Teams hailing from Detroit; Chicago; New York; Newark; Washington, D.C.; Houston; Atlanta, and Los Angeles, were judged on military posture, creativity, precision, degree of difficulty, appearance, and the voice of the (D.I.) drill instructor.
Categories and participants included: Jr. F.O.I. (Fruit of Islam) – Atlanta and Detroit; Jr. M.G.T. (Muslim Girls Training) Vanguard – Chicago, Washington D.C. and Atlanta; M.G.T. – Atlanta and Chicago; M.G.T. Vanguard – New York, Chicago, Atlanta and Houston; and F.O.I. – New York, L.A., Chicago and Newark.
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After an exciting and high-spirited competition, placements were:
Jr. M.G.T. Vanguard: Chicago (1st), Washington D.C. (2nd), Atlanta (3rd); Jr. F.O.I.: Atlanta (1st), Detroit (2nd); M.G.T. Vanguard: Atlanta (1st), Chicago (2nd), Houston (3rd); M.G.T.: Atlanta (1st), Chicago (2nd); F.O.I.: Los Angeles (1st), New York (2nd), Newark (3rd).
This year’s judges were: Nation of Islam Student Assistant Supreme Captain Abdul Azziz Muhammad, Student Mid-Atlantic Regional Minister Abdul Khadir Muhammad, Student Eastern Regional F.O.I. Captain Majied Muhammad and longtime drill competition participants Sister Tadarah Muhammad and Brother Leonard Muhammad.
The faces of some bright-eyed drill team members lit up as they smiled as their righteous competitors received 1st place medals from Student Supreme Captain Mustapha Farrakhan and Student Southern Regional M.G.T. Captain Dr. Nusaybah Muhammad.
Competitiveness permeated the atmosphere in Hall A on the grounds of The National Center, especially when the winning teams were announced, but so did support and adulation, as teams clapped for others when they finished their routines.
All of the drill teams showed up and showed out and participants expressed their gratitude and appreciation for righteous competition.
“I’m not going to lie. It is good to want it. Who doesn’t want to win? But at the end of the day, that’s never our goal, when we drill. … Everything was just very sentimental,” Brother Mustapha Muhammad, a member of Mosque No. 27 stated.
“I was able to extend my love that I have for him (the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan) through drill. And it’s really important,” said the 21-year-old.
Sister Gena Muhammad of Mosque No. 55 in Memphis, enjoyed this year’s drill competition. “It was lovely! Drill has always been our entertainment for Saviours’ Day, always the highlight other than the message on Sunday,” she said.
New York, F.O.I., 2nd PlaceNew York, VanguardChicago, Vanguard, 2nd PlaceNew Jersey, F.O.I, 3rd PlaceThousands of spectators attend the Drill Competition, often called, “exercise of the gods” on Feb. 22, Saviours’ Day Convention in Chicago.Photos: Abdul K Muhammad, Haroon Rajaee, Cartan XMarch 10, 2025 Drill Continue d from page 30Photos: Abdul K Muhammad, Haroon Rajaee, Cartan X Audience applauds during the Saviours’ Day 2025 Drill competition.Chicago, F.O.I.Mother Khadijah Farrakhan, First Lady of the Nation of Islam, attends the Drill Competition.Chicago, Jr. M.G.T., 1st PlaceD.C., Jr. M.G.T. 2nd PlaceAtlanta, Jr. M.G.T. 3rd PlaceDetroit, Jr. F.O.I., 2nd PlaceAtlanta, Jr. F.O.I., 1st PlaceChicago, M.G.T., 2nd PlaceAtlanta, M.G.T., 1st Place
Protesters march during a demonstration in support of Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, March 10 in New York. AP Photo/Arhó Albi
Professor of Law and Founding Director of CLEAR at the City University of New York, Ramzi Kassem, speaks to the media after attending a hearing in Manhattan federal court addressing the deportation case of Mahmoud Khalil, March 12 in New York. AP Photo/Albert Arhó
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) urged universities around the country to reject any federal pressure to surveil or punish international students and faculty based on constitutionally protected speech in response to recent executive orders and other communications from the White House.
