Female recruits seduce drill sergeants in new wave of Army sexual misconduct. Career sergeants are stalked by minor age female recruits on a power trip and hungry for sex.

Twelve years after a sex scandal prompted congressional investigations and changes in Army training, Fort Leonard Wood is again dealing with a wave of cases in which drill sergeants have engaged in sexual misconduct with women trainees.

Since February 2007, at least 14 drill sergeants or other trainers have faced courts-martial for having improper relationships with Soldiers undergoing initial-entry training at the sprawling Army post about 130 miles southwest of St. Louis.

The cases include:

-- A highly decorated six-year veteran who had been named noncommissioned officer of the year for the Chemical Corps. He was accused of having sex with four trainees, including in the unit supply room and laundry room, his truck, a hospital room, a hotel room and his home.

-- A drill sergeant with 16 years of service accused of having sex with five of his Soldiers on and off post, including once in a vehicle while another recruit drove, and three times at a fellow drill sergeant's apartment.

-- A drill sergeant accused of helping three female recruits go AWOL and having sex with one. He also was accused of inappropriately touching or kissing seven other women in his training company.

Often, the behavior of the drill sergeants, many of whom were married, was reckless. Several deactivated barracks alarms to gain access to the trainees, plied them with alcohol and, in at least one case, engaged in group sex.

There is no excuse for any sort of personal relationship between a drill sergeant and a recruit, said Harvey Perritt, spokesman for the Army's Training and Doctrine Command, which oversees training. He called it a detriment to order and discipline within the unit and the Army.

"It's a command relationship that can't be abused," Perritt said. "It can't be."

The drill sergeant is the very first impression a young Soldier has of the Army, said Col. Maria R. Gervais, who recently researched sexual misconduct during initial-entry training while a student at the Army War College.

Drill sergeants hold almost total sway over recruits in training, Gervais said. When a drill sergeant engages in sexual misconduct, even if it's consensual, a bond is broken, she added. The behavior violates trust in the Army and can lead a recruit to believe that such behavior is acceptable.

"The drill sergeant is pretty much the one person who is in front of that Soldier day in and day out, and it's the person that Soldiers place their trust in to safeguard them, train them to standards, teach them what the Army is all about," Gervais said.

Fort Leonard Wood is one of two Army installations that offer gender-integrated basic training. The other is Fort Jackson, S.C.

About 30,000 Soldiers, about a third of whom are women, undergo initial entry training at Fort Leonard Wood each year. The fort currently is home to 503 drill sergeants. Of those, 96 are women.

Capt. Mary Leavitt, chief of military justice for the office of the staff judge advocate at Fort Leonard Wood, said the majority of courts-martial handled by her prosecutors involved sexual misconduct between drill sergeants and trainees. Leavitt's office prosecuted at least 14 such incidents that took place between November 2005 and July 2008.

Most came to light as a result of the trainees' or fellow recruits' approaching a member of the command to report the behavior, not through any targeted investigation. Many times, the women initiated the relationship, often through text messages or Internet social networking sites, Leavitt said.

But the behavior, no matter how it was initiated, doesn't excuse the drill sergeant, she added.

"The drill sergeants are the senior people in the situation and they've been in the Army more than a day," Leavitt said. "They understand the rules and what the consequences are. They're held to a much higher standard because of their position of trust as a trainer and mentor."

Paying the Price

Most of the drill sergeants were sentenced to reductions in rank, loss of pay and bad-conduct discharges. One was not convicted, and two cases are pending. In cases involving consensual sex, the trainees also received punishment, ranging from loss of pay to confinement to reduction in rank to dismissal from the Army.

An Army spokesman said about 90 percent of verified claims of sexual misconduct involving drill sergeants and trainees were consensual. In all cases, the commanding general of Fort Leonard Wood holds final say, and in some instances can order a lighter sentence than the military judge imposed.

Perritt acknowledged an increase in sexual misconduct cases. He also noted similar increases in suicides and drug and alcohol abuse, not just at training bases, but across the Army.

"The Army is under a lot of stress," Perritt said. "People are tired. ... We've been at war for seven years. That takes a toll on the force."

Sex between recruits and drill sergeants has plagued Fort Leonard Wood and the Army for years.

In 1996, two years after gender-integrated training began at the fort, investigators uncovered widespread misconduct. The abuse came to light about the same time a militarywide investigation turned up similar cases at other installations around the country. Eventually, 17 Fort Leonard Wood drill instructors were either convicted, pleaded guilty or received discharges in lieu of courts-martial as a result of the investigations. The Army took similar disciplinary action at training installations across the country.

The findings shook public confidence in the Army, undermined the chain of command and raised concerns about the Army's ability to police itself.

The Army responded by requiring drill sergeant candidates to undergo more comprehensive background checks and receive more training on sexual harassment. The Army also boosted the number of female drill sergeants, added a company executive officer and battalion chaplain to provide more oversight and extended initial entry training one week to give instructors more time to stress Army values training.

"We look for it. We hunt for it. We train against it," Perritt said. "We will prosecute to the fullest extent we can if allegations are investigated and found to be valid. These guys are not just thrown out of the Army. They're going to be punished."

Betraying Trust

Gervais said she was motivated to study the issue after serving as a training battalion commander at Fort Leonard Wood from 2004 to 2006.

During that time, two drill sergeants under Gervais' command -- whom she described as excellent trainers with spotless records -- engaged in sexual misconduct with recruits.

As battalion commander, Gervais said she thought she had put mechanisms and procedures in place to ensure such incidents didn't happen. She made it clear that such behavior would not be tolerated.

"I felt I kind of let America's moms and dads down," Gervais said. "I didn't live up to the trust they placed in me."

