first remembers getting into the culture at about seven years old, when her childhood friend Amanda introduced her to Sailor Moon, a popular Japanese cartoon and comic book about a group of magical teenage girls saving the universe.

However, largely due to her gender and race, many people have looked at her interest with an air of skepticism.

“I wish I could say that it’s stopped, but even as someone who has worked in a geeky space for years, I still am hearing, ‘You don’t look like a geek.’”

Even black female celebrities have recently come under fire for their interest in nerd culture. Rapper and singer Lizzo dressed as Sailor Moon

for a concert. Megan thee Stallion did a photoshoot for Paper magazine as Todoroki, a character from the anime My Hero Academia, and has multiple mentions of anime in her lyrics.

Both celebrities, especially Megan thee Stallion, were accused of faking their interest in order to chase “clout” and exploit “real anime fans.”

This strict gatekeeping has been one of the greatest hurdles that the Quirktastic team has tried to overcome since relocating to LA. During many investor meetings and networking events, they keep hearing, “Well, you don’t really look like geeks.”

Quirktastic has made strides in creating a community for those who feel ostracized. With the creation of a friendship app and the hashtag

#thisiswhatageeklookslike, the Quirk community has a strong emphasis on inclusivity.

“We give everyone a chance to shine, especially women, people of color, and the LGBTQIA+ community — but our platform doesn’t just cater to minorities like ourselves,” said Grant. “We don’t care who comes into our nerdy space, as long as you come in with empathy and respect… and often that’s all anyone, regardless of race, gender, or sexuality, wants.”

When it comes to advice for young black nerds who might feel alienated, Grant has plenty.

“Find your tribe! Don’t let anyone ever tell you that you don’t belong in this space. There’s room for all types of geeks! YOU are what a geek looks like!” - RVA MAG

www.LEGACYnewspaper.com

Sept. 25, 2019 • 11

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12 • Sept. 25, 2019

The LEGACY

Partnership to offer free legal services at Richmond’s Health Education and Wellness Center The Richmond School of Law’s Carrico Center for Pro Bono & Public Service has launched a new medical legal partnership (MLP) with VCU Health and Central Virginia Legal Aid Society (CVLAS) to offer free legal services to the community.

The Health Hub at 25th, which opened this past spring, is located at Nine Mile Road and N. 25th St. in Richmond’s East End. The goal of the health education Tara Casey and wellness center is to provide activities that promote individual and community health and wellbeing.

Under the leadership of Tara Casey, director of the Carrico Center, about a dozen UR law students will have the opportunity to work with a CVLAS staff attorney at the Health Hub. The students will complete client intake screenings and connect clients with the CVLAS attorney to provide advice and counsel or set up additional screenings or resources. Types of services could include legal advice related to housing, family law, public benefits, and other issues.

“The mission of the Carrico Center is to serve the community and raise awareness about the need for pro bono legal services,” said Casey. “This latest community partnership is a wonderful example of how our curriculum extends beyond the classroom and allows students to work directly with the clients we serve.”

“There are so many social and legal factors impacting the health of this community, and our main goal is to build trust and effect positive change,” said Allison Held, a Richmond Law alum and MLP director for VCU Health.

Law students and the CVLAS staff attorney will be onsite at the Health Hub Mondays and Fridays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

www.LEGACYnewspaper.com

Sept. 25, 2019• 13

Lewandowski delays, denies, stonewalls at hearing on Trump crimes WASHINGTON— Delay, deny, stonewall, defend Donald Trump and blame Barack Obama. Welcome to the Corey Lewandowski show before the House Judiciary Committee.

Lewandowski, the GOP president’s former campaign manager, spent five hours before the panel on Sept.

17 – ironically, Constitution Day – ducking questions about whether his boss obstructed justice to try to stop Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of pro-Trump Russian manipulation of the 2016 presidential election.

Lewandowski’s show played to two audiences. One is Trump, who sent a White House official to sit directly behind Lewandowski and monitor him – and who cheered Lewandowski’s opening statement, via tweet.

And Lewandowski read into the record the current Trump White House counsel’s letter telling the lawmakers Lewandowski would claim executive privilege on his discussions with Trump. The letter showed the Trump White House orchestrated Lewandowski’s presentation.

Trump limited Lewandowski only to confirming the findings of Mueller’s report. Lewandowski also pleased Trump by alleging Obama administration officials should have told him, when he was campaign manager, about their probe into the Russian manipulation, but didn’t.

