Ghazala Khan: Trump criticized my silence. He knows nothing about true sacrifice.; Washington Trump, 7/31/16

Ghazala Khan, Washington Post; Ghazala Khan: Trump criticized my silence. He knows nothing about true sacrifice. :

Ghazala Khan’s son, U.S. Army Capt. Humayun Khan, was killed in Iraq in 2004.

"I cannot walk into a room with pictures of Humayun. For all these years, I haven’t been able to clean the closet where his things are — I had to ask my daughter-in-law to do it. Walking onto the convention stage, with a huge picture of my son behind me, I could hardly control myself. What mother could? Donald Trump has children whom he loves. Does he really need to wonder why I did not speak?

Donald Trump said that maybe I wasn’t allowed to say anything. That is not true. My husband asked me if I wanted to speak, but I told him I could not. My religion teaches me that all human beings are equal in God’s eyes. Husband and wife are part of each other; you should love and respect each other so you can take care of the family."

How the DNC Is Subtly Rebuking Donald Trump’s Mockery of a Disabled Reporter; Slate, 7/26/16

Ruth Graham, Slate; How the DNC Is Subtly Rebuking Donald Trump’s Mockery of a Disabled Reporter:

"It is worth contrasting Trump’s casual cruelty with the tone the DNC has set on disability issues so far. On Monday, disability rights advocate Anastasia Somoza delivered a powerful speech in which she said she felt sorry for Trump. “I honestly feel bad for anyone with that much hate in their heart,” she said. “Donald Trump doesn’t see me, he doesn’t hear me, and he definitely doesn’t speak for me.” Somoza, who has cerebral palsy and spastic quadriplegia, delivered her talk from a wheelchair to the roars of an approving crowd.

In his keynote speech on Tuesday, Bill Clinton acknowledged Somoza in the audience as he talked about his wife’s early work on equal educational access for children with disabilities. Hillary “never made fun of people with disabilities,” he said, alluding not-so-subtly to her opponent. “She tried to empower them based on their abilities.”

On Tuesday, the 26th anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act, several other disabled people took the stage in Philadelphia to share their stories."

Soledad O’Brien: Seek Out the Curious and the Fastidious; New York Times, 6/10/16

Adam Bryant, Corner Office, New York Times; Soledad O’Brien: Seek Out the Curious and the Fastidious:

[Interview with Soledad O'Brien, chief executive of Starfish Media Group, a production company]

"How do you hire?

You hire for character and teach people skills. And environment is very important to me. It’s important to me that people aren’t unpleasant and that they treat each other respectfully. It’s hard to be creative when there’s someone or something that’s really irking you.

So are you a person of integrity who makes the environment a really nice space? I will watch how they treat the person at the front desk versus me. We have people spend time with other people who they think wouldn’t necessarily be assessing them for a job.

I also think there are two qualities you can’t teach people. You have to want to understand something, and I don’t think you can teach people to be curious. You can interest people in a topic and they become curious, but I think you’re born interested in things or you’re not.

And I’m obsessed with attention to detail. I don’t know that you can teach that — either that triggers you to stay for the next two hours to fix something, or you’re the kind of person who will just let it slide.

What advice do you give to new college grads?

It goes back to what my parents always said. I think hard work does get you really far. And treating people well gets you really far — farther than I think it gets credit for in the greater world."

Save Your Sympathy. You Are The Problem.; Huffington Post, 6/20/16

C.J. Prince, Huffington Post; Save Your Sympathy. You Are The Problem. :

"By failing to speak up against discrimination and hate, you have made the world unsafe for LGBTQ people, fueling their own self-loathing and inciting homophobic rage in others. You are the reason hate crimes against LGBTQ people were up in 2015, and particularly against people of color, transgender people and those who are gender-nonconforming. You are the reason LGBTQ teens are the daily targets of harassment, bullying and violence in schools. And you are the reason they too often choose suicide over the pain of living as a human target.

You. Are. The. Problem.

If you really want to stand in solidarity with the victims, their families and our community a whole, stop vilifying our community by calling us pedophiles and predators. Stop telling people to hate the sin. Stop warning straight people we are out to destroy their marriages, their families and the American way of life...

If you really want to make sure this doesn’t happen again, you must finally recognize the link between a cultural climate that demonizes LGBTQ people and the attacks against them that inevitably follow.

If you can’t do that, please, have some respect for the fallen and say nothing at all."

In a moving, tearful speech, Utah's lieutenant governor apologized for past homophobia; Vox, 6/15/16

Emily Crockett, Vox; In a moving, tearful speech, Utah's lieutenant governor apologized for past homophobia:

"Cox talked about how he grew up in a small, rural town and that sometimes he "wasn’t kind" to kids in his high school class who were "different."

"I didn’t know it at the time, but I know now that they were gay. I will forever regret not treating them with the kindness, dignity, and respect — the love — that they deserved. For that, I sincerely and humbly apologize."

Since then, he said, "My heart has changed. It has changed because of you. It has changed because I have gotten to know many of you. You have been patient with me."

Cox said that the 49 "beautiful, amazing people" who died in the attack "are not just statistics. These were individuals. These are human beings. They each have a story. They each had dreams, goals, talents, friends, family. They are you, and they are me."

He concluded by asking listeners to "be a little kinder," and to try to love someone who is different from them. "For my straight friends, might I suggest starting with someone who is gay," he said."