Gervais has found that incidents of drill sergeants involved in sexual misconduct continue to plague training installations and, in fact, "have continued to increase at an alarming rate."

Since 2005, sexual misconduct allegations against drill sergeants increased each year. In 2007, 68 percent of all trainee abuse allegations involved drill sergeant sexual misconduct, far ahead of complaints about physical or verbal abuse.

As part of her research, Gervais interviewed more than two dozen current and former initial entry training leaders, from drill sergeants through battalion commanders. Those interviewed blamed a lax selection process for drill sergeants, inadequate staffing, inexperienced junior leaders and the changing values of recruits.

Most believe that the best Soldiers are being assigned to Iraq and Afghanistan, while training bases get the leftovers. They said many drill sergeant candidates received waivers after they failed to meet the minimum standards, and lacked the leadership, maturity and professionalism needed for the job.

Initial-entry training units also routinely exceeded the Army's drill sergeant-to-recruit ratio and lacked enough female drill sergeants to serve as role models and deterrents to sexual harassment.

Meanwhile, a shortage of captains means that many units are being headed by junior captains and even first lieutenants who lack the experience to recognize the warning signs of potential abuse, or are reluctant to correct the behavior of more experienced sergeants, training leaders told Gervais.

Army regulations prohibit drill sergeants from just about any personal activity with a recruit, including dating, writing personal letters or e-mail, making personal telephone calls, playing cards, dancing, gambling, entertaining in a personal residence, sharing a hotel room or riding in a personal car with a recruit.

"There are things that you can be charged with in the military that nobody would blink an eye at outside the wire," Perritt said. "It's a matter of good order and discipline."

The Army is initiating a new program at training installations in which unit leaders sit down with women recruits, away from drill sergeants, to teach them how to prevent and report such incidents.

"People are imperfect, but we do try to maintain a perfect training environment," Perritt said. "We're not going to sit back and say that goal is unattainable."

A Career Ends

For the accused, justice at Fort Leonard Wood is delivered in a nondescript brick building deep inside the perimeter. There, in a small, windowless, wood-paneled courtroom with water-stained ceilings, a military judge determined last week the fate of Staff Sgt. Steven L. Schrank, a eight-year veteran with two combat tours in Iraq.

He pleaded guilty of sexual misconduct with a 17-year-old married recruit, helping the woman go AWOL, adultery, dereliction of duty, violating a no-contact order and lying to investigators.

Schrank, who enlisted right out of high school, hoped to avoid a bad-conduct discharge that would end his military career. His attorney argued for leniency, noting that the woman had initiated the relationship with Schrank and later lied to him that she was pregnant. She also told Schrank that she was in an abusive relationship and wanted a divorce. He gave her a $2,000 engagement ring.

The recruit said the relationship gave her a powerful feeling, put her above her peers, but that she had no intention of marrying Schrank.

"You're not even attracted to Staff Sergeant Schrank, are you?" the lawyer asked.

"No, sir."

The lawyer accused her of manipulating Schrank.

"You're proud of it, aren't you?"

"A little, sir."

Later, the recruit testified that she had sought out Schrank because he got a perfect score on his physical fitness test, had a nice truck and was a staff sergeant.

A half-dozen men who served with Schrank described him as one of the best Soldiers they knew. Several testified that he was a superior sergeant who led from the front, always completed his mission and fought bravely in combat. All said they would willingly serve with him again.

"I can only hope that he would go with me," Sgt. 1st Class Brandon Babyak testified. "If I'm going back to Iraq, I want him back, even as a private."

In arguing for the maximum punishment, military prosecutors noted that Schrank would be facing statutory rape charges in some states. They also pointed out that the trainee's husband was a deployed service member at the time of the affair and that Schrank had been disciplined previously for an inappropriate relationship with another noncommissioned officer in Iraq. They said he had abused his power, cast a negative light on the Army and set a poor example for recruits.

Toward the end of the day, Schrank, wearing his Army dress uniform, rose to address the court. When the boy-faced Soldier stood between his two attorneys, he barely reached their shoulders.

He held his composure as he apologized to the Army, his unit, the trainee and the military judge. He choked up when he tried to apologize to his mother, who sat alone nearby in the front row in tears.

"I'd like to Soldier on ... and finish my career in the Army and doing what I do best," Schrank told the judge, who apparently wasn't moved.

He ordered that Schrank be reduced in rank to private, forfeit two-thirds of his pay for eight months, be confined for eight months and receive a bad-conduct discharge. Barring a reprieve from the fort's commanding general, Schrank's Army career is over.

More sexually aggressive behavior among students reported in elementary schools.

A Los Angeles conference brought educators and police together to discuss how to address the problem and that of teachers who molest students.

A 5-year-old boy was reportedly sexually assaulted by a 6-year-old male classmate at a Los Angeles-area school recently. On another campus, a 6-year-old girl was allegedly sexually abused by a 10-year-old classmate after he grabbed her hair and pulled her into a school bathroom.

At a conference Wednesday on the Westside, these and other cases were described as part of a troubling trend of sexually aggressive behavior among students. Sponsored by the Rape Treatment Center at Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center and the Los Angeles Unified School District, the event drew 200 educators, law enforcement officers and other officials, who discussed ways to better recognize abuse and harassment and establish more effective responses.

Gail Abarbanel, founder and director of the Rape Treatment Center, said that in the last year her group has seen an increase in cases of students sexually assaulting students and in sexual misconduct by teachers in which students are the victims on L.A. Unified campuses and in other school districts.

"We all need to be vigilant, and we need to collaborate to protect the students involved in these incidents: the victims and the victimizers, the other students in the school, and the school or school district," she said.