The orders attempt to pressure university officials to target students, faculty, and staff who are not U.S. citizens, including holders of non-immigrant visas and lawful permanent residents or others on a path to U.S. citizenship, for exercising their First Amendment rights, said the ACLU in an open letter.
It stems from President Donald Trump’s Executive Orders: 14161 (“Protecting the United States from Foreign Terrorists and other National Security and Public Safety Threats”/Jan. 20, 2025) and Executive Order 14188 (“Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism”/Jan. 29, 2025) and related communications from the White House.
The ACLU letter came after President Trump threatened to stop all federal funding for any college, school or university that allow “illegal protests,” to imprison or permanently send back “agitators” to the country from which they came, and that “American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on the crime, arrested.”
“It is disturbing to see the White House threatening freedom of speech and academic freedom on U.S. college campuses so blatantly. We stand in solidarity with university leaders in their commitment to free speech, open debate, and peaceful dissent on campus,” said Cecillia Wang, legal director of the ACLU and co-author of the letter.
“Trump’s latest coercion campaign, attempting to turn university administrators against their own students and faculty, harkens back to the McCarthy era and is at odds with American constitutional values and the basic mission of universities,” she said in a March 4 news release announcing the letter.
Mr. Khalil became the face of campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war which took root on Columbia University’s campus last spring. The father-to-be became a familiar, outspoken figure in a student movement that soon spread to other U.S. colleges, according to arraw.medium.com
On March 13, nearly 100 arrests were made at Trump Tower in Midtown after hundreds of Jewish New Yorkers and friends packed into the lobby to protest Mr. Khalil’s detainment, according to a WABC news report.
Nadia Abu El Haj, an anthropologist at Barnard College and Columbia University, speaks to the media after attending a hearing in Manhattan federal court addressing the deportation case of Mahmoud Khalil, March 12 in New York. AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah
Video taken that afternoon showed officers handcuffing some of the demonstrators associated with Jewish Voice for Peace—an organization that is critical of many of Israel’s policies regarding Palestinians, WABC reported. At least 98 people arrested face charges of trespassing, obstructing governmental administration and resisting arrest.
Columbia University became the hotbed of student protests of Israel’s brutal war on Palestinians, waged on October 7, 2023, under the guise of eradicating the resistance group Hamas.
Nationwide demonstrations began at Columbia University in New York City on April 17, 2024, in protest of Israel’s bloodshed in Gaza. After failed negotiations between students and college administrators, pressure was exerted to demolish the student campus encampments.
This is not the first time the university has been a hotbed of activism, such as the successful 1985 three-week student demonstration by members of the Coalition for a Free South Africa which forced Columbia into the movement that divested from South Africa against its anti-Black racial apartheid policies.
In December 2023, Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) called on Columbia University to withdraw financial support from Israel on behalf of a coalition representing 300 students and 89 student organizations.
On March 7, members of the White House Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism announced the immediate cancellation of approximately $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University citing the school’s alleged “continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.”
Student negotiator Mahmoud Khalil on the Columbia University campus in New York at a pro-Palestinian protest encampment on April 29, 2024. AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey
Before the arrest of Mr. Khalil, the Trump administration pressured Columbia University to crack down on reported anti-Israel activism among students and faculty, and he has threatened to go after any college that supports protests he deems “illegal,” noted AP.
Whether colleges and universities will enact measures to protect student protesters now targeted by the new federal policies by executive order remains to be seen. Particularly because some of the schools called law enforcement on peaceful student demonstrators, and allowed off-campus counter-protesters to enter campuses and violently attack student encampments.
Students across the country rose up to demand that their colleges and universities stop doing business with military weapons manufacturers who supply arms to Israel; stop accepting research money from Israel for projects that aid the country’s military efforts;
Stop investing college endowments with money managers who profit from Israeli companies or contractors; and have more transparency of funds received from Israel and how it is used, according to various reports.
