Chasing Demons: 75 Years On, D-Day Haunts, Drives Its Vets

White roses and US flags are places in the sand in front of the sea at Omaha Beach in Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer, Normandy, France, Monday, June 3, 2019. France is preparing to mark the 75th anniversary of the D-Day invasion which took place on June 6, 1944. (AP Photo/Rafael Yaghobzadeh)

BY JOHN LEICESTER, RAF CASERT

OMAHA BEACH, FRANCE (AP) — They are back, some for the first time since war stole their innocence 75 years ago on Normandy’s D-Day beaches.

They are back on battlefields where the World War II veterans saw friends killed, took lives themselves, were scarred physically and mentally and helped change the course of history.

Given the painful memories, given their unfamiliarity with the country they liberated, given the difficulty of traveling abroad, why are Americans and veterans from other Allied nations in their 90s coming back for this week’s anniversary of the June 6, 1944, invasion of Normandy?

For many, returning is a duty, a way to honor fallen comrades and fulfill promises they made as young men never to forget each other. Some buried their memories for decades but feel a compulsion to face their demons before going to their graves. Many fear the world is forgetting and want young people to hear their stories one last time.

The inevitability of all veterans of the 1939-1945 war being gone soon is acting as a clarion call. From across the globe, people are converging on Normandy to follow in the footsteps of, perhaps even rub shoulders with, the remaining men and women who made a military success of D-Day.

Here, in their own words, veterans explain why they’re back for this week’s anniversary:

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Jerry Deitch thinks he’ll be able to keep his nerves in check but isn’t sure. The survivor of Utah Beach, one of the five D-Day beaches, had always refused to go back to Normandy.

“I said, ‘No,’ I said, ‘I don’t think I can handle it. I’ll get too emotional,’” he says.

Now 93 years old, Deitch decided he must see where good friends died and revisit the spot by a seawall where he was hit by a piece of shrapnel that left a fist-sized dent in his helmet.

Deitch, who is from Nevada, was 18 years old when he landed and says “after the first day I felt like I was 30. I went in a little boy and came out a man. You grow up fast.”

Serving in a U.S. combat demolition unit, his job was to clear obstacles and blow up strong points that could slow the Allied advance inland. The shrapnel that dented Deitch’s helmet gave him a concussion; he was evacuated back to England.

“I know exactly where I was when I was hit. Exactly the spot. I see it in my mind all the time,” he said.

Long unable to speak to his family about his experiences, he recently started writing down his recollections so they’ll know, when he’s gone, what he went through. “I did a few chapters just before I came here,” Deitch says.

“It changed my life, yeah,” he said of D-Day. “It taught me to be very tolerant. God gives us free will; you’ve got to use it.”

Having long kept his war to himself, Deitch thanks people for listening to his recollections now.

“I feel better when I speak about it,” he said. “If you have demons, face them.”

His wife, Selma, felt the trip would be too arduous and stayed home. They’ve been married 71 years.

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Russell Pickett, 94, has made several return visits to Normandy. He says coming back helps him cope with the horrors he’s lived with since he was a 19-year-old in the first wave of American troops aiming for Omaha Beach, the bloodiest of the D-Day landing zones.

The former private in the 29th Infantry Division was immediately injured and he still suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.

“For a long time, I really didn’t want to come back, and I kind of dreaded it,” he said. “I can’t say that I really enjoy the whole thing, you know? When I head back on the beach and all that kind of stuff, sometimes it does things to you. But like this, you can see kind of what we was fighting for and, you know, that makes a little difference.”

With a flamethrower strapped to his back, Pickett was wounded when an explosion tore at the landing craft transporting him onto a beach which was sprayed by German machine-gun and artillery fire.

He blacked out and woke up on the water’s edge, next to a dead body and unable to move his legs. Plucked out of the water by another landing craft, he was hospitalized in England and then returned to Normandy, where he fought in the dense hedgerows that slowed the Allied advance and was injured again.

Pickett says he long tried to deal alone with his trauma before finally seeking medical help.

“I’ve got it now where I can handle it pretty well, because you live the war almost every night, you see? And you don’t get rid of it, no matter what you do,” he says. “I would love to forget it, totally forget it, but no way, especially when you go through a battle like D-Day.”

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The last time Leila Morrison saw Omaha Beach was when she landed on it in 1944, three months after D-Day, when she came to nurse soldiers injured in combat.

“I felt as though when I stepped on that sand I was stepping on sacred grounds because so many people had given their all for it. It was just plain sand,” she recalls.

At the end of the war, she nursed survivors of the Buchenwald concentration camp.

“I want to tell the French and the whole world how great it is that we do have our freedom, and we have so many privileges in America that other places don’t have,” Morrison says.

“Every day is a memorial day for me. I see those young fellas that didn’t make it. So many of them, and I am thankful over and over again.”

Helen Patton, a granddaughter of famed American tank commander Gen. George S. Patton Jr., is back in Normandy for the 75th anniversary with a message that younger generations should enjoy the liberties so many soldiers fought and died for.

Presiding Monday at a game of American football played close to the landing beaches, she quoted from a poem written by her grandfather during World War I to convey the idea that part of honoring those sacrifices is relishing life:

“When I sit in my tank and wait for the hour for the great barrage to come down, I wish to god there was one more day for raising hell in town.”

Leicester reported from Blay, France.

This story has been corrected to show surname of veteran in second section is Deitch, not Dietch.

Follow all the AP’s coverage of D-Day at https://apnews.com/WorldWarII

Apple Previews New Software As It Diversifies Beyond iPhones

A crowd waits in line before an announcement at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in San Jose, Calif., Monday, June 3, 2019. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

BY MICHAEL LIEDTKE

SAN JOSE, CALIF. (AP) — Apple CEO Tim Cook kicked off a keynote Monday that previewed upcoming changes to the company’s phone and computer software, some intended to help it diversify to offset eroding sales of its bedrock product, the iPhone.

Many of the software updates are expected to be tailored for digital services such as video streaming that Apple is rolling out to lessen its iPhone dependence.

Cook began his keynote by recapping services Apple announced earlier this spring, including a news reading service and an arcade service for mobile games. He also previewed one of the original shows Apple is producing for its new video-streaming service, “For All Mankind,” set in an alternate history where the Soviets were first to land a man on the moon.

The software showcase is an annual rite. This year, however, Apple is grappling with its biggest challenge since its visionary co-founder, Steve Jobs, died nearly eight years ago.