In another recent incident, a 15-year-old severely developmentally disabled girl suffering from a seizure disorder was led into a bathroom by a boy who allegedly molested her and attempted to rape her. Months later, another boy reportedly sexually assaulted her in a bathroom even though she was supposed to have one-on-one supervision at the school.


L.A. Unified Supt. David L. Brewer, who oversees the nation's second-largest school district, acknowledged that more coordination is needed and that a culture in which an educator may be reluctant to voice suspicions about a colleague must change.

"In some cases, people have been hesitant to report abuses, and we can't have that," Brewer said. "We have to ensure that we have the tools and knowledge to change enough of our culture so that we prevent these things from happening."

Brewer underscored the depth of the problem by relating an incident that came to his attention last week: A girl left school to attend a "ditch" party, was allegedly raped and was then wheeled back to school in a grocery cart.

On Tuesday, a Los Angeles County Superior Court jury awarded nearly $1.6 million to three students who were molested by a former school aide at L.A. Unified's Miramonte Early Learning Center in South Los Angeles. The abuse took place when the victims were 5 to 7 years old.

And an L.A. Unified administrator, Steve Thomas Rooney, faces four molestation-related charges stemming from cases involving former students.

District officials and others vowed to work more closely to stem abuses. The Los Angeles Police Department is organizing all cases involving student-on-student abuse into its specialized juvenile division and expects to handle 50 to 60 such cases each year, said Charlie Beck, chief of detectives. His agency will begin having regular meetings with educators to discuss cases.

In the wake of several high-profile cases, the Los Angeles Board of Education recently ordered better training of staff, better coordination and accountability reforms involving sexual harassment and misconduct.

Many students say they feel helpless in the face of abuse, whether committed by other students or staff, said Harriet Kerr, director of prevention education for the Rape Treatment Center.

Studies show that four out of five students report being victims of sexual harassment from their peers. On many campuses, students say they face a gantlet of coarse and sexually suggestive language, Kerr said.

If there is no adult intervention, such behavior and words begin to feel normal, she said.

"There is a sense that students feel stuck in these situations with no adult to help them," she said.
By Carla Rivera
October 23, 2008

To Hell and Back is the Angela Peacock story. If you are an all-American girl who wants to join the army and see the world, then read one woman's account of how she came to be all that she could be.

I was an 18-year old, fresh out of high school, with an M16 and camouflage paint smeared on my face, excited, a little naïve at just what I had gotten myself into.

No one told me that eleven years later, I'd be tired, very broken, isolated, and damaged goods. Yes, I was assaulted and harassed while serving my country. No one warned me that joining the Army made me twice as likely to be sexually assaulted than my civilian counterparts. That's not what I was signing up for.

I come from a family where military service makes you a man (or a woman, in my case). Both grandparents served in the Army Air Corps in World War II and my father dreamed of being in the Navy. Plans changed for him when I was born and he broke his leg in a motorcycle accident. I wanted to travel to crazy places few people have ever heard of or even knew existed. I wanted to meet those people I would see in National Geographic commercials or the World Almanac my grandfather would show me when I was little. Most of all, I wanted to get out of St. Louis and experience life on this irresistible planet.

I wanted to declare my independence to everyone I knew, so I shaved my head and signed the dotted line. A little rebellious I guess, but I liked the excitement of it all!

I had been a born leader, tough as a brick shithouse, and could knock boys over when I played soccer with them in the neighborhood. I played all the sports, ran faster than most guys and could outwit anyone with their intellectual theories. Especially the Catholic Republican in my Advanced English class senior year who would debate with me on issues such as abortion, the death penalty, and who would be President of the United States first, him or I.

In 1997, my senior year, GI Jane came out. I watched it the night before I left for the Army and dreamed of being just like Demi Moore, just as tough as the guys. I was ready, willing, and able to do anything a "man" could do.

Eleven years later, I wound up 2100 miles from home, staying in a homeless veterans shelter, attending a three month Renew Program for women veterans who have experienced Military Sexual Trauma with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. There were only five women in my group who were willing to face all the pain of their past to come out feeling better on the other side. Who says women aren't strong?

There, I met Amanda Spain, producer of "In Their Boots," an online documentary series
showing the struggles of Iraq and Afghanistan vets when we come home. They are apolitical, and funded by a grant from the Iraq Afghanistan Deployment Impact fund (IADIF) and produced by Brave New Foundation under Robert Greenwald.

She asked me if I'd be willing to share my story with those that were willing to listen. Apprehensive, and shocked that someone finally cared enough to listen, I hesitatingly agreed.

It was the first time, ever, to share my story, from beginning to end.

One night in South Korea, I went out with some friends to the "Ville" which is all the little hole-in-the-wall bars and restaurants right outside the gates of Camp Carroll, Waegwan, South Korea. It was a dark, spring night and I had to work the next morning at 0730 hours to complete my yearly Common Tasks Training with the unit. I went out for an hour or so, only had one small drink, as being drunk was not my cup of tea at the time. I went to leave an hour later and someone had stolen my keys. Nervous, I walked through the gate with a male, non-commissioned officer I had seen around but didn't know very well. We are taught to respect and trust the NCO's and I had no reason not to. You are not allowed in South Korea to walk through the streets alone as it is with Armed Forces Policy in most places overseas. My roommate was not in our room so I decided to stay in the NCO's room down the hall to wait for her to come home. I checked several times throughout the night but no answer from my roommate.

The male asks me four times to have sex with him and I say no all four times. First, I tell him I don't know him, then I tell him I have a boyfriend in Germany, then I tell him again I don't know him. The final time, I tell him I am on my period and NO! Next thing I remember is my naked body being violently thrown all over the bed and I am unable to scream or stop it. I don't know, to this day, if I was drugged or hit over the head.