Mr. Khalil, like many around the country, was leading some of the protests on the campus, daring to demand, “Free Palestine,” stated Dr. Melina Abdullah, co-founder and director of Black Lives Matter Grassroots based in Los Angeles.
It is not radical to say that Palestinians have the right to their lives, Palestinian children have the right to live, that they don’t get to bomb houses and genocide an entire people for the purposes of their own enrichment, she argued.
As of Feb. 3 the latest death toll stood at over 62,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza and the West Bank according to Al Jazeera. There are still thousands missing who are presumed dead.
“It’s beyond what our constitutional right is. It’s what our human obligation is,” Dr. Abdullah told The Final Call. Speaking up and organizing is imperative, not just as human beings in the United States, but “also what our religion, what our faith demands of us,” she added.
According to Dr. Abdullah, threats are also being sent to other students who are part of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP, which uplifts demands for freedom, justice, and equality for the Palestinian people) or any protest group.
“I think about my own child (Thandiwe Abdullah), co-founder of the SJP chapter on her campus at Howard University and about all of the students we work with and encourage to speak up in the face of oppression,” she added.
A crowd gathers in Foley Square, outside the Manhattan federal court, in support of Mahmoud Khalil, March 12 in New York. AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah
“It’s the duty that our faith gives us, is that we should speak up, but it’s also any human being should not just sit idly by as injustice happens. … We have to remember this is not just a one-person thing. This is what they’re planning to do and so we all have to stand together because what they can’t do is they can’t get all of us,” she said.
Dr. Ray Winbush, director of the Institute for Urban Research at Morgan State University in Baltimore, stated he is concerned about President Trump’s disturbing vision of turning Gaza into a “resort.”
It shows an absence of conscience, he said, adding, “How could you even think to build a resort area over the dead children and women and men of Gaza?”
Where it’s going to turn, Dr. Winbush said he does not know, but remarked the world is in an upheaval and it would take years to undo some of the damage. He shunned the idea that critiquing or criticizing Israel makes one “anti-Semitic,” saying the term has been misused, abused and co-opted by Israel.
Meanwhile, “These are smart students! And they saw a crime against humanity being committed against the Palestinians, and they rose up against it,” he said about their calls for top Ivy League schools—Yale, Princeton, Harvard, Columbia, and Brown—to stop funding huge amounts of money to Israel.
“They saw an injustice, and they wanted to cut off all aid to the perpetrator, which was Israel. … And their protest said, divest in Israel. We are not anti-Jewish. What we are is anti-atrocity and anti-criminal behavior toward Gaza,” he added.
Victoria Hinckley, a student organizer with Tampa Bay Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), was a senior at the University of South Florida when she was suspended and then expelled right before graduation for participating in demonstrations.
Despite her appeal being denied, she is fighting the expulsion through legal means, including a complaint with the Federal Office of Civil Rights. “But given how Trump is attacking that office now it’s not looking good, but we’re still trying to fight it back with other legal strategies,” Ms. Hinckely told The Final Call.
Already, the Department of Education has issued letters to 60 universities, alleging instances of anti-Semitism, and many had very strong campus movements with encampments, including USF, she said.
In October 2023, an email arrived on papyrologist Federica Nicolardi’s phone with an image that would transform her research forever, according to Nature. The image showed a fragment of a papyrus scroll that had been burnt in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE. The latest results revealed a strip of papyrus packed with neat Greek lettering, glowing bright against a darker background. “It was incredible. I thought, ‘So this is really happening’,” said Nicolardi, according to a report by Nature. She knew right then that papyrology would never be the same.
The breakthrough was part of the Vesuvius Challenge, a project that utilized artificial intelligence (AI) to decipher ancient texts that had remained unreadable for centuries. Brent Seales, a computer scientist at the University of Kentucky, and his colleagues tackled the task of reading the Herculaneum scrolls, which could not be seen at all, utilizing neural networks to detect ink patterns on the fragile scrolls, according to gadgets360.com. The Herculaneum scrolls were part of a cache of papyrus rolls buried and carbonized by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, which wiped out the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum in 79 CE. The scrolls were discovered in the remains of a luxury Roman villa in Herculaneum in the eighteenth century, as reported by National Geographic.