Although still popular, the iPhone is no longer reliably driving Apple’s profits the way it has for the past decade. Sales have fallen sharply for the past two quarters, and could suffer another blow if China’s government targets the iPhone in retaliation for the trade war being waged by President Donald Trump.

Apple emphasized its privacy protections during the keynote — following along with Facebook, Google and other major tech companies’ scripts this year.

In its new operating system iOS13, the company is introducing “Sign in with Apple” to let users sign into apps without using similar sign-in services from Facebook and Google. The sign in will let you hide your actual email address if you choose. It is also making it easier to only show your location to apps once and not continually.

Another potential problem looms for Apple. Regulatory complaints and a consumer lawsuit both question whether Apple has been abusing the power of its iPhone app store to thwart competition and gouge smaller technology companies that rely on it to attract users and sell their services.

Apple is trying to adapt by squeezing money from digital services tailored for the more than 900 million iPhones currently in use.

Of course, the company hasn’t totally abandoned the iPhone. The newest version of Apple’s iPhone operating system, iOS 13, will feature a dark mode and faster tools, including a facial unlock that Apple says will open your phone 30 percent faster.

The biggest remake of a single app is a makeover of Apple Maps, which will debut this fall. It includes more granular street and place data that Apple says it collected with street and aerial footage — tactics its largest mobile app rival Google has been using for years.

Apple also unveiled several new apps for its smart watch, including independent apps that don’t rely on the iPhone. The App Store will be available on the watch, making it possible for people to find and download apps right on their watch — expanding the availability of purchases that generate commissions for Apple.

The event is expected to usher out the iTunes software that Apple rolled out 16 years ago to sell and manage digital music for the iPod, which paved the way for the iPhone.

Apple has already phased out the iTunes from the iPhone and iPad, but now it’s expected to do the same on the Mac and other personal computers. Instead of iTunes, separate apps for music, video and podcasts are expected to be offered for computers, mirroring how Apple already handles those services on mobile devices.

The Latest: Apple's Sign-In Alternative To Facebook, Google

Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in San Jose, Calif., Monday, June 3, 2019. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

SAN JOSE, CALIF. (AP) — The Latest on Apple’s developers conference (all times local):

11:10 a.m.

Apple is offering iPhone users a way to bypass Facebook’s and Google’s sign-in services when using new apps.

It’s for those worried about letting Facebook and Google build bigger profiles on them by tying all their activities under their Facebook and Google accounts. Instead, Apple is introducing a competing sign-in service — and promises to be more respectful of privacy. Among other things, Apple will mask your real e-mail address when you sign in and give apps a random string instead.

Apple has been trying to differentiate itself by emphasizing privacy as other tech companies like Facebook and Google have faced breaches and other data privacy issues.

Apple is also offering users the ability to share location with apps just once, and not continually. And it will block apps from using Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to infer your location.

These privacy-focused features are part of the iOS 13 software update announced Monday and expected this fall.

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10:25 a.m.

Apple is opening its annual developers conference with another sneak peek at its upcoming Apple TV Plus video subscription.

CEO Tim Cook showed a snippet from a new show from Ron Moore, the executive producer of “Battlestar Galactica.” The show, “For All Mankind,” appears to be an alternative take on the U.S.-Russia space race in which a Soviet Cosmonaut is the first person to set foot on the moon.

Apple TV Plus was announced in March and is due out the fall. Pricing details haven’t been released. Oprah, Jason Momoa, Big Bird, Steven Spielberg and a host of other stars have also lent themselves to original Apple shows.

Apple also announced Monday that its Apple TV streaming device will soon offer support multiple users, so that individual members in a household can have their custom list of shows and how far they have watched. In the past, all the preferences have been tied to whoever set the device up.

Apple is also announcing updates for its iPhone, Mac and other software at its event in San Jose, California.

___

6:40 a.m.

Apple will preview upcoming changes to its phone and computer software Monday as it undergoes a major transition intended to offset eroding sales of its bedrock iPhone.

The company’s software showcase is an annual rite. But Apple is currently grappling with its biggest challenge since its visionary co-founder, Steve Jobs, died nearly eight years ago.

Many of the software updates are expected to be tailored for the digital services that Apple is rolling out to lessen its iPhone dependence.

Although still popular, the iPhone is no longer reliably driving Apple’s profits higher. Sales have Sales have fallen sharply for the past two quarters and there’s little reason to expect a quick turnaround.

Meet Your Merchant: Textile Designs Of Nevada City Woman Honors Ancient Global Traditions

Eno Jonah. Image: Elias Funez/The Union

BY CORY FISHER

NEVADA CITY (THE UNION) -- Eno Jonah was born in 1969 in Nigeria, just when the Nigerian-Biafran Civil War was drawing to a close. Her rural hometown of Ikot Ekpene had seen some of the war’s worst destruction.

A cherished childhood photo shows a beaming 3-year-old Eno standing next to her birthday cake with a single large candle, otherwise used to light the house.

But post-war, Ikot Ekpene, “The Raffia City,” was also known for its resilience and craftsmanship. Artisans throughout the region had a centuries-long history of making cloth from raffia fiber, which was often sold in a central craft market, along with other handmade treasures. The work of the artisan captivated Eno’s imagination as a young girl.

“The things they made were unique, sustainable and beautiful,” she said. “And you always knew the person who made them. I was fascinated by handmade products.”

In a town devastated by war, there were no stores to buy everyday clothing, so Eno’s mother would take her to a seamstress to get clothes made. She discovered that while she had little interest in learning to sew, she became passionate about textile design. The feel of the fabric, the muted colors of the earth and the traditional themes drew her in. She dreamed of someday owning a small textile design business featuring fabric handcrafted by master weavers who used home looms and other traditional methods.

In her 20s, Eno met and married an American biologist, Cliff Gold, and together they moved to Uganda with her son, where Cliff had a job with an international agricultural research institute. By then Eno, a natural entrepreneur, had already started and sold a company that produced T-shirts for golf companies and corporate sponsors. When she landed in Uganda, she saw there was a market for affordable, higher end, gently-used American clothing.

“I would buy clothes in bulk from the U.S. and sell them wholesale to retail stores in Uganda,” said Eno.

But the political instability of the region eventually came knocking at Eno’s door. The bank where she kept her savings abruptly closed and her money was gone. Concurrently, the market for higher-end clothing was waning, and Eno eventually sold off her entire inventory and closed the business.

But her entrepreneurial ventures had not ended in vain. Eno had learned valuable lessons when it came to running a business and was adept at establishing a meaningful rapport with people at all different levels. Her integrity, down-to-earth nature, warmth, and the smile that was so evident in her childhood birthday photo, easily won people over.

