Matt Gay, NFL Player, to Wear Anti-Bullying Cleats

Matt Gay is a professional football player and a kicker for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. This week he will wear antibullying cleats Sunday in the team's match against the Indianapolis Colts.

The sartorial activism is tied to a National Football League campaign, My Cause, My Cleats, in which players, for one game each year, decorate their shoes in a manner that links them to a cause.

Gay's advocacy for antibullying efforts is inspired by his youth in Utah, where he was bullied due to the "gay" association of his last name. “I got bullied and teased all the time for my last name and things like that."

https://www.advocate.com/sports/2019/12/06/nfl-player-matt-gay-harassed-name-will-wear-antibullying-cleats?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sports&fbclid=IwAR1aYr8Twk6QmLD-HML-py49ewi8DVkJZfsOPJz7hqQnF2P64wkdoipDzuM

Megan Rapinoe Urges Male Soccer Players to Get Involved with Racism and Sexism

U.S. women's national team captain Megan Rapinoe has urged male superstars such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, and Zlatan Ibrahimovic to do more to tackle issues such as racism and sexism in modern football.

Rapinoe, 34, was presented the Ballon d'Or award, the female version on Monday after winning the World Cup, Golden Boot, and Golden Ball in July.

Rapinoe challenged Ronaldo, Messi and Ibrahimovic to follow her lead and be more active against problems in the sport.

https://www.espn.com/soccer/united-states-usaw/story/4005760/megan-rapinoe-calls-on-lionel-messi-cristiano-ronaldo-to-help-in-fight-for-equality

The DeVos Family is Heavily Invested in the Student Loan Industry

People on the top of our hierarchies who have much more than their share work hard to make sure it stays that way.

Billionaire Education Secretary Betsy DeVos this week proposed handing over the federal government's $1.5 trillion student loan portfolio to a "stand-alone government corporation," a move observers condemned as a corrupt ploy to strip the next president of the ability to cancel student loan debt.

"This very much appears to be a Betsy DeVos scheme to block the next president from unilaterally forgiving federal student debt, which she is well aware a president could do without Congress," The Intercept's Ryan Grim wrote in a series of tweets late Wednesday. "The DeVos family is heavily invested in the student loan industry and this is just flat-out corruption."

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/12/05/flat-out-corruption-devos-accused-scheming-stop-next-president-canceling-student?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR3CdkM7gj56n-PvMMWIBmO8MINzrX1gFdL9Kv9aZfCBq-OBTp63y3WSASs

Church Shows Holy Family as Caged Separately

Karen Clark Ristine, a senior minister at the Claremont United Methodist Church, posted on Facebook figures depicting Jesus, Mary and Joseph could be seen placed in cages in the nativity scene. 

Ristine described the Holy Family as “the most well-known refugee family in the world” in the post on Saturday.

“Imagine Joseph and Mary separated at the border and Jesus no older than two taken from his mother and placed behind the fences of a Border Patrol detention center,” she continued, adding: “In the Claremont United Methodist Church nativity scene this Christmas, the Holy Family takes the place of the thousands of nameless families separated at our borders.”

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/473608-california-church-depicts-holy-family-in-cages-as-family?fbclid=IwAR2b-nrr4Vwl9DUV_jdgIau86eJ3pDFYKqsH8MpE-g79Dgg3Sk11G2Q6qRA

Rhodes Scholars from US - Very Diverse Group

The Rhodes Trust has announced the diverse class of American students who will study at the University of Oxford beginning next year as Rhodes Scholars.

 

Collectively, the 32 winners mark the third consecutive year that the majority are minorities, and nearly half are first-generation Americans.

 

"This year's American Rhodes Scholars—independently elected by 16 committees around the country meeting simultaneously—once again reflect the extraordinary diversity that characterizes and strengthens the United States," Elliot F. Gerson, American Secretary of the Rhodes Trust, said in a statement. 

 

At least 21 of the 32 recipients identified as women, the most ever in an American Rhodes class. It's worth a note that the scholarship, which was founded in 1902, wasn't open to women until 1976.

 

https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/25/us/rhodes-scholars-us-2020-trnd/index.html?fbclid=IwAR1ISdMBLcR5PMZU5UDxarc7oeBAEo4Z596L8b-tRYag0JPuLqsQQbm0xmc

Girls Win All Five Top Prizes for Middle Schoolers in STEM

In the 2019 Braodcom MASTERS Math, Applied Science, Technology, and Engineering for Rising Stars) competition, all of the top five winners were female. 

The five winners were chosen from 30 finalists selected from 2,348 applicants in 47 states by a panel of distinguished scientists, engineers and educators. This year, 60% of the finalists were female—a first for the competition. That's an encouraging sign for the STEM (Science Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) field, in which women are still underrepresented.

https://www.upworthy.com/girls-won-all-five-top-prizes-in-national-stem-contest-for-middle-schoolers?fbclid=IwAR1Jnh2u0Zsj6imj-V8o28JHShRLyzWL4NvoeNwbL7ALy6LT-YmXGEWjbTg

Chief Standing Bear Honored in National Statuary Hall

 Nebraska replaces its statue in the National Statuary Hall with a native leader Chief Standing Bear. 

At the dedication ceremony Wednesday, which included Ponca tribal leaders and members of the House and Senate, Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts said it was an honor to recognize “one of the most important civil rights leaders in our country that almost nobody knows about.

“And we hope to be able to correct that today and tell his story,” Ricketts said.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/09/20/civil-rights-leader-almost-nobody-knows-about-gets-statue-us-capitol/?fbclid=IwAR21nbTtzL2z45hpdYsCBNo9dgT1MT1SU9KEOAPJeiNHJmPouRJV3Tl3TOI