Not discussed: The millions of dollars Russian oligarchs spent to manipulate election of the scion of the corporate criminal class, Trump, to the White House.

Lewandowski also pleased Trumpites and the president’s corporate and right-wing backers nationwide, but especially in New Hampshire. There, Lewandowski is plotting a GOP primary run for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Democrat Jeanne Shaheen. He now leads in the GOP field in polls.

Trump campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, who had no problem physically assaulting people when he was working for Trump, testifying before Congress by lying and stonewalling. Jacquelyn Martin/AP Indeed, Lewandowski’s putative campaign website tweeted his opening statement and used it to campaign for cash from the radical right and public support.

Further playing to the Trumpites, Lewandowski told Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., the committee’s mostvitriolic Trumpite, that “Democrats hate this president more than they love their country.”

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., promptly retorted: “Before I begin, let me remind you, Mr. Lewandowski, that this is not a Republican primary campaign.

You are not on the campaign trail yet. This is the House Judiciary Committee. Act like you know the difference.”

Despite his repeated stonewalling, Lewandowski agreed Mueller was correct in saying Trump asked

Lewandowski to get then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to focus the foreign interference probe on future balloting and away from Trump.

Trump’s request to Lewandowski is one item of evidence lawmakers are using as they ponder whether, when and on what charges to impeach Trump with obstruction of justice.

Lewandowski’s attempt was important in Trump’s efforts to stop disclosure of Russian election interference and manipulation – not because of what he did, but what he refused to do.

Lewandowski said he called Sessions to try to set up a private lunch between them to discuss the interference, rather than put it on the record by visiting the Justice Department and signing its entry register.

Sessions refused. And, Mueller reported, Lewandowski – then and now a private citizen — later passed the request on to an aide, who didn’t do anything. Asked what he did instead, Lewandowski told lawmakers he went on vacation to the beach with his kids.

And while Lewandowski denied having any contact with the Russians, or any other foreign power, during his term as Trump’s campaign chief, he did not dispute the Mueller report’s basic conclusion that the Russians set out to help the GOP real estate mogul.

“That’s what the report says,” was his repeated answer to lawmakers about that issue and others. But despite that statement, Lewandowski let loose occasional

(continued on page 17)

14 • Sept. 25, 2019

The LEGACY

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Sept. 25, 2019• 15

Study delves into how people with psychopathic traits control ‘dark impulses’ People with psychopathic traits are predisposed toward antisocial behavior that can result in “unsuccessful” outcomes such as incarceration. However, many individuals with psychopathic traits are able to control their antisocial tendencies and avoid committing the antagonistic acts that can result.

A team of researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University and the University of Kentucky set out to explore what mechanisms might explain why certain people with psychopathic traits are able to successfully control their antisocial tendencies while others are not.

Using neuroimaging technology, they investigated the possibility that “successful” psychopathic individuals — those who control their antisocial tendencies — have more developed neural structures that promote selfregulation.

Over two structural MRI studies of “successful” psychopathic individuals, the researchers found that participants had greater levels of gray matter density in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, one of the brain regions involved in selfregulatory processes, including the down-regulation of more primitive and reactive emotions, such as fear or anger.

“Our findings indicating that this region is denser in people higher on certain psychopathic traits suggests that these individuals may have a greater capacity for self-control,” said Emily Lasko, a doctoral student in the Department of Psychology in VCU’s College of Humanities and Sciences, who led the study.

“This is important because it is some of the first evidence pointing us to a biological mechanism that can potentially explain how some psychopathic people are able to be ‘successful’ whereas others aren’t.”

The team’s findings will be described in an article, “An Investigation of the Relationship Between Psychopathy and Greater Gray Matter Density in Lateral

Emily Lasko Prefrontal Cortex,” that will be published in a forthcoming edition of the journal Personality Neuroscience. A preprint version of the article has been posted online.

The first study involved 80 adults in long-term relationships who were placed in an MRI scanner at VCU’s Collaborative Advanced Research Imaging center, where researchers took a high-resolution scan of their brain. Afterwards, participants completed a battery of questionnaires, including one that measured the “dark triad” of personality traits, individually assessing psychopathy (e.g., “it’s true that I can be mean to others”), narcissism (e.g., “I like to get acquainted with important people”), and Machiavellianism (e.g., “it’s not wise to tell your secrets”).