In 2010, Eno and Cliff moved to the United States, and by that time the couple had traveled extensively throughout West Africa, Asia and South America. The exploration of the rich cultures they encountered had reignited Eno’s long-held passion for textile design.

“I’d gone to textile workshops and visited artisans and textile producers in their small homes around the world,” she said. “At that point I began to identify who I would be going back to once I started my business. I wanted to have a direct, personal connection with my projects — to hear the stories and learn about the skills artists learned from their mothers.”

In 2012, Eno and Cliff decided to leave the congestion of the San Francisco Bay Area and bought a large, craftsman-style home outside Nevada City. While the aspen, maple and manzanita outside their windows are a far cry from the humid plains of southern Nigeria, to go inside is to experience African craftsmanship at its finest, including the furniture, sculptures and textiles in many forms.

In 2013, after earning a degree in cultural and development, Eno launched her own company, Nzuri Textiles. The word “nzuri” meaning “beautiful” in Swahili.

“My vision was to create lines of hand-painted textiles for the home, including upholstery, pillows, draperies, curtains, blinds and table cloths,” said Eno. “But now I’m also selling items made from Mongolian cashmere — some of the finest in the world — such as scarves, blankets and throws. It’s very fulfilling to travel to these far off places and create personal relationships.”

The quality of Eno’s design, in concert with pieces handmade by the likes Guatemalan weavers, basket makers in Thailand, and hand-painted indigo textiles of her homeland are a reflection of the rich relationships that Eno has cultivated.

“My objective is to introduce African and other concepts of beauty into contemporary home décor,” said Eno. “We blend traditional and modern designs for life style products designed to enhance your home. Some have taken more than a year to develop. A lot of thought goes into every piece of work.”

No one was more surprised than Eno when, after a slow launch, Nzuri Textiles began to catch the eye of high-end designers. Today, two years later, her products can be found in museums and showrooms in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Dallas, South Carolina and Brisbane, Australia. Despite being thrown in with well-known designer brands, the young, small-run boutique products produced by Nzuri Textiles are clearly attracting attention. Today they can be shipped anywhere in the world.

No one is happier with Eno’s success than her husband, Cliff, who says that — after many years of her supporting his international work — it’s Eno’s chance to shine. Retired, he now works as her assistant.

“It was challenging for Eno at first — I was the only person she knew in the U.S.,” he said. “She is someone who appreciates artistic quality and the cultural aspect of how textiles integrate into an entire culture.”

“When I first learned that these high end showrooms were interested in my textiles, I screamed,” said Eno, with a laugh. “How is that a Nigerian comes to the U.S.A., starts a small business and is now attracting this kind of attention? Having people at these showrooms look at my creations and say, ‘I want that’ is amazing. How is that possible?”

To contact Staff Writer Cory Fisher, email her at cfisher@theunion.com.

Pope Apologises To Roma For Catholic Church's 'Discrimination'

Pope Francis--Image: Reuters

ROMA, ROMANIA (AFP) -- Pope Francis apologised to the Roma people on Sunday for the Roman Catholic Church's "discrimination" against them as he wrapped up a visit to Romania.Making up around 10 percent of Romania's 20 million people, many Roma are marginalised and live in poverty and have suffered centuries of discrimination and insults.

"I ask forgiveness – in the name of the Church and of the Lord – and I ask forgiveness of you. For all those times in history when we have discriminated, mistreated or looked askance at you," the pope said in a speech to the Roma community in the central town of Blaj.

"My heart, however, is heavy. It is weighed down by the many experiences of discrimination, segregation and mistreatment experienced by your communities. History tells us that Christians too, including Catholics, are not strangers to such evil," he said.

"Indifference breeds prejudices and fosters anger and resentment. How many times do we judge rashly, with words that sting, with attitudes that sow hatred and division!"

Earlier, the pontiff beatified seven Greco-Catholic bishops jailed and tortured during the Communist era.

"The new blessed ones suffered and sacrificed their lives, opposing a system of totalitarian and coercive ideology," he told some 60,000 worshippers attending mass on a "Field of Liberty" in Blaj.

"These shepherds, martyrs of faith, garnered for and left the Romanian people a precious heritage which we can sum up in two words: freedom and mercy," added Francis, while praising the "diversity of religious expression" in mainly Orthodox Romania.

Regime officials detained the beatified bishops overnight on October 28, 1948, accusing them of "high treason" after they refused to convert to Orthodoxy.

The Greek-Catholic Church was outlawed under 1948-89 Communist rule.
- Buried in secret -

The bishops died of maltreatment, some still in jail, others in confinement in an Orthodox monastery. They were then buried in secret -- to this day the whereabouts of four of their graves is unknown.

The bars of the cells where they were held were symbolically incorporated into the throne built specially for the papal visit.

The bishops followed the Eastern Rite Catholic Church which emerged from an Orthodox schism at the end of the 17th century when the central region of Transylvania was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire.

While retaining Orthodox practices they recognised Roman Catholic papal authority -- unacceptable for the Communist regime which took power following World War II. Under a 1948 decree formally abolishing the Eastern Catholic churches, Greco-Catholics were forcibly obliged to return to the Orthodox fold.

Under such stark political repression, most Romanian Catholics -- who numbered more than 1.5 million in 1948, abandoned their faith and their community has shrunk to around 200,000 today in a country of 20 million, almost nine in 10 of whom profess Orthodoxy.

The politics which has seeped through Romania's modern religious history has poisoned inter-faith relations -- even if the papal visit has softened feelings to a degree.

"No matter where we go, to the town hall, to the police or to school, doors get closed," a 72-year-old Roma, who gave his name as Ion, told AFP.

Roma, originating from northern India, suffered around five centuries of slavery before the practice was formally abolished in 1856.

But they remain a mainly poor and marginalised community -- even if recent years have seen roads paved and homes getting running water and electricity.
- Seeking inclusiveness -

Francis's arrival in Blaj to wind up his visit was part of his attempt at inclusiveness on his three-day visit to one of what remains Europe's poorest states.

Although Romania has developed apace since obtaining EU membership in 2007 there remain some "urban or rural ghettos where nothing has changed," according to sociologist Gelu Duminica, who heads the anti-discrimination Impreuna (Together) association.

Duminica and others in Blaj saw it as no coincidence that Francis, often seen as a defender of the rights of the most marginalised, chose the Barbu Lautaru district of Blaj, whose inhabitants are mainly Roma, to launch his appeal for tolerance and social inclusion.