I remember hearing his roommate, just on the other side of the room and I am trying to scream, but nothing comes out. It is as if I am out of my body watching from across the room and can do absolutely nothing to get back in my body and fight him off.

I wake up the next morning twenty minutes late for my 0730 formation. Shaken, not quite sure what happened that night I am standing naked in the bathroom and cannot unwedge the tampon that is shoved all the way up.

My Platoon Leader asks me what's wrong and did I drink too much the night before, he smells my breath and concedes that that's not it, but what is it? I don't even know.

Three days later, I get flashes and cold chills as I am standing in the office and see him. My body knew what happened before I did. Somehow, I am told, the body remembers. My hands are shaking and sweaty and now it's all clear. It's too late for a rape kit, I had to tell someone.

I talk to my Platoon Sergeant, the man I respected the most. He told me that in the military when there is a rape trial they will blame it on me and make it look like I was asking for it. They would say I drank too much, I was a party girl. They would make up lies and I would be on trial, not the NCO. As I am a naïve 21-year old who trusts her leaders, I go along with his plan to just "live with it." My Platoon Sergeant told me the only thing that would happen to him would be that his rank would be knocked down one level, he would be transferred back to the States and I would have to live the rest of my life with it. So I stuff it way down inside and begin my new way of coping with it, binge drinking on the weekends.

Six months later, I reenlisted to stay in four more years and signed up for Europe. September 11th happens and I know Europe will be the first to deploy when war breaks out. We all knew it was coming. I will leave a part of myself in Korea.

A year and a half later, May 6, 2003, I am driving in a convoy from Kuwait to Baghdad. My family is watching it all back home on CNN and they have no idea.

I already had pain in me from the assault and now I am being exposed to the horrors of war. No front lines for women, my ass. Baghdad is the front line. No, I didn't have to kill anyone, but the fear of thinking today could be my last, either from running over an IED, small arms fire from a sniper, a grenade being thrown from the overpasses or the fact that my Tactical Signal Unit has no armored plates in our flak jackets like the contractors get.

I hear stories of soldiers killing themselves in port-a-potties, crazy Iraqis blowing themselves up and what happened the day before in the "Underpass of Death" outside a market we frequent on our way to the Green Zone for supply pickup three times a week.

I am having panic attacks daily, nightmares, flashbacks, all things I don't find out the names for until I get back to Germany. I kept a journal of me losing my mind. Fevers, diarrhea, vomiting, bloody noses, losing 48 pounds in two months.

Supply lines are not steady yet and we get 1 liter of water a day and the temperature is 130 degrees in the shade. I am falling apart.

My Command will not send me back to get medical treatment as I am "mission essential." Finally, I get orders to Fort Lewis, Washington as there is some loophole somewhere that says you can not be overseas more than 3 years straight. I get medevac'd two weeks early for medical treatment.

When I arrive back at Landstuhl Hospital in Germany, they run every test possible to see why I lost all that weight, as I am now a withering 103 pounds. No one asks me if it could be emotional or combat induced.

After seeing a fellow soldier from my unit, who now had staples from his chest to his genitals, I lose it and walk myself to psychiatry. I still tried to hold it all in, only telling the Major that every time I hear a door slam I think it is a gunshot. Be strong, I tell myself, I am tough I can handle this.

I get to Fort Lewis a month later to find out my new unit is being deployed in two months, I am going back to Baghdad.

Two weeks into redeployment, I get double ear infections, a fever, and chills. I am ordered by the Medical Staff to report to Mental Health section as when they see my pulse rate is 140 beats per minute and my blood pressure is through the roof, I am having a panic attack, and can't hide it anymore. Their stupid machines caught me covering it up.

I walk to Mental Health and explode. Holding nothing back the Triage Doctor tells me I am not allowed to be around weapons as I am now a danger to myself. I am non-deployable and will be medically boarded out of the Army.

I am angry, confused, the Army is my life. I am a Sergeant, my soldiers need me and I need them. I just wanted help, I didn't want to be discharged. I had served 7 years and wanted to retire from the Army.

The day I was medically retired, I laid on the couch all day knowing my life was over. I was 25 years old. I went from war hero to piece of shit in one day. I was depressed, couldn't sleep, and my husband, also an Iraq vet, didn't know how to help me or what was even wrong. Little did we know, we both had PTSD, for different reasons, but nonetheless, we waged our own war against each other in the same house.

The next two years are fogged from my use of prescription drugs to numb myself. I didn't want to feel anything. I wish I had died in Iraq. At least the deceased aren't suffering. I am trapped in my mind reliving over and over the rape and the war. I am not sure if I am even alive.

My husband finally gives up on me a year later and tells me to move back home, that I need my family to help me because he can't get through to me. I am addicted to numbing my pain with anything that will stop it, even for a minute a day.

The year of 2006, I attempt suicide more times than I can count. I argue with God to just take me. I trap myself in my house and push my family away. I am ready to die. After four months of feeling myself die on the inside, I finally check in for the fourth and final time to get clean and sober and tell them everything. If this doesn't work, I decide, I am jumping off the tallest building in St. Louis.

I have now been in recovery for drug addiction and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder for two years. I have not attempted suicide once in that period of time. I am more proud of that than my military service. I have given up on organized religion to help me answer the questions my mind has posed, like, "Why me?" The pure part in the deepest part of my soul, which knows none of this was ever my fault, and didn't deserve any of it, has kept me alive. I can say that there must be a God that has saved me from a hell which I created in my own mind, and given me a second chance at living one day at a time. It has been a very slow crawl back, and I am just getting started. I still cannot trust, I still cannot sleep, I still have awful memories, nightmares and imaginings of things so horrible I cannot say them here.