The second looked at another “successful” population: undergraduate students.

The researchers recruited 64 undergraduate students who were assessed for psychopathic traits and tendencies using an assessment tool designed for use in community and student populations, measuring primary psychopathy (e.g., “I enjoy manipulating other people’s feelings”) and secondary psychopathy (e.g., “I quickly lose interest in the tasks I start”). The participants were then scanned at the University of Kentucky’s Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy Center.

In both studies, the researchers observed that gray matter density in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex — which the researchers call “a hub for self-regulation” — was positively associated with psychopathic traits.

The researchers say their findings support a compensatory model of psychopathy, in which “successful” psychopathic individuals develop inhibitory mechanisms to compensate for their antisocial tendencies.

“Most neuroscientific models of psychopathy emphasize deficits in brain structure and function. These new findings lend preliminary support to the growing notion that psychopathic individuals have some advantages compared to others, not just deficiencies,” said study co-author David Chester, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology who runs the Social Psychology and Neuroscience Lab, which conducts research on psychopathy, aggression and why people try to harm others.

Across the two samples of individuals who varied widely in their psychopathic tendencies, Chester said, the team found greater structural integrity in brain regions that facilitate impulse control.

“Such neural advantages may allow psychopathic individuals to counteract their selfish and hostile tendencies, allowing them to coexist with others in spite of their antisocial impulses,” he said.

“To fully understand and effectively treat psychopathic traits in the human population, we need to understand both the shortfalls and the surpluses inherent in psychopathy. These new results are an important, though preliminary, step in that direction.”

The compensatory model of psychopathy offers a more optimistic alternative to the traditional view that focuses more on the deficits associated with psychopathy, Lasko said. The finding that the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex is

denser in these individuals lends support for the compensatory model because that region is linked to selfregulatory and inhibitory behaviors, she said.

“Psychopathy is a highly nuanced construct and this framework helps to acknowledge those nuances,” she said. “People high in psychopathy have ‘dark’ impulses, but some of these individuals are able to either inhibit them or find a socially acceptable outlet for them. The compensatory model posits that these individuals have enhanced self-regulation abilities, which are able to compensate for their antisocial impulses and facilitate their ‘success.’”

Past research has indicated that approximately 1 percent of the general population, and 15 percent to 25 percent of incarcerated people, would meet the clinical criteria for psychopathy. By gaining a deeper understanding of the neurological advantages associated with “successful” psychopathic individuals, researchers may unlock new treatments and rehabilitation strategies for them, Lasko said.

“We believe that it is critical to understand these potential ‘advantages’ because if we are able to identify biomarkers of psychopathy, and importantly, factors that could be informative in determining an individual’s potential for violent behavior and potential for rehabilitation, we will be better equipped to develop effective intervention and treatment strategies,” she said.

Lasko emphasized that the researchers’ findings are preliminary.

“Although the findings are novel and definitely provide a promising avenue for future research, they still need to be replicated,” she said. “They are also correlational so we currently aren’t able to make any causal inferences about the [ventrolateral prefrontal cortex]psychopathy relationship.”

16 • Sept. 25, 2019

The LEGACY

Calendar 9.25, 6 p.m.

Henrico County will present spoken word artist Joseph Green at the Henrico Theatre, 305 E. Nine Mile Rd., in a free event to commemorate National Recovery Month.

In an appearance titled “The Raw Spoken Words of Change,” Green will discuss his recovery and how communities can focus on prevention and healing.

The event is sponsored by Henrico Area Mental Health & Developmental Services, the Henrico County Sheriff’s Office and the Henrico Drug Court.

9.26, 1 & 6:30 p.m.

Henrico County Tuckahoe District Supervisor Patricia S. O’Bannon will host a Tuckahoe Town Meeting to highlight the Division of Fire’s services and training and to explain voting procedures for the general election on Nov. 5.

The meeting will be held at Tuckahoe Area Library, 1901 Starling Drive, with two sessions.

Residents who are unable to attend may participate via a livestream on the Henrico County Government YouTube channel: youtu.be/ a006ZQCGrMk for the 1 p.m. session and youtu.be/BrnT240rIVE for the 6:30 p.m. session.

O’Bannon will be joined by Fire Chief Alec Oughton and General Registrar Mark Coakley. Oughton also will discuss how Fire services and training help residents to save money. As part of Coakley’s presentation, residents will be able to register to vote.