"The pope's visit is a message for those who are marginalised, disregarded or not accepted by others," said Mihai Gherghel, an eastern Catholic priest, who supervised the construction of the Blaj church where Francis celebrated Sunday mass.

I Was An Expert Witness Against A Teacher Who Taught Students To Question The Holocaust

A picture taken just after the liberation by the Soviet army in January 1945 shows a group of children wearing concentration camp uniforms behind barbed wire fencing in the Oswiecim (Auschwitz) Nazi concentration camp. AP
BY JENNIFER RICH

When I first set out to research how the Holocaust was being depicted in textbooks in New Jersey’s public schools, my hope was to see what students were being taught about the systematic state-sponsored killing of 6 million Jewish men, women and and children.

I never imagined that my work would lead me to serve as a witness against a history teacher who encouraged his students to question whether the Holocaust had ever taken place at all.

The case – known as Jason Mostafa Ali v. Woodbridge Township School District – represents a rare look inside the mind of what I see as a modern day Holocaust denier. In some ways, the case is reminiscent of Irving v. Penguin and Lipstadt – a Holocaust denial case famously portrayed in the 2016 movie “Denial” and written about in a book of the same name.

In that case, Emory University history professor Deborah Lipstadt was sued for libel in a London court by author David Irving, a well-known writer about WWII. Irving filed the libel suit after Lipstadt wrote a book called “Denying the Holocaust,” in which she called Irving “one of the most dangerous spokespersons for Holocaust denial.” A British court ultimately tossed out Irving’s suit, finding that he had “persistently and deliberately misrepresented and manipulated historical evidence” in order to portray Hitler in “unwarrantedly favourable light.”

Now here I was some two decades later, being called upon to serve as a witness against a schoolteacher trying to get his job back after being fired for doing essentially the same thing.

My grandparents were Holocaust survivors. I have also spent the past four years interviewing children and other grandchildren of Holocaust survivors. My work shows how deeply members of the second and third generations feel the impact of the Holocaust in their lives. Many often feel like they carry the trauma that parents and grandparents experienced. I had to work to keep my emotions in check and focus on the business at hand.
Denial makes news

My involvement in the case against Mr. Ali began in November 2017 when I got a phone call from a lawyer who was representing the Woodbridge Township School District. I had sent an email earlier in the year to the district about my study of how textbooks portray the Holocaust and officials there remembered my note.

Woodbridge officials had fired Mr. Ali, who was teaching students to question the Holocaust and who was also pushing 9/11 conspiracy theories. Mr. Ali was now suing the district for illegally firing him over his race and religion.

Mr. Ali had first made headlines in September 2016 after a news station discovered several 9/11 conspiracy links on his school webpage.

After speaking with the Woodbridge district lawyer, I was sent several hundred pages of depositions, student work and lesson plans to review. I was also asked if I would serve as an expert witness in the case.

One particularly memorable student paper in the documents was called “A Gas Chamber Full of Lies.”

“We have all been taught that the Holocaust was a time of hate, and that Hitler used the gifts he possessed for absolute evil, but is that really the case? … Is the death of the Jews completely justified? No, because nobody deserves to die, regardless what they’ve done. But are their deaths really completely unjustified either?” read an excerpt.

Another student stated that the Jews imprisoned in concentration camps “had a much easier and more enjoyable life in the camps” and that “even though they were not at home, they felt like they were.”

Mr. Ali’s pedagogical folly was not limited to the Holocaust. He also shared links to stories that asserted that 9/11 was a conspiracy between the CIA and Mossad. The stories had headlines like “The Jews are like a cancer, woe to the world if they become strong.”

Confronted with this evidence, I decided to serve as an expert witness in the case.
Taking on a ‘content specialist’

In a report to the court, I pointed out how – during a deposition – Mr. Ali made numerous factual errors and had a lack of knowledge about the Second World War and the Holocaust.

Mr. Ali did not know basic facts, such as the name of General Erwin Rommel, one of the most prominent German generals of the war. He also was ignorant of Elie Wiesel or Wiesel’s classic book “Night,” perhaps the best-known account of the Holocaust by an Auschwitz survivor.

These giant gaps in basic factual knowledge, I told the court, came along with what I described as a “worrisome awareness of arcane, conspiracy-related details, a classic case of losing the forest for the trees in historical terms.”

“By allowing his students to investigate assertions, myths, and logical fallacies as if they are real, Mr. Ali created the space for denial to grow,” I wrote in my report. “This allows the idea of ‘maybe there is more to this than I was told’ to bloom.”
Where free speech stops

In Mr. Ali’s case, he alleged – among other things – that he had a First Amendment right to share materials that he saw fit.

When he was asked whether he taught his students to “question the facts as to whether Hitler chose to brutally abuse, take advantage, starve and murder Jews for absolutely no reason at all,” Mr. Ali responded that he taught his students to “question everything.” And when he was asked if he encouraged his students to “come to different views than the traditional understanding of what World War II and the Holocaust and Hitler were about,” he stated: “Yeah, it’s called debate.”

But United States District Judge Madeline Cox Arleo disagreed. She ruled that the school district, not the classroom teacher, “has the ultimate right to decide what will be taught in the classroom.” Except for a procedural matter unrelated to his teaching, she tossed out the various claims in Mr. Ali’s lawsuit, saying that he failed to show he was fired for anything other than the reasons given by the school district – not his race or his religion like he claimed.

Mr. Ali is not done with this fight. Even though a judge tossed out his lawsuit, on May 28 he filed an appeal, court records show.

The Conversation reached out to Mr. Ali and his attorney, Nicholas Pompelio, but did not get a response.

I don’t doubt that Mr. Ali has a story to tell. I can’t speak to his claims that he was subjected to an “anti-Muslim attitude” at work, or that the school district didn’t seem to have a problem with his 9/11 conspiracy theory lessons until a TV station started reporting about it.

All I know is that when it comes to what Mr. Ali either let or encouraged his students to believe when it comes to Hitler and the Holocaust, his lessons weren’t just wrong, they were dangerous.

SOURCE: THE CONVERSATION

Journalist Killings, Arrests And Assaults Climb Worldwide As Authoritarianism Spreads

Reuters reporters Wa Lone, left, and Kyaw Soe Oo after being freed from prison, in Yangon, Myanmar, May 7, 2019. Ann Wang/Pool Photo via Associated Press

BY PROFESSOR RANDY COVINGTON

Myanmar, nudged by the conscience of the world, recently released two Reuters journalists imprisoned for more than 500 days – good news in what otherwise has been a dismal period for media freedom.