But I do have hope and a dog that has helped me cope. I have courage that things will get a little easier every day and that someday, the wounds of rape and war will be healed inside me.

There are thousands just like me, women and men, veterans who signed up to serve their country and were raped, tortured, harassed, and raped again by their command.

When I enlisted in the Army I took an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. My oath did not end upon discharge. I want to help other men and women veterans get the support that they need and know there is hope that we can get better. We must not give up. We must band together and make sure this doesn't happen to our sons and daughters.

To Dream the Impossible Dream
To fight the unbeatable foe
To bear with unbearable sorrow
To run where the brave dare not go
To right the unrightable wrong
To love pure and chaste from afar
To try when your arms are too weary
To reach the unreachable star.

This is my quest
To follow that star
No matter how hopeless
No matter how far.

To fight for the right
Without question or pause
To be willing to march into Hell
For a heavenly cause.

And I know if I'll only be true
To this glorious quest
That my heart will lie peaceful and calm
When I'm laid to my rest.

And the world will be better for this
That one man, scorned and covered with scars
Still strove with his last ounce of courage
To reach the unreachable star.

Text of Democrat Barack Obama's speech in Chicago after winning the
presidential election, as transcribed by CQ Transcriptions:

------

OBAMA said: Hello, Chicago.

If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place
where all things are possible, who still wonders if The DREAM of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.

It's the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and
churches in numbers this nation has never seen, by people who waited
three hours and four hours, many for the first time in their lives,
because they believed that this time must be different, that their
voices could be that difference.

It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and
Republican, Black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay,
straight, disabled and not disabled. Americans who sent a message to
the world that we have never been just a collection of individuals or a
collection of red states and blue states.

We are, and always will be, the United States of America.

It's the answer that led those who've been told for so long by so many
to be cynical and fearful and doubtful about what we can achieve to put
their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope
of a better day.

It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on
this date in this election at this defining moment CHANGE has come to
America.

A little bit earlier this evening, I received an extraordinarily
gracious call from Senator McCain.

Senator McCain fought long and hard in this campaign. And he's fought
even longer and harder for the country that he loves. He has endured
sacrifices for America that most of us cannot begin to imagine. We are
better off for the service rendered by this brave and selfless leader.

I congratulate him; I congratulate Governor Palin for all that they've
achieved. And I look forward to working with them to renew this
nation's promise in the months ahead.

I want to thank my partner in this journey, a man who campaigned from
his heart, and spoke for the men and women he grew up with on the
streets of Scranton ... and rode with on the train home to Delaware,
the vice president-elect of the United States, Joe Biden.

And I would not be standing here tonight without the unyielding support
of my best friend for the last 16 years ... the rock of our family, the
love of my life, the nation's next first lady ... Michelle Obama.

Sasha and Malia ... I love you both more than you can imagine. And you
have earned the new puppy that's coming with us ...to the new White
House.

And while she's no longer with us, I know my grandmother's watching,
along with the family that made me who I am. I miss them tonight. I
know that my debt to them is beyond measure.

To my sister Maya, my sister Alma, all my other brothers and sisters,
thank you so much for all the support that you've given me. I am
grateful to them.

And to my campaign manager, David Plouffe ... the unsung hero of this
campaign, who built the best -- the best political campaign, I think, in
the history of the United States of America.

To my chief strategist David Axelrod ... who's been a partner with me
every step of the way.

To the best campaign team ever assembled in the history of politics ...
you made this happen, and I am forever grateful for what you've
sacrificed to get it done.

But above all, I will never forget who this victory truly belongs to.
It belongs to you. It belongs to you.

I was never the likeliest candidate for this office. We didn't start
with much money or many endorsements. Our campaign was not hatched in
the halls of Washington. It began in the backyards of Des Moines and
the living rooms of Concord and the front porches of Charleston. It was
built by working men and women who dug into what little savings they
had to give $5 and $10 and $20 to the cause.

It grew strength from the young people who rejected the myth of their
generation's apathy ... who left their homes and their families for
jobs that offered little pay and less sleep.

It drew strength from the not-so-young people who braved the bitter
cold and scorching heat to knock on doors of perfect strangers, and
from the millions of Americans who volunteered and organized and proved
that more than two centuries later a government of the people, by the
people, and for the people has not perished from the Earth.

This is your victory.

And I know you didn't do this just to win an election. And I know you
didn't do it for me.

You did it because you understand the enormity of the task that lies
ahead. For even as we celebrate tonight, we know the challenges that
tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime -- two wars, a
planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century.

Even as we stand here tonight, we know there are brave Americans waking
up in the deserts of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan to risk
their lives for us.

There are mothers and fathers who will lie awake after the children
fall asleep and wonder how they'll make the mortgage or pay their
doctors' bills or save enough for their child's college education.

There's new energy to harness, new jobs to be created, new schools to
build, and threats to meet, alliances to repair.

The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get
there in one year or even in one term. But, America, I have never been
more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there.

I promise you, we as a people will get there.

AUDIENCE: Yes we can! Yes we can! Yes we can!

OBAMA: There will be setbacks and false starts. There are many who
won't agree with every decision or policy I make as president. And we
know the government can't solve every problem.

But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I
will listen to you, especially when we disagree. And, above all, I will
ask you to join in the work of remaking this nation, the only way it's
been done in America for 221 years -- block by block, brick by brick,
calloused hand by calloused hand.

What began 21 months ago in the depths of winter cannot end on this
autumn night.

This victory alone is not the change we seek. It is only the chance for
us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way
things were.

It can't happen without you, without a new spirit of service, a new
spirit of sacrifice.

So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism, of responsibility, where
each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only
ourselves but each other.