In the spring of 2023, a college student named Luke Farritor, now 22, found himself riveted by a podcast as he drove to his SpaceX internship in Starbase, Texas, according to National Geographic. The podcast hosts were describing a competition with the goal of reading a 2,000-year-old scroll without physically unrolling it. “A lot of things about it were really compelling, the biggest one being that you're going to potentially discover a new library from the ancient world, and that's a big deal,” stated Farritor, according to a report by National Geographic. While focusing on space travel in his day job, Farritor, a computer science major, devoted his nights and weekends to the Vesuvius Challenge.
Contestants in the Vesuvius Challenge had to develop their own programs to interpret existing 3D scans of the coiled scroll, with the virtual-unwrapping step being the bottleneck currently limiting the data they had to work with, as reported by Nature. The main challenge in reading the Herculaneum scrolls was to virtually flatten the documents and distinguish the black ink from the charred remains to make the Greek and Latin writings legible, requiring the charting of subtle physical variations to detect writing on the charred material, according to Mundo Deportivo. The scribes of Herculaneum used carbon-based ink, invisible in scans because it had the same density as the papyrus, as noted by Nature.
In February 2024, a grand prize was awarded: computer science students Youssef Nader, Luke Farritor, and Julian Schilliger received $700,000 for producing 16 columns of clearly readable text, as reported by Nature. The winning team used a TimeSformer model, a variant of the transformer model usually used for videos. They relied on this neural network to reveal text attributed to an ancient Greek philosophical work. “We will have 400 columns of Greek text to read,” said Nicolardi, noting the challenge for papyrologists in managing the volume of text produced, as reported by Nature.
Scholars who study ancient societies oscillate between enthusiasm and doubt regarding the use of artificial intelligence to translate documents written thousands of years ago, according to Folha de Sao Paulo. There is no doubt that the technology can already do a lot and will advance enormously. The debate has focused on the technical potential of AI and whether it can substitute human work.
Researchers are using neural networks to tackle ancient languages for which only a small amount of text survives. Katerina Papavassileiou at the University of Patras and her colleagues used a recurrent neural network to restore missing text from 1,100 Mycenaean tablets from Knossos, Crete, as reported by Nature. Papavassileiou hopes to use models trained on Linear B to tackle Linear A, a script used by the Minoan civilization that shares many symbols with Linear B but has never been deciphered.
Seales noted that the success of AI in these applications underscores its role as a complement to human expertise. “What AI is doing is giving the papyrologists data to work on which they could not otherwise have,” stated Richard Ovenden, head of the Bodleian Libraries at the University of Oxford, as reported by Nature. He added, “It's making their work more important than it has ever been.”
As AI continues to evolve, its impact on science and technology promises to reshape our understanding of the world, with potential breakthroughs in decoding lost languages and exploring underground libraries, as reported by Nature. Researchers emphasize the need for interdisciplinary collaboration and open-source data to ensure transparency and replicability in AI applications for ancient texts, according to gadgets360.com.
In archaeology, AI models have accelerated the discovery of geoglyphs in Peru’s Nazca Desert, including symbols that had gone unnoticed by archaeologists.
My client sat in the chair looking down at the floor, glancing up briefly to make eye contact, then darting his eyes back to the carpet. He spoke quietly, as if almost afraid to be heard. He clutched his hands throughout the session, displaying all the markers of an anxious man in the throes of shame. He was a new client to my practice: a married, middle-aged, suburban dad with a high-powered career. A colleague had given him my number months before. It took him a long time to muster the courage to call and make an appointment. Towards the end of our first session he looked up at me and said, “I think I’m in love…with another man. I’m scared and I don’t know what to do.”