The 2019 Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders shows how hatred of journalists has degenerated into violence and created “an intense climate of fear” worldwide.

According to the Paris-based nonprofit, 12 reporters have been killed so far this year and 172 are in jail. In the last decade, according to the group, 702 journalists have been killed, including 63 last year.

“The number of countries regarded as safe, where journalists can work in complete security, continues to decline, while authoritarian regimes continue to tighten their grip on the media,” the report states.

Myanmar ranks 138th of 180 countries evaluated on media independence, laws, abuses and other factors. Norway, Finland and Sweden are seen as the most free. The U.S. is 48th, dropping three spots since 2018. Eritrea, North Korea and Turkmenistan are at the bottom of the list.
Reporting under authoritarian rule

Many countries in the lower third of the Press Freedom Index are authoritarian regimes in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

In these places, which have few protections for free speech, media organizations are weak and often depend on the government for advertising. Journalists typically are poorly paid and have little training.

Press Freedom Worldwide

Journalism is under siege internationally, according to the latest report from Reporters without Borders. Only a handful of countries, primarily in northern Europe, have full press freedom. The U.S. ranks 48th of 180 countries ranked, down three spots since 2018. Myanmar, which recently released two journalists jailed for reporting on deaths among the country's Rohingya Muslim minority, ranks 138th of 180.

Image: Press Frredom Index via The Conversation

In this environment, reporters who upset the government are at risk.

As head of the University of South Carolina’s Newsplex initiative, I have trained journalists all over the world, many from countries with restrictions on free speech.

I always have been struck by the similarities among journalists, regardless of country. They are curious, they like to help people, and they want their work to have impact.

What is different, though, is the environment in which those journalists work.

In strong democracies like those of Europe, the United States and parts of Latin America, journalists aspire to uncover the facts and to hold the powerful accountable. They are shielded by centuries-old traditions and laws that protect freedom of speech.

In young or weak democracies, there are few if any protections. Journalists are seen by the government and to some extent by society as partners in the country’s development. As in authoritarian countries like China or much of the Middle East, stories that question or embarrass the government are often suppressed.
Journalism under siege in Myanmar

Myanmar is a case study of the tensions between authoritarian regimes and truth-seeking journalists.

Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, was a military dictatorship from 1962 to 2011. While it has begun to move toward democracy, the military retains significant control over this Southeast Asian nation of 53 million.

Myanmar is largely Buddhist and the government has little tolerance for the country’s Muslim minority, called the Rohingya. Since late 2016, the Rohingya have been victims of what the United Nations describes as “ethnic cleansing” by the government.

A 2017 report from Doctors Without Borders, a humanitarian organization, said it is likely that the Myanmar military has killed more than 10,000 Rohingya.

The Reuters journalists, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, were arrested for investigating the deaths of 10 Rohingya men and boys. Their conviction for violating the Official Secrets Act– a British colonial-era law in Myanmar that treats virtually all government information as confidential – shows how the country attempts to silence criticism.

In 2013 I was at the World Newspaper Congress in Bangkok, where I heard Burmese journalists talk about their hopes and concerns.

The installation of a civilian government in 2011 was a positive sign, and the Myanmar government had recently allowed privately-owned newspapers to operate for the first time in 50 years. Change was coming, and I sensed a spirit of optimism in the air, though it was still not clear who really held power in the country.

The journalists wondered if the limited press freedom they had experienced would continue, and they worried over how to find and train journalists in a country without a history of independent media.

Perhaps most importantly, they asked, how could they convince those in power that society is best served by a free press?

In 2015, hopes for democracy soared with the election of Aung San Suu Kyi – a Nobel Prize-winning democracy activist who spent 15 years under house arrest for opposing the military dictatorship.

Instead, an estimated 800,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to neighboring Bangladeshsince she took office in 2016, and at least 43 journalists have been arrested, according to Human Rights Watch.
Myanmar’s limited democracy

The travails of being a publisher or journalist in a developing country can be seen through the experiences of Dr. Than Htut Aung, and his Eleven Media Group, one of Myanmar’s leading publishers.

At that 2013 World Newspaper Congress, the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers honored Dr. Aung for his fight against government censorship.

Since then, things haven’t gotten any easier for him or his company. Reporters and senior editors have been charged by the government with defamation, contempt of court and publishing incorrect information, generally for exposing or alleging government corruption and public malfeasance.

In 2016, the government even sued Dr. Aung for a column in which he questioned how a government official got an expensive watch and whether he had ties to shady business figures.

Myanmar’s press crackdown has attracted global attention.

“Rather than punishing investigative reporting that is designed to safeguard the public interest, officials in Myanmar should acknowledge the role of independent media as a necessary support to democratic institutions,” wrote the World Association of Newspapers.

Journalists in countries like Myanmar have little hope if they are working in isolation.

In May, editors from Myanmar and other countries in the region gathered in Singapore to form an Asian chapter of the World Editors Forum, which defends press freedom and promotes editorial excellence. Led by Warren Fernandez, the editor of Singapore’s The Straits Times, the collaboration could lead to training, more professionalism and more legal protections for journalists in Myanmar and neighboring countries.

Beyond the region, worldwide pressure led to the release of Lone and Oo, who were awarded a 2019 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting, a significant honor for two journalists doing their jobs under very difficult circumstances.

SOURCE: THE CONVERSATION

Group Decries High Cost Of Justice In Nigeria

LAGOS (PM NEWS/NAN) -- Justice Initiative for the Disadvantaged and Oppressed Persons (JIDOP), on Sunday, said many Nigerians lacked access to justice, due to high cost of litigation and slow judicial processes.

Mr Lawman Nzenwa, Convener of JIDOP, said this while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the sidelines of the official unveiling of the group’s logo in Lagos.

“Our justice system has failed Nigerians. It is expensive and time consuming and people are beginning to lose faith in it.

“So, we are now advocating for emphasis on Alternative Dispute Resolution.

“I am talking about mediation and arbitration, where people can still come up and air their grievances.

“Both parties will be able sit together to find an amicable resolution to the issue.

“The way it is now, what we get is judgment not justice because of the delay in the process.”

Nzenwa said JIDOP was established to assist ordinary Nigerians, who had no access to justice and were being oppressed by wealthy individuals and institutions.

He noted that some persons had been in detention for years awaiting trial, stressing that the group would be looking into such cases and others that would give hope to the downtrodden.