Let us remember that, if this financial crisis taught us anything, it's
that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers.

In this country, we rise or fall as one nation, as one people. Let's
resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and
pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long.

Let's remember that it was a man from this state who first carried the
banner of the Republican Party to the White House, a party founded on
the values of self-reliance and individual liberty and national unity.

Those are values that we all share. And while the Democratic Party has
won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and
determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress.

As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, we are not
enemies but friends. Though passion may have strained, it must not
break our bonds of affection.

And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn, I may not have
won your vote tonight, but I hear your voices. I need your help. And I
will be your president, too.

And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from
parliaments and palaces, to those who are huddled around radios in the
forgotten corners of the world, our stories are singular, but our
destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand.

To those -- to those who would tear the world down: We will defeat you.
To those who seek peace and security: We support you. And to all those
who have wondered if America's beacon still burns as bright: Tonight we
proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from
the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring
power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding
hope.

That's the true genius of America: that America can change. Our union
can be perfected. What we've already achieved gives us hope for what we
can and must achieve tomorrow.

This election had many firsts and many stories that will be told for
generations. But one that's on my mind tonight's about a woman who cast
her ballot in Atlanta. She's a lot like the millions of others who
stood in line to make their voice heard in this election except for one
thing: Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old.

She was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no
cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn't
vote for two reasons -- because she was a woman and because of the color
of her skin.

And tonight, I think about all that she's seen throughout her century
in America -- the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress;
the times we were told that we can't, and the people who pressed on
with that American creed: Yes we can.

At a time when women's voices were silenced and their hopes dismissed,
she lived to see them stand up and speak out and reach for the ballot.
Yes we can.

When there was despair in the dust bowl and depression across the land,
she saw a nation conquer fear itself with a New Deal, new jobs, a new
sense of common purpose. Yes we can.

AUDIENCE: Yes we can.

OBAMA: When the bombs fell on our harbor and tyranny threatened the
world, she was there to witness a generation rise to greatness and a
democracy was saved. Yes we can.

AUDIENCE: Yes we can.

OBAMA: She was there for the buses in Montgomery, the hoses in
Birmingham, a bridge in Selma, and a preacher from Atlanta who told a
people that We Shall Overcome. Yes we can.

AUDIENCE: Yes we can.

OBAMA: A man touched down on the moon, a wall came down in Berlin, a
world was connected by our own science and imagination.

And this year, in this election, she touched her finger to a screen,
and cast her vote, because after 106 years in America, through the best
of times and the darkest of hours, she knows how America can change.

Yes we can.

AUDIENCE: Yes we can.

OBAMA: America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is
so much more to do. So tonight, let us ask ourselves -- if our children
should live to see the next century; if my daughters should be so lucky
to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see? What
progress will we have made?

This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment.

This is our time, to put our people back to work and open doors of
opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause
of peace; to reclaim the American dream and reaffirm that fundamental
truth, that, out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope.
And where we are met with cynicism and doubts and those who tell us
that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up
the spirit of a people: Yes, we can.

Thank you. God bless you. And may God bless the United States of
America.





WHAT WILL MICHELLE OBAMA'S ROLE AS FIRST LADY BE? Ruth Marcus sees it this way:
Quote:
When Michelle Obama took to describing her new role as mom in chief,
my first reaction was to wince at her words. My second reaction was to
identify with them.

And most of all: What does it say about the condition of modern women
that Obama, catapulted by her husband's election into the ranks of the
most prominent, sounded so strangely retro -- more Jackie Kennedy than
Hillary Clinton?

She is, after all -- by résumé, anyway -- more Hillary than Jackie.
But the painful paradox of campaign 2008 is that it came tantalizingly
close to giving us an Ivy League-educated female lawyer in the Oval
Office but yielded an Ivy League-educated female lawyer sketching out
a supremely traditional first lady role.

"My first job in all honesty is going to continue to be mom in chief,"
Obama told Ebony magazine, "making sure that in this transition, which
will be even more of a transition for the girls . . . that they are
settled and that they know they will continue to be the center of our
universe."

This is only sensible; the kids come first, and Obama is a parent
before she is a symbol. The girls might be living above the store come
Jan. 20, but Daddy's going to be awfully busy. Cherie Blair, who
managed to keep her barrister job while her husband was in office,
grandly decreed that Tony, prime minister or not, would be taking
paternity leave after the birth of their fourth child.


These days, Blair's advice seems a tad more realistic. "You have to
learn to take a back seat, not just in public but in private," she
advised Michelle Obama in a recent column. "When your spouse is late
to put the kids to bed, or for dinner, or your plans for the weekend
are turned upside down again, you simply have to accept that he had
something more important to do."

Obama seems comfortable, now, in the back seat, but that seeming
serenity did not come easy. In "The Audacity of Hope," Barack Obama
offers a glimpse of an earlier, more conflicted Michelle, whose "anger
toward me seemed barely contained" as she struggled with the pull
between work and family while her husband launched a run for Congress.

"No matter how liberated I liked to see myself as . . . the fact was
that when children showed up, it was Michelle and not I who was
expected to make the necessary adjustments," Barack Obama writes.
"Sure, I helped, but it was always on my terms, on my schedule.
Meanwhile, she was the one who had to put her career on hold."

Expected to -- by whom? Had to -- says who? I remember reading this
passage two years ago, when the book came out, and thinking: Hey,
buddy, she has to scale back only because you're not willing to.

And yet, Barack Obama could have been describing so many women today
when he explained that, for Michelle, "two visions of herself were at
war with each other -- the desire to be the woman her mother had been,
solid, dependable, making a home and always there for her kids; and
the desire to excel in her profession, to make her mark on the world
and realize all those plans she'd had on the very first day that we
met."