I have worked with hundreds of gay men in heterosexual marriages struggling with being in the closet or wanting to emerge from it. There is so much about these men that is misunderstood and very few studies or little literature to provide insight. I decided to share my thoughts and research about these men and their struggles at a conference a few years ago. That presentation led to other opportunities to tell their story and of my work with them. Those presentations prompted men to write to me looking for guidance and support. My work with these men is informed by my own research, the experiences of my friends, but largely from over 20 years of working with men living two lives. Many of these men have been on a quest for an authentic life. These are some of the most courageous people I have encountered. They have decided to leave their secret selves behind and in the process heal old wounds, recover from past traumas and live wholeheartedly as gay men.
Maybe you are a man struggling with these issues and have no one to talk to and feel alone. I hope this blog series will provide some solace to let you know that you are not alone. Perhaps you are a therapist seeking to help your clients with these issues. I hope this series of blogs will be a resource to you and to those you are helping.
For those of you who want to understand more about these men, I’d like to give you some insight into their interior lives. Put yourself in their shoes. Imagine living your life with a secret, one that you have guarded closely for many, many years, possibly starting from childhood. A secret you keep from your spouse, your children, family, friends and co-workers. You may have built a whole life on top of and around this secret. You fear that if you reveal this hidden part of yourself you will be harshly judged, shamed, ostracized or abandoned. You believe you have a lot to lose. At times you may contemplate embracing this hidden self, living as a whole, authentic person. But with that contemplation comes the fear that if you embrace this part of yourself your world could unravel and come crashing down around you.
If you are a gay man in a straight marriage you are not alone. Let’s look at some numbers: In the 1970’s, Masters and Johnson discovered in their research that 23% of gay men and women had previously been in a straight marriage. Recent studies conducted by the Family Pride Coalition reveal that 20% of gay American men are married to a woman. In 2011, demographer Gary Gates found that of the 27 million American men married at that time, 1.6%, or 436,000 identified as gay or bisexual.
Since they were little boys, these men have been conditioned by their parents and society to try and fit into a straight mold. These boys often recognize that there is something different about them as compared to their male peers. Other boys may notice this too, leading to bullying and harassment. This leaves the gay youth feeling deep shame which becomes unexpressed and internalized. Parents often initially make the assumption their son will be straight. The programming and conditioning begins early. Parents may recognize that little Timmy is “different” yet not know how to respond to him or reject him. A father may distance himself from his son. Consider that the father is the first man the young gay boy will fall in love with and want to become attached to. If the father emotionally rejects him, it will be the boy’s first emotional betrayal. Some boys may then bond deeply or become enmeshed with mothers who overcompensate in protecting the boy. If the gay youth has no mentors, role models or people that accept him as he is, he will further wall off his homosexuality or only allow that part of himself to come out in secret.
Over the course of this blog series, I will bring some clarity and insight about this population. For those gay men in straight marriages I hope this series can offer some validation to your experience.
I will explore the reasons why gay men enter into heterosexual marriages, look at the dynamics of mixed orientation relationships and how to begin to help lead a more integrated and fulfilled life. A series on this subject would be sorely lacking if it did not address the trauma and complex emotions that the wives of these men experience once there has been a discovery or a disclosure that a husband is gay.
In the next blog in this series we will look a bit more into who these men are and why they choose to marry women.
Senior citizens with student loan debt traveled from around the country for the second time to tell President Joe Biden to cancel student loan debt for borrowers over 50 years old before President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January.
This group faces significant financial challenges, many delay retirement, neglect health concerns, and can’t pay their bills. Many older Americans feel embarrassed, ashamed and hopeless about their mounting debt. According to the Biden administration, a third of seniors with student loan debt were in default.
Millions of seniors took out student loans to pay for their education as they changed careers. Increasing numbers of parents, especially those who are Black, rely on Parent PLUS loans to finance their children’s college education.
Direct PLUS (Parent Loans for Undergraduate Students) loans, commonly called “Parent PLUS” loans, make up $104 billion of the total federal student debt.
Detroit resident, Becki Wells, attended the December protest at the Department of Education. She has student loan debt at over $230,000 from sending two children to college.