For more information, call 804501-4208 or go to patobannon.com.

9.27, 10 a.m.

COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES & EVENTS

Virginia Career Works-Capital Region and its network of partners will hold a two-day job fair followingthe recent sudden closure of three Premier XD facilities in Henrico County.

The job fair will be held at the Virginia Career Works Henrico Center, 121 Cedar Fork Rd. All job seekers are welcome; no RSVP is required.

The event also will provide information on unemployment insurance benefits, health care coverage and other services and assistance.

The abrupt closure of the Premier XD warehouse facilities in Henrico affected 190 employees. Since then, dozens of area companies have contacted local workforce and economic development representatives with interest in hiring the workers.

“It’s encouraging that local employers have reached out to recruit the affected employees, just as they did after the Colortree closure in June,” said Brian Davis, executive director of the Capital Region Workforce Partnership. “It’s a testament to our business community and the Greater Richmond business climate as well as the strength of the relationships within our workforce system.”

Employers interested in participating in the job fair are encouraged to contact Mychael Lee at mychael.lee@ rescare.com or 804-952-6100.

Employees affected by Premier XD’s closures are eligible for dislocated worker services under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act and other resources through the Virginia Career Works Center. The center offers assistance with unemployment compensation and job searches as well as workshops on résumé writing, interviewing and other job-readiness topics. It also offers potentially grantfunded training toward certifications in high-demand occupations as well as information on health care coverage and more.

9.27, 1 p.m.

The Virginia Peninsula Chamber of Commerce and Brooks Crossing Innovation and Opportunity Center invite you to an Information Session and Networking Opportunity with local community stakeholders and leaders at 550 30th St. in Newport News.

9.28, 10 a.m.

Southeastern Virginia Health System (SEVHS) will host its Annual Back To School event which will be held at Warwick Boulevard Physicians, 9294 Warwick Boulevard, Newport News. All are welcome with to attend with families.

Sept. 25, 2019• 17

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(from page 8) Thompson said.

The seminary’s first steps will be to try to identify descendants of slaves who were forced to work at VTS and to reach out to the local community.

For decades, The Episcopal Church, too, has emphasized fighting racism and fostering racial reconciliation while shining a light on the church’s own past involvement with slavery and segregation. A 2000 resolution passed by General Convention called on the church to “overcome its historic silence and complicity … in the sin of racism.”

In 2006, General Convention passed another resolution supporting federal legislation that would confront the country’s legacy of slavery and take a step toward “monetary and non-monetary reparations to the descendants of the victims of slavery.”

The Diocese of Maryland, under Sutton, has been a churchwide leader in identifying its congregations’ ties to slavery, through its Trail of Souls research project and pilgrimages. And in 2016, a reparations resolution at its diocesan convention, though not approved, advanced that conversation in the diocese.

Three years later at Maryland’s 2019 convention, Sutton read a pastoral letter that called on his

diocese to again consider what reparations might look like.

“The subject of reparations is mired in emotion,” he said. “It is often mischaracterized and certainly largely misunderstood.

It is a complex issue that involves economic, political and sociological dimensions that are difficult to grasp without a willingness to engage more deeply than having a quick emotional response to the word.”

Sutton also cautioned that the church sees this issue from the perspective of faith, not politics. His subsequent congressional testimony, however, and his follow-up interview with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson sparked a conservative backlash that Sutton acknowledged in a message to his diocese.

Critics sent him “hate-filled messages” that questioned his integrity, sanity and faith, Sutton said. That response was expected, he said, but it shouldn’t deter him, the diocese or the country from facing the truth of its past.

“We came to the decision to affirm the principle of moving forward with some form of accounting for how we gained materially and financially from an evil institution,” Sutton said. “If our diverse diocese can come together on this issue in such a respectful way, then let’s not give up on the notion that our nation can do the same.”

An undated image of what is believed to be the “servants” quarters mentioned in the $510 bill. PHOTO: Virginia Theological Seminary Archives

(from page 13) General Sessions,” Lee told nuggets of information.

Trump “dictated to you exactly what he wanted you to put into the mouth of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, correct?” one Democrat asked Lewandowski.

“I believe he asked me to deliver a message for Jeff to consider delivering himself” about ordering Mueller to concentrate on future election interference threats, Lewandowski replied. It was one of the few times in the five hours where Lewandowski interpreted others’ intentions. His more-common response to such queries was to lecture lawmakers to ask Trump or Sessions.