This is where the identification comes in. The brutal reality is that,
like our president-elect, most men do not wrestle quite so strenuously
with these competing desires. So when the needs of our families
collide with the demands of our jobs, it is usually the woman's career
that yields.

I've been thinking about this quite a bit lately, and not only because
of Michelle Obama. I'm in the midst of one of those periodic
work-family recalibrations, balancing the needs of adolescent
daughters, my husband's busy job and my own overextended one.

Meanwhile, I'm watching mini-versions of the Barack and Michelle drama
playing out around town as female friends wrestle with whether to sign
up to work in the new administration. Their husbands, already in
demanding jobs, tend also to be angling for even more demanding ones
in Obamaland.

Guess who's not coming home for dinner? If you don't know, Michelle
Obama can probably clue you in.
Unquote.













WHO SPEAKS FOR YOU?

After Moses delivered the Israelites from Egypt , there were numerous times when his decisions were challenged by a few who thought they were smarter and wiser. The 40-year trek in the desert happened while the silent majority allowed the vocal few determine their destiny.
Pilate was influenced to crucify Jesus while those who had been healed and fed by Jesus throughout His journey silently allowed arrogant and selfish leaders to loudly speak on their behalf.
You may remember the bullies on the playground (if you weren’t one of them) always found a more timid student to tease, take money and/or lunch while many walked away silently thankful it wasn’t happening to them.
We voted for change yet we continue to be the silent majority allowing the conservatives, right-wingers, naysayers, media and Uncle Toms challenge our president at every turn in an attempt to circumvent change.
Be clear about why there is a challenge! It is not about how much is being spent. President Bush spent every available surplus left by President Clinton. What is being challenged is who will benefit from the dollars being spent.
The naysayers know that we don’t reap the benefits, the bureaucrats in the insurance and drug companies do. Have we forgotten the insurance companies determine:
The amount of time our physician can see us?
Whether they will pay for a laboratory procedure as it relates to our diagnosis?
If our illness is served better with a generic drug?
What specialist we visit?
How long we stay in the hospital?
In “gratitude” for their decisions, we spend hours managing the process:
Repeating physical and medication history to each physician because they don’t communicate with each other.
Advocating for ourselves and loved ones to move to the next level of diagnosis.
Spending hours, travel time and excessive deductibles that may not even return us to minimum quality of life.
We are paying Lincoln Navigator prices for Studebaker services. The system is broken. There needs to be less whining, nitpicking and grandstanding. Let’s get a system that provides options yet works for the people; one that provides diagnosis and maintenance from cataracts to cardiovascular, from dental to dilation, from aspirin to Activia.
Let your voice be heard. Let your senator, congressman, newspapers and the media know that we still believe in Change.
We want change in education so that our children can afford tuition.
We want change in the job market so that everyone who is willing to work will have a job.
We want control over the access to guns so that we can alleviate senseless killings.
We want a healthcare system that is inclusive and not exclusive.
PEOPLE, STATUS QUO IS NOT AN OPTION.

9 October 2009 President Barack Obama Awarded Nobel Peace Prize.


OSLO – President Barack Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday 9 October for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples," the Norwegian Nobel Committee said, citing his outreach to the Muslim world and attempts to curb nuclear proliferation.

The stunning choice made Obama the third sitting U.S. president to win the Nobel Peace Prize and shocked Nobel observers because Obama took office less than two weeks before the Feb. 1 nomination deadline. Obama's name had been mentioned in speculation before the award but many Nobel watchers believed it was too early to award the president.

The Nobel committee praised Obama's creation of "a new climate in international politics" and said he had returned multilateral diplomacy and institutions like the U.N. to the center of the world stage. The plaudit appeared to be a slap at President George W. Bush from a committee that harshly criticized Obama's predecessor for resorting to largely unilateral military action in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

Rather than recognizing concrete achievement, the 2009 prize appeared intended to support initiatives that have yet to bear fruit: reducing the world stock of nuclear arms, easing American conflicts with Muslim nations and strengthening the U.S. role in combating climate change.

"Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future," Thorbjoern Jagland, chairman of the Nobel Committee said. "In the past year Obama has been a key person for important initiatives in the U.N. for nuclear disarmament and to set a completely new agenda for the Muslim world and East-West relations."

He added that the committee endorsed "Obama's appeal that 'Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility for a global response to global challenges.'"

President Theodore Roosevelt won the award in 1906 and President Woodrow Wilson won in 1919.

The committee chairman said after awarding the 2002 prize to former Democratic President Jimmy Carter, for his mediation in international conflicts, that it should be seen as a "kick in the leg" to the Bush administration's hard line in the buildup to the Iraq war.

Five years later, the committee honored Bush's adversary in the 2000 presidential election, Al Gore, for his campaign to raise awareness about global warming.

"The exciting and important thing about this prize is that it's given too someone ... who has the power to contribute to peace," Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said.

Nominators include former laureates; current and former members of the committee and their staff; members of national governments and legislatures; university professors of law, theology, social sciences, history and philosophy; leaders of peace research and foreign affairs institutes; and members of international courts of law.

The Nelson Mandela Foundation welcomed the award on behalf of its founder Nelson Mandela, who shared the 1993 Peace Prize with then-South African President F.W. DeKlerk for their efforts at ending years of apartheid and laying the groundwork for a democratic country.

"We trust that this award will strengthen his commitment, as the leader of the most powerful nation in the world, to continue promoting peace and the eradication of poverty," the foundation said.

In his 1895 will, Alfred Nobel stipulated that the peace prize should go "to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations and the abolition or reduction of standing armies and the formation and spreading of peace congresses."