Nzenwa also urged the Federal Government to obey the rule of law, by releasing people in detention who had been granted bail by the courts.

He said the continued detention of people, who had been granted bail by some courts was not good for the country’s image, adding that when prominent individuals were also being held in disobedience to the courts, it affected the people’s confidence in the judicial system.

D-Day's 24 Hours Changed 20th Century, And Europe, Forever

In this undated photo provided by the Charles Shay Family Archive, Charles Norman Shay, front center, poses with members of his family in Indian Island, Maine. Shay, a D-Day veteran, was a medic who on June 6, 1944, landed on Omaha Beach, where he helped drag wounded soldiers out of the rising tide, saving them from drowning. (Charles Shay Family Archive via AP)

BY RAF CASERT

ON OMAHA BEACH, FRANCE (AP) — All at once, Charles Shay tried to stanch the bleeding from a ripped-open stomach, dull the pain with morphine and soothe the mind of a dying fellow American army medic. It was a tall order for a 19-year-old who had just set foot on the European mainland for the first time.

But nothing could have prepared him for what happened on June 6, 1944, on five cold, forbidding beaches in northern France. It was D-Day, one of the most significant 24-hour periods of the 20th century, the horrifying tipping point in World War II that defined the future of Europe.

That morning, Shay could not yet fathom what the event would ultimately mean. He was more concerned with the bleeding soldiers, body parts and corpses strewn around him, and the machine-gun fire and shells that filled the air.

“You have to realize my vision of the beach was very small. I could only experience what I could see,” he told The Associated Press, speaking from the now-glimmering Omaha Beach, where he landed 75 years ago.

International leaders will gather again this week to honor the dwindling number of D-Day veterans. U.S. President Donald Trump is set to join a commemoration Wednesday on the southern English coast in Portsmouth before traveling to Normandy and the U.S. cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer, which stands on a bluff overlooking the English Channel where some 160,000 made the perilous D-Day crossing.

There, Shay plans to be among the crowd Thursday to welcome Trump as he pays homage to 9,388 dead Americans, most of whom lost their lives on D-Day or in the aftermath of the Normandy offensive.

After World War II, Shay continued to witness history — fighting the Chinese during the Korean War, participating in U.S. atomic tests in the Marshall Islands and later working at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. With all the wisdom gathered in his 94 years, he knows another war can never be discounted.

“Some men cannot get enough of power,” Shay said. “And it still continues today.”

These days, crimson wild roses bloom where blood seeped into the Normandy dunes, and American flags whip in the westerly winds, many flown by locals still grateful to the U.S. soldiers who liberated the first French soil from four years of Nazi occupation.

Omaha and adjacent Utah Beach were America’s to take, but similar acts of sacrifice and heroism happened on three other beachheads to the east where Britain and Canadian troops sought to break Hitler’s stranglehold on the continent. In all, the invasion covered 80 kilometers (50 miles) of French shoreline.

Shay survived, but he did not talk about the experience for well over half a century.

“So many dead. So many young men, young boys, killed on the spot,” he said. “It was difficult to see and absorb.”

‘DIDN’T KNOW WHAT I WAS GETTING INTO’

When Shay, a Penobscot native American from Indian Island, Maine, was born in 1924, the world was only starting to recover from World War I, which had been a coming-of-age moment for the United States. U.S. intervention proved decisive in beating Germany and heralded the century ahead.

Shay was barely 5 when the Great Depression hit. As a child, nicknamed Little Muskrat, he and his family performed in ceremonial native garb and sold traditional goods.

“My aunt employed me as a young Indian dancer,” he said. Times were tough.

Across the ocean, Germany also faced economic misery that, together with lingering bitterness over its defeat in the war, paved the way for Adolf Hitler’s rise.

When containment failed, war in Europe erupted again in 1939, and Hitler’s Nazis swarmed over much of the continent. They took Paris and were quickly at the Normandy coastline. Britain, across the English Channel, remained out of reach.

The United States, which had slumbered into isolationism after its victory in 1918, entered World War II after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. Germany declared war on the U.S. in support of its ally.

The rumble of war was quickly closing on Shay. He was trained to be a machinist but could not get a job because he was expected to be drafted into the Army.

So before he knew what life was really about, Shay found himself in a hammock in the hold of the RMS Queen Elizabeth. He was sailing from New York to England, his final destination unknown.

“I never had a sense of fear because I didn’t know what I was getting in to,” Shay said.

In this June 6, 1944, file photo, U.S. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, left, gives the order of the day to paratroopers in England prior to boarding their planes to participate in the first assault of the Normandy invasion. A dwindling number of D-Day veterans will be on hand in Normandy in June 2019, when international leaders gather to honor them on the invasion’s 75th anniversary. (U.S. Army Signal Corps via AP)

To ease pressure on his homeland, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin had increasingly leaned on the United States and Britain to open a second front on Germany. In November 1943, he was promised as much for the upcoming spring. Soon, Shay found himself training for the biggest amphibious operation in history.

The Germans knew an invasion was coming but had no idea when or where, and the most likely options were 400 kilometers (250 miles) apart. Hitler prepared an Atlantic Wall of defenses.

England and Normandy’s notoriously fickle weather thwarted possible attacks as April passed into May and June. Then, finally, it was time for Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower to distribute the orders that he had honed for months.

“The eyes of the world are upon you,” he told his men. “You will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny.” The death toll was sure to be enormous.

On the two American beachheads, the United States suffered 2,501 killed in action on June 6, 1944. In all, an estimated 4,414 men died on that single day, according to the latest figures.

“However, it was absolutely necessary,” said Scott Desjardins, the superintendent of the American cemetery off Omaha Beach.

‘NOT TOO WORRIED’ UNTIL THE RAMPS WENT DOWN

Few soldiers in the first wave fully realized the risks.

That night before D-Day, the men of Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment of the 1st Infantry Division, aka the Big Red One, had more immediate problems — sea sickness, finger-numbing cold and a dangerous descent into landing crafts using rope nets slung over the side of transports that were rolling in heavy seas.

“If you landed in the water between the boat and the troop transport ship, you were dead,” Shay remembered.

The roar of planes dropping paratroopers and the boom of bombs trying to blunt the German defenses told them the fateful hour was near.

Shay can still recount that day as if it just happened.

It started at dawn when a Navy man shouted, “I am dropping the ramp.” But they were nowhere near close enough to the beach.

“I wasn’t too worried about it — until the ramps went down,” Shay recalled.

He landed in water up to his chest. Many soldiers who were overloaded with equipment “sank immediately and a lot of men drowned,” he said.