Concept of financial literacy and education. Graduation cap on gold coins and rising red arrow isolated on white background.
Speaking at the demonstration, Ms. Wells told the crowd, “We hail from Detroit’s inner city. Yet, I successfully raised two responsible, healthy individuals who contribute positively to society and are now productive, tax-paying citizens.”
The protesters believe President Biden can easily cancel this debt before he leaves office. The Federal Claims Collection Standard Act, under Section 902.2, authorizes the Department of Education to forgive loans for elderly borrowers, considering their age and the probability of repaying the debt during their remaining years.
The combined federal and private student loan debt in the United States amounts to $1.75 trillion, spread across approximately 42.8 million federal borrowers and an estimated three million private borrowers. Many voted for President Biden because he pledged at least $10,000 in student debt relief for borrowers making less than $125,000 a year.
The government tried to fulfill this promise, but in June 2023, the Supreme Court stopped the program. Despite this setback, the administration provided student loan debt relief through focused initiatives rather than a broad-based approach. These efforts resulted in nearly $175 billion in debt relief for 4.8 million borrowers.
However, little, if any, of that relief came to seniors. The protesters are all members of the Debt Collective, the first union of debtors in the country. In September, the group protested outside the White House.
They contend that death should not be their only option for debt relief. While in Washington, they also spoke with various congressional representatives and officials from the Department of Education.
Maddie Clifford, creative media strategist for the Debt Collective, has over $120,000 in student debt. She stood in front of a group of senior student loan borrowers and told the crowd in front of the White House, “The fastest growing demographic of student debtors right now are borrowers that are 50 and older.
This issue, the student debt crisis, is affecting people from multiple generations. I’m standing here (in front of the White House) because behind me, we (other protesters) collectively owe over a million dollars in student debt. What have we done? We decided to go to college.”
She continued, “That was our only decision. We decided we wanted a piece of an American dream, and we’re being penalized for it. We’re being punished. These are really important issues because we also know that older debtors have contributed so much to the community.
They are beacons of light in their communities. They have sacrificed to keep their communities afloat, and yet they’re worried about how they’re going to make these student loan payments.
Sometimes they’re $1,000 a month. Sometimes they’re $1,500 a month. There’s no way they can pay them, so sometimes they have to default. Older borrowers, 50 and older are also more likely to default on their student loan payments.”
She explained that for seniors, death is the only comprehensive student debt relief plan. Further, “the federal government doesn’t even need these payments. They know that they won’t be able to collect the debt from these borrowers, and yet they’re still punishing them.
Student loan borrowers represented by the people behind me are also overwhelmingly women, are also disproportionately Black women,” said Ms. Clifford.
A study conducted by the Urban Institute revealed significant racial differences in student loan delinquency rates among older adults. The research showed that older individuals residing in predominantly American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN), Black, or Latino communities were more likely to fall behind on their loan payments.
While the overall delinquency rate in the representative national sample stood at eight percent, it was considerably higher in communities with a majority of AIAN (15 percent), Black (13 percent), and Latino (10 percent) residents.
Fundamental systemic obstacles play a significant role in perpetuating these inequalities. Despite achieving equivalent educational qualifications, people of color often fail to reap the same financial rewards from their academic accomplishments as their White counterparts.
Notably, women from diverse ethnic backgrounds are disproportionately concentrated in positions offering lower wages and inferior working conditions compared to White males with similar educational backgrounds. This pattern results in a compounding disadvantage that persists throughout their lives.
At 52 years old, Tricia Louise Keffer traveled from Niceville, Florida, to Washington, D.C., to participate in the protest. She explained to Truthout and In These Times that she has accumulated $200,000 in student loans from a landscape architecture master’s program that was advertised to only cost $35,000.
She believes President Biden’s refusal to follow through with his campaign promise to cancel debt felt like being “thrown out in the cold, into a freezing iceberg of death. … We don’t know what’s going to happen with the next administration. Am I going to be thrown into a debtors’ prison?”