Mueller’s report says Trump’s efforts to coach Sessions, through Lewandowski, was one of 10 obstructions of justice that – had Trump not been president and thus “protected” by a Justice Department memo – would lead to his indictment on that charge.

But Lewandowski’s more-common answer was typified in his exchange with Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas.

“The president asked you, who had no role in the White House, to deliver a message to Attorney

Lewandowski. “The president could have picked up the phone himself at any time and called the Attorney General. The president also had a full staff of executive employees right down the hall.

“This made me wonder: If the president thought what he was doing was legal, why didn’t he pick up the phone and call the Attorney General? Why not ask any member of his staff who worked right down the hall to deliver a message? It is clear to me the reason he went to you, Mr. Lewandowski, is because everyone said ‘no.’”

Left unsaid, though it was in Mueller’s report, was that other Trump staffers said “no,” because they realized trying to close down the Mueller probe was illegal obstruction of justice.

Mueller’s report also says that Trump’s efforts to coach Sessions, through Lewandowski, was one of ten obstructions of justice that – had Trump not occupied the Oval Office – would lead to his indictment on that charge.

Lewandowski didn’t go there.

His reply was to claim executive privilege and not discuss the conversation. He didn’t answer Lee’s question.

The LEGACY

18 • Sept. 25, 2019

Classifieds

LEGAL,

Serving Richmond & Hampton Roads 409 E. Main St. #4 (mailing) • 105 1/2 E. Clay St. (of EMPLOYMENT, ANNOUNCEMENTS, FOR SALE, SERVICES Richmond, VA 23219 804-644-1550 (office) • 800-783-8062 (fax) ads@legacynewspaper.com

PUBLIC AUCTION of Unclaimed Vehicles

175+/- IMPOUNDED AUTOS, LIGHT TRUCKS & MOTORCYCLES SOUTHSIDE PLAZA DRIVE-IN

Monday, Oct. 14, 2019 Gates open at 9:00 AM Auction begins at 10:00 AM

Auction will include the vehicles listed below plus many others: 2002 INFINITI I35 JNKDA31A42T031971 1990 BOAT TRAILER 1PHDWDS20L1000224 2004 VOLVO S60 YV1RS61T942361437 1994 JEEP CHEROKEE 1J4FJ28S9RL252151 1996 HONDA ACCORD 1HGCD5652TA050951 2001 CHEVROLET IMPALA 2G1WF55K919204327 2005 INFINITI G35 JNKCV51E05M203958 1995 LEXUS ES 300 JT8GK13T2S0119187 1977 DODGE F30 F34BF7V058984 2000 CHRYSLER 300 2C3HE66GXYH420632 1998 NISSAN MAXIMA JN1CA21D5WT609568 2005 NISSAN ALTIMA 1N4AL11D35N421911 1998 FORD EXPEDITION 1FMPU18L6WLA62111 1981 CHEVROLET IMPALA 1G1AL69K8BJ176867 1994 FORD E350 1FBJS31H9RHB71725 2006 HYUNDAI ELANTRA KMHDN46D96U292040 1996 AUDI A4 WAUEA88D7TA247021 2003 PONTIAC BONNEVILLE 1G2HX52K534163822 1987 CADILLAC BROUGHAM 1G6DW51Y2H9724641 1999 NISSAN ALTIMA 1N4DL01D2XC159692 1995 SATURN SL2 1G8ZK5271SZ331168 2019 FABRIQUE CARRY ON TRAILER 4YMBU0810KV006779 1997 FORD EXPEDITION 1FMFU18L0VLC22560 2007 DODGE CARAVAN 1D4GP25B47B111443 2001 FORD EXPEDITION 1FMFU18L61LB38107 2005 VOLVO S60 YV1RS592652431306 2000 NISSAN ALTIMA 1N4DL01A6YC172579

SEIBERT’S is now accepting vehicles on consignment!

Reasonable Seller’s Fees.

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2 Issues (9/18 9/25) - $7

Rate: $11 per c

Thank you for your interest in applying for Includes Interne opportunities with The City of Richmond.

Please review the proof, make any neede To see what opportunities are available, please If your response is not received by dea refer to our website at www.richmondgov.com.