Those who stayed afloat had to face withering German gunfire. Many of the men standing in front “were hit immediately and killed on the spot,” he said.

The Germans had built a barricade of metal tripods to stave off the landings. Shay moved from one tripod to another in the water. Once on dry land, he sought cover behind the “high portions” of the beach and started treating the wounded.

“While I was doing that, I happened to look back out to the water, to the ocean,” he said. There, he saw many wounded men who were lying on the beach as the tide began rising. Without help, they would drown.

“So I dropped what I was doing, and I returned to the water,” Shay said. Germans were still shooting at any American who moved under their protected Widerstandsnest 62, a bunker that still stands above Omaha Beach.

With bullets hitting the sand, he started pulling men — he doesn’t know how many — out of the water. Many of the soldiers were much bigger and heavier than he was.

“In such a situation, the adrenaline starts to flow,” Shay said. “It gives you strength that you did not know that you had.” He received the Silver Star for his bravery.

“I have always said that my mother’s prayers protected me,” he said, the medal sparkling in the afternoon sun.

‘SURROUNDED BY DEAD PEOPLE’

When the shooting on the beach slowed, he found fellow F Company medic Edward Morozewicz, who had “an open stomach.” Shay administered morphine and applied bandages. It was to no avail.

“I stayed with him until he died. I tried to converse with him a little bit. I tried to comfort him,” he said.

He left the bloodied beach late that afternoon, completely separated from his company, which had lost all officers and many non-commissioned officers.

Wandering around in a daze of fatigue, “I fell down in a field someplace and I went to sleep. When I woke up in the morning, I saw that I was surrounded by dead people — American and German.”

From that moment on, the war moved inexorably in the Allies’ favor. D-Day was also the starting gun in a race with the Soviets to control as much territory as possible by the time Germany surrendered on May 7, 1945.

The competition between the Allies and the Soviets effectively set the stage for the Cold War lines that defined Europe for the next five decades and possibly right up to this day.

“This was democracy’s beachhead,” former President Barack Obama said in 2014. “And our victory in that war decided not just a century, but shaped the security and well-being of all posterity.”

Such words would have been lost on Shay as he advanced into Germany, living from day to day. He was briefly taken prisoner after crossing the Rhine, but was soon liberated by U.S. troops and heading home.

All these decades later, he is back at the same shores, walking across the immaculate lawns covered with white gravestones and pondering the sacrifice.

“Oh, yes. Definitely it was worth it,” he said. “It was a rogue regime that was trying to take over the world, and the people had to be stopped.”

Associated Press photographer Virginia Mayo and video journalist Mark Carlson contributed to this report.

Follow all the AP’s coverage of D-Day at https://apnews.com/WorldWarII

Nigeria Is Under Attack

Cardinal Anthony Olubunmi Okogie

BY ANTHONY CARDINAL OKOGIE

On a Monday in September 2015, former finance minister, Chief Olu Falae was on his farm in Ilado near Akure when some armed men came looking for him. At gunpoint, they abducted him and held him until the following Thursday. At the age of 77, he was made to walk several kilometres. He was made to sleep in the rain. According to his own account published in some national dailies, every half an hour, his armed abductors threatened: “Baba, we are going to kill you. If you don’t give us money we are going to kill you.”

By 2018, herdsmen were wreaking havoc in the states of the middle belt of Nigeria. Then, a retired Chief of Army Staff, a veteran of military intervention in Nigerian politics, General Theophilus Danjuma, warned that there was ethnic cleansing in the middle belt. Having lost confidence in the government’s willingness or ability to deal with the situation, General Danjuma called on the people of the middle belt to take responsibility for their own security. The reaction of aides to the President of the Federal Republic was to insult him and call him names he did not deserve to bear.

Recently, former President Obasanjo added his voice to those of Chief Falae, Gen. Danjuma and many others, voices warning us of heightened insecurity in our country. President Obasanjo spoke of “Fulanisation and Islamisation”. But in what has become a typical reaction from aides to President Buhari, President Obasanjo’s concerns were not addressed. What he received were gratuitous insults from President Buhari’s aides. Nonetheless, it is highly significant that one of President Obasanjo’s most virulent critiques, Professor Wole Soyinka, urged the federal government to address the issues he raised.

The issue is neither the character nor the political affiliation of those who are speaking. The issue is insecurity and the government’s inability or unwillingness to address the issue. Nigeria in her vastness is within the firm grips of kidnappers, armed robbers, herdsmen, bandits and insurgents.

Government officials tell us that Boko Haram has been “technically defeated”. But there is a wide abyss between government propaganda and the experience of the citizen. Despite government propaganda, Boko Haram, with frequent and convincing repetition, demonstrates that it has more firepower than the Nigerian military. Our highways are unsafe. A major highway like the Abuja-Kaduna Road has become a theatre of operation for kidnappers. The northwestern states of Zamfara and Katsina have become utterly unsafe. They have been taken over by armed bandits. Yet, all that presidential aides have to offer concerned Nigerians is insolence.

Shortly after Chief Falae’s abduction, Nigerians woke up to hear of clandestine and illegal importation of arms into Nigeria. There were reports that arrests were made. But Nigerians no longer hear of any judicial process to which these importers are being subjected. The matter appears to have died. Little wonder we now live in a Nigeria saturated with ammunition.

How on earth can we claim to be living in a democratic polity when presidential aides forget or ignore the fact that the President was put in office by the votes of the people? For if they knew the principles of democracy, they would not be disrespectful to Nigerians who happen to hold views divergent from those of government on how affairs of state are to be handled. One would have thought that, by now, four years since 2015, presidential aides would have grasped the difference between insolence and competence.

One does not need to hold any brief for former President Obasanjo to know that his concerns on this matter are genuine. One only needs to read carefully the text of his intervention. One need not be his friend or political ally to observe that there are one-sided actions on the part of the government in matters of security. Well-meaning Nigerians express concerns that herdsmen are treated with kid gloves and allowed to get away with murder while some other agitators are called terrorists, proscribed and gunned down. A “technically defeated” Boko Haram continue to hold Leah Sharibu in captivity while the federal government secured the release of her Muslim schoolmates and the release of Zainab Aliyu and Ibrahim Abubakar from death row in Saudi Arabia.

Obasanjo is pointing to an open secret, and that is: there is a synergy between Boko Haram, herdsmen and ISIS. This synergy, leading to a gradual implementation of the Islamisation agenda of ISIS, is what is being referred to as “Fulanisation and Islamisation”. It is about the imposition by ISIS of its own version of Islam. Whoever opposes it, be that person Christian or Muslim or Fulani, is eliminated.