Unlike the other Nobel Prizes, which are awarded by Swedish institutions, he said the peace prize should be given out by a five-member committee elected by the Norwegian Parliament. Sweden and Norway were united under the same crown at the time of Nobel's death.

The committee has taken a wide interpretation of Nobel's guidelines, expanding the prize beyond peace mediation to include efforts to combat poverty, disease and climate change.

(The following was written by a former governor of Oklahoma.)


He Should Have Won Two Nobel Peace Prizes

Congratulations and well deserved, President Obama.

Frustrated while listening to those who would argue that President Obama has done nothing to deserve the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize, I hoped to quickly borrow someone else’s list to answer the critics. I searched the Internet and was surprised by the negativity – link after link of virulent, statements claiming he had no accomplishments. Denied the lazy way out, I made my own Top 10 list of accomplishments related to world peace.

1. Inspiring a nation and changing perception of America around the world.
All along the campaign trail, millions of Americans cheered candidate Obama’s views on the advantage of – and his intent to conduct – personal diplomacy in foreign policy. Contrast this with his opponent, Sen. McCain, who sang “bomb, bomb, bomb … bomb, bomb Iran” at a campaign stop. Obama’s message resonated outside the U.S. as well. More than 200,000 gathered in the streets of Berlin to hear Obama call for nuclear disarmament. It was a bold and brave stance in the middle of a highly competitive presidential campaign. Perhaps when the Nobel Committee referred to “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy,” they were aware of the full history.

2. Reclaiming America’s moral high ground.
Obama reclaimed America’s moral high ground when he announced the closing of secret prisons that violated both our Constitution and the sensibilities of the world and declared an end to U.S.-sanctioned torture.

3. Reaching out to Iran with diplomacy rather than belligerence.

A remarkable and generally non-credited achievement is the positive impact of President Obama reaching out to Iran with diplomacy rather than belligerence. As a result, the Iranians decided they could now quit hating the U.S. in unison and turn their attention to getting rid of the morons running their own country, leading to the remarkable protests we witnessed following their last election. They have damn near thrown their freakish rulers out and now Iranian leaders are submitting to nuclear inspections. NONE of this was possible under a blustering Bush.

4. Re-Engaging the world.
Instead of ignoring the Israel/Palestinian conflict for seven years as the Bush administration did, Obama immediately engaged the issue with significant results. U.S. Envoy George Mitchell and former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, with Obama’s strong guidance and support, have dramatically eased tensions. Obama has demonstrated a sharp eye for talent on the ground. The maturity and professionalism to put a high-profile, brilliant political rival in charge of the State Department, and to have experienced envoys like Richard Holbrook crisscrossing these trouble spots, is much different than the former U.S. policy of making broad and inflammatory ideological statements and ignoring the problem.

5. Focusing attention on the real bad guys.
At the same time Obama reaches out diplomatically, the effort to get the really bad guys has been ramped up. I was in Pakistan when a drone took out Baitulah Massud, the murderous leader of the Pakistan Taliban with strong ties to Al Qaeda. Drone attacks have gone up sharply with significant results. Peace is dependent on safety and finally we are using surgical attacks rather than blunt force.

6. Joining world efforts to address environmental issues.
Obama told the world that we are no longer going to work against environmental improvements and global warming initiatives. The U.S. finally announced that carbon emissions from the world’s largest polluter are going to be reduced. Rejoining the world in this effort in a cooperative way has had enormous impact.

7. Stabilizing Pakistan.
Tripling non-military support for jobs in Pakistan to try to stabilize this nuclear-armed unstable country is the right step at a critical time.

8. Re-Evaluating Afghanistan.
Conducting and allowing the first ever open debate and discussion about the Afghan conflict with generals and numerous participants and then making a firm decision as to how to proceed is radically different than the past and very helpful to the future security of the US and the world.

9. Reducing Russian tensions.
Reaching an agreement with Russia to enlist their help on Iran by moving a worthless land based missile defense system to a highly useful mobile ship based system has radically reduced tensions with this historical enemy.

10. Changing the world with words – and actions.
His opponents like to downplay Obama’s oratorical skills. They are wrong to do so. The Cairo speech changed the world. I was in London with a room full of Muslim businessmen who held a negative view of Obama and the U.S. Following the speech, I saw their attitude change dramatically. Obama’s blunt, truthful words released the steam from the “hate the U.S. balloon” that drives so much violence. If you have not read it, please Google it and read it. Words are important, particularly when they come out of the mouth of the President of the United States. Obama’s ability to so beautifully articulate the hopes and dreams of the U.S. – and how closely they align with the desires of billions around the globe who want only good things for their families – is important.

Frankly, the list goes on and on. Imagine trying to save the meltdown of an economy that was left in his lap while simultaneously dealing with two wars, advancing health care reform, financial controls to avoid another depression, energy policy advance, and tackling the 10 items on my list … in just nine months. They should have given him two Nobel Prizes.

French President Sarkozy had it right when he said, “this award symbolizes America’s return to the hearts of the people of the world.” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, “President Obama embodies the new spirit of dialogue and engagement on the world’s biggest problems: climate change, nuclear disarmament and a wide range of peace and security challenges. President Obama’s commitment to work through the United Nations gives the world’s people fresh hope and fresh prospects. We at the United Nations highly applaud him and the Nobel Committee for its choice.”

The Nobel Peace Prize is frequently about efforts rather than completed accomplishments and often intended to give momentum to causes, inspiring others to courageously pursue peace.

I agree with MSNBC host Rachel Maddow whose clear voice is resonating ever stronger, “The President of the United States has received the Nobel Peace Prize. By any reasonable measure all Americans should be proud.”
(David Walters)