Ok X____________________ EOE M/F/D/V

withTHE changes NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVENOkTHAT CITY X OF_________ RICHMOND BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS

REMINDER: Deadline i

Will hold a Public Hearing in the 5th Floor Conference Room, City Hall, 900 East Broad Street, Richmond, VA on October 2, 2019, to consider the following under Chapter 30 of the Zoning Code: BEGINNING AT 1:00 P.M. BZA 41-2019 (CONTINUED FROM SEPTEMBER 4, 2019 MEETING): An application of Nordrow Investments LLC for a building permit to construct a single-family detached dwelling at 1901 GEORGIA AVENUE. BZA 42-2019: An application of Eleven Eleven 25th LLC for a building permit to construct a new single-family detached dwelling at 2319 FAIRMOUNT AVENUE. BZA 43-2019: An application of Kyle Johnston for a building permit to construct a new single-family detached dwelling at 205 BEAUMONT AVENUE.

642 W. Southside Plaza Dr. Richmond (804) 233-5757

WWW.SEIBERTSTOWING.COM VA AL # 2908-000766

To file a housing complaint, call the Virginia Housing Office (804) 367-8530 or (888) 551-3247.

For the hearingimpaired, call (804) 367-9753, or e-mail fairhousing@ dpor.virginia.gov

BZA 44-2019: An application of Altadonna Properties LLC for a building permit to construct a new single-family detached dwelling at 1509 NORTH 22nd STREET. BZA 45-2019: An application of Elliot and Kristine Becker for a building permit to construct an addition and porch on the rear of an existing single-family detached dwelling at 4401 STUART AVENUE. Roy W. Benbow, Secretary Phone: (804) 240-2124 Fax: (804) 646-5789 E-mail: Roy.Benbow@richmondgov.com Resource Information Help for the Disadvantaged and Disenfranchised (RIHD) www.rihd.org ● (804) 426-4426 P.O. Box 55 Highland Springs, Virginia 23075

Sept. 25, 2019• 19

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UO 0010145- Procurement 0920 HAMPTON SOLICITATION

AUCTIONS Court Ordered Auction, Bridge Estate 10/4@11AM 54.37+ AC 2 Story Farmhouse, Campsites, Viticulture Potential, More. Near Wintergreen - 3604 Mt. Torrey Rd. Lyndhurst. BidCenter: Wilson Firehouse. 804-709-1954 www.Dudleyauctions.com VAAF#1060

CITY OF HAMPTON Wednesday, October 16, 2019 1:30 P.M. ET- RFP 20-14/CLP Off-the shelf software solution, cloud solution, or software-as-aservice solution that would provide a tool to comply with the lease accounting requirements of Governmental Accounting Standards Board Statement (GASB) No. 87.

ATTN. AUCTIONEERS: Advertise your upcoming auctions statewide or in other states. Affordable Print and Digital Solutions reaching your target audiences. Call this paper or Landon Clark at Virginia Press Services 804-521-7576, landonc@vpa.net

CITY OF HAMPTON Tuesday, October 22, 2019 4:00 p.m. EST-RFP 20-13/EA

Athletic Flooring Pre-proposal meeting on Thursday, October 3, 2019 at 2:00 PM, Hampton Roads Convention Center, 1610 Coliseum Drive, Hampton, VA 23666

EDUCATION/CAREER TRAINING AIRLINES ARE HIRING – Get FAA approved hands on Aviation training. Financial aid for qualified students - Career placement assistance. CALL Aviation Institute of Maintenance SCHEV certified 877-204- 4130

For all forms or additional information, see our web page at http://www.hampton.gov/bids-contracts or call (757)727-2200.

Minority-Owned, Woman-Owned and Veteran Businesses are encouraged to participate.

FOR SALE WANTED! Old Porsche 356/911/912 for restoration by hobbyist 1948-1973 Only. Any condition, top $ paid! PLEASE LEAVE MESSAGE 1-707-965-9546. Email: porscherestoration@yahoo. com HELP WANTED / DRIVERS Need CDL Drivers? Advertise your JOB OPENINGS statewide or in other states. Affordable Print and Digital Solutions to reach truck drivers. Call Landon Clark at Virginia Press Services 804521-7576, landonc@vpa.net REAL ESTATE FOR SALE ATTN. REALTORS: Advertise your listings regionally or statewide. Affordable Print and Digital Solutions that get results!

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DENTAL INSURANCE Call Physicians Mutual Insurance Company for details. NOT just a discount plan, REAL coverage for 350 procedures.

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