The security situation in Nigeria has become worse than deplorable. Nigeria is being attacked. Is this how we all will be watching while our country becomes more inhabitable than it has ever been in her history? Is there leadership in this country? If so, what type of leadership do we have?

It is the responsibility of the president and his aides to address the situation in ways that are manifestly even-handed. There are fears that some people have taken over this country. We are held hostage on our land. This country is in the hands of invaders, bandits, herdsmen and kidnappers. Nigeria is under attack. Will the President and Commander in Chief show leadership?

Anthony Cardinal Okogie, Archbishop Emeritus of Lagos.

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN NIGERIA

Wide Range Of Emotions On Impeachment Underscores Challenge

U.S. Rep. Justin Amash, R-Cascade Township, top right, holds a town hall meeting at Grand Rapids Christian High School's DeVos Center for Arts and Worship on Tuesday, May 28, 2019. The congressman came under scrutiny May 18 when he posted a series of Tweets to outline his support for impeachment proceedings. As such, he is the only Republican congress member to do so. The following days brought an announcement from the wealthy DeVos family about no longer supporting him financially. (Cory Morse/The Grand Rapids Press via AP)

BY LISA MASCARO, MARC LEVY, ADRIAN SAINZ & AMY TAXIN

YORKTOWN, VA. (AP) — In suburban Philadelphia, it took a little more than eight minutes into the question-and-answer session at freshman Rep. Madeleine Dean’s town hall before someone asked about impeachment.

The topic was broached in Southern California as Rep. Katie Porter fielded other questions on health care, homelessness, border security and the minimum wage.

In military heavy Yorktown, along coastal Virginia, another newly elected Democrat, Rep. Elaine Luria, never got asked about it at all.

Since House Democrats swept to power last November, the seams of their big tent majority are being stretched over the difficult issues surrounding whether to start impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump.

For those lawmakers and others, the town hall sessions in their districts revealed how much or how little impeachment is on voters’ minds. Lawmakers were at home the same week that special counsel Robert Mueller delivered his first and potentially last public statement on the matter.

The differing opinions expressed to lawmakers offer a snapshot of the challenges facing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and the many conversations to come.

“I actually wondered whether anybody would bring it up,” Dean told the crowd of about 150 in a Montgomery County Community College auditorium.

It was Wednesday, the night after Mueller’s rare public remarks. Dean drew applause and whistles and hoots of support as she laced into Trump, calling him “the most indecent president of our lifetime.”

Dean serves on the House Judiciary Committee, which is steeped in the impeachment debate, and she is among those calling for an impeachment inquiry. But the new congresswoman also acknowledged that in other conversations with voters around the district recently, they did not raise the subject.

The night before Mueller’s spoke at the Justice Department, Luria said she, too, was only asked about impeachment at one of her three stops Tuesday, during a visit with seniors at a retirement community.

The former Naval officer, who is also new to Congress, said it came up as more of a question, asking what she makes of it all.

“I talked about how I think Congress has an important duty, oversight, and we have a big responsibility to get to the bottom of the facts,” she recalled in an interview later that evening after the town hall in Yorktown.

Luria said she also brought the question back to the seniors for their advice. “I wasn’t alive when Watergate happened ... I understand it was very divisive as a country,” she recalled telling them, “and kind of asked them, ‘How do you feel about it?’”

The seniors nodded in agreement, she said, responding, “Yes, it’s something that would be very divisive.”

These are the considerations Pelosi is taking into account as she considers the House’s next moves. Despite increasingly vocal voices among her colleagues for the start of an impeachment inquiry, Pelosi has made it clear she’s in no rush to impeach. Such proceedings would start in the House before the case would shift to the Senate for a trial.

Pelosi prefers a more measured approach, saying she wants to have the country’s support, whatever the House’s ultimate decision.

Democrats last year won the majority in so many districts that had voted for Trump in 2016, basing their campaigns on promises of lowering health care costs, creating jobs with infrastructure investment and cleaning up the government. So Pelosi is wary of taking on an impeachment inquiry that would overpower that agenda.

Pelosi worries impeachment would split the country. She remembers how the proceedings against President Bill Clinton helped propel Democrats, and warns it could help Trump’s re-election in 2020.

But that might not be enough for some voters.

About 15 people waited at a library in Memphis to meet with Rep. Steve Cohen, a Democrat who was one of the earliest House proponents of impeachment

One constituent, Lloyd Brown, 62, told The Associated Press that he is watching the impeachment process closely.

“I do think that Congress should proceed with impeachment hearings, because I believe that will bring out some of the facts that haven’t become public yet,” Brown said.

Cohen, also a member of the House Judiciary Committee, discussed the possibility of impeachment, expressing his hope that Mueller will testify before the House. The congressman said that even if Trump is impeached, he does not think that the president will be convicted in the Republican-controlled Senate.

“But I do think he should have his day of reckoning,” Cohen said, adding later that Trump “makes Richard Nixon look honest.”

At a town hall in western Michigan on Tuesday, a woman told Rep. Justin Amash, the only Republican to accuse Trump of impeachable conduct, that she has been calling Pelosi’s office nearly every day because “we need to change her mind” about an impeachment inquiry.

Amash agreed it’s time to start an inquiry. But Amash, who has drawn criticism from his party, said Pelosi’s “sort of playing it both ways.”

On Thursday, about 100 people packed into a small room at a library in Tustin, California, as Porter spoke briefly then drew from random questions attendants had written down on cards.

They covered various topics including one about what should happen to those who refuse to appear for testimony before a congressional committee, leading Porter to briefly address the issue of impeachment.

The new congresswoman from what had been a Republican-held district told the crowd her goal is to do her job, not stoke a crisis. But she said the refusal to comply with the subpoenas was a turning point, in her view.

“You didn’t hear me ever talk about impeachment. It’s not why I went to Washington,” she said. “But I will not shirk my duty if the time comes, and the time is nigh.”

After the event, Barbara Colter, 66, said the last time she saw Porter speak the congresswoman didn’t seem to want to move in that direction. But her comments on Thursday made Colter think that’s changed. And she agrees.

“After yesterday, I think that we need to move in that direction,” Colter said.

Mascaro reported from Yorktown, Virginia, Levy from Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, Sainz from Memphis, Tennessee, and Taxin from Tustin, California. Associated Press writer David Eggert contributed from Grand Rapids, Michigan.