Yellow Ribbon Research Articles

Nothing under the Sun

Nothing under the Sun Timi Soleye If you’ve never smoked a cigarette six degrees north of the Equator you must be told that in a tropical climate it’s a completely different experience, as I found beside the flies and party rice. At most points during the day the ambient temperature feels sufficient to set a cigarette aflame sans match—except that it’s so wet in the air. The inhalation of the smoke is a different experience, almost labored, and the smoke tastes like ash, and your mouth tastes like an ashtray someone has spilled a drink into or a soggy napkin wrapped around a cigarette butt. There’s no relief from the contrast between the smoke and crisp air that are the hallmarks of smoking in England and the cigarette itself burns sulkily: fitful and unenthusiastic. The rubbish, smoke, and I stood, just out of sight of the main body of the reception, at the caterer’s aperture at the far end of the large tent in which the women of society, and it was mostly the women, carouseled around. All but a few wore one or the other of the peach or mint-green lace, declarations for the bride or groom, and their outfits against the backdrop of the yellow tent decorated in yellow ribbon supported the notion, which was foremost in my mind, of an Easter egg parade. On a dais bisecting the space sat the happy couple though you could not tell from their glassy-eyed vigilance over the proceedings if they were in fact happy or not. Round large trays were held aloft like lily pads on the flow of guests by waiters all bent at angles squeezing past each other and between the tables full of guests. There were bottles, wine glasses, and cartons of juice stood around the table centerpieces, humongous tacky brandy glasses six-inch-full of water in [End Page 89] which plastic flowers floated pink and yellow, and though there was no cutlery on the table, if a meal was brought a knife, fork, and spoon in a red faux velvet pouch would accompany it. The main entrance of the tent was a flower-covered archway and entrance was accomplished, for the most, part via a procession of arriving guests, which funnelled slowly down the red carpet that stretched from the archway to about half the width of the tent, some six feet from the dais of the bride—and to a lesser extent the groom—such that every entrant who achieved the head of the procession was afforded briefly the chance at the termination of the carpet, to be at the mathematical center of the tent ideally placed to be noticed by the bride or groom and to be seen by everyone in the tent who cared to look before evaporating into the throng as they sought a seat. For those who did not care to be looked at or did not think themselves worth seeing there were subsidiary entrances where one could slip in without remark. Electric standing fans spun busily throughout the room adding to the general impression of constant movement that with the crowd and the noise made the place a festive beehive. It was difficult to focus and the distractions were compounded further by the succession of half-recognized faces spread through the “young people’s” section of tables, where a number of people I may or may not have gone to primary school with sit and stand enjoying a betimes jovial and raucous camaraderie. These are the prior returnees, who have, like I have, finished university and have returned to Nigeria to rebegin life in Lagos as adults. The why and wherefores of writing are not easily reported but as I sat down to write on the morning after the wedding reception where flies had gathered above the grass behind the buffet table and waltzed across the piles of remaindered food left on the white plates—“Fine Porcelain: Freezer and Dishwasher Safe” if you cared to look beneath the plate—ready to be scraped and washed, motivations were inconsequential. Wakefulness comes to some people like a broken bone snapping into place; I...

YRM: Yellow Ribbon Movement

In early September 2009, the son of two of the Philippines' most celebrated people — the assassinated former Senator ‘Ninoy’ Aquino and his wife, former president and freedom icon Corazon ‘Cory’ Aq...

Clients Who Threaten Suicide—and Our Responsibilities

Clients Who Threaten Suicide—and Our Responsibilities

Stateside (review)

Reviewed by: Stateside Catherine Grandorff (bio) Jehanne Dubrow . Stateside. Triquarterly. The poems of Jehanne Dubrow's Stateside ring with tension, echoed in modern, clear words paired with time-honored forms. These poems, frank in diction and lockstep in rhythm, challenge the dominant narrative of military service by presenting Dubrow's experience as a navy spouse. Indeed, Stateside appears to be the marriage of Dubrow's poetic credentials and her personal life: she is both professor in creative writing and literature at Washington College and wife to an officer in the U.S. Navy. In this collection she explores the latter by means of the former, and explores the boundaries of love: love of spouse, self, and possibility for the rekindling of that love when it has been stretched across time and sea. The opening poem, "Secure for Sea" orients the reader for the emotional journey that the speaker undertakes as her husband prepares for deployment, deploys, and returns. In this poem, Dubrow introduces heightened anxiety and a tension that lingers throughout her collection by asking the metaphorical question And even if we're surehe's coming back, it's hard to know: [End Page 176] the farther out a vessel drifts,will contents stay in place, or shift? Dubrow casts out the subsequent poems of Stateside like a fishing net hoping to catch something that resembles an answer to this initial question. The tone of "Secure for Sea" echoes in readers' minds as they make their way through the waters of Dubrow's collection. As noted, she addresses three stages of deployment; appropriately, she packages these into three distinct sections. Part 1 explores the anxiety and stress of deployment, as "Secure for Sea" suggests. In part 2, the speaker, now alone, wrestles with what to do beyond waiting, wondering. Dubrow ultimately leans on legend by delving into Penelope's powerful and ancient narrative. Not only does Dubrow invoke Odysseus's loyal wife but allows her speaker to thoroughly identify with her, seemingly as a coping mechanism. Perhaps the strongest poems of this section are those in which the speaker indeed becomes a modern-day Penelope. For instance, in "Ithaca" the speaker shows the reader the link between legend and real life, referring to a wife's chastity as "a yellow ribbon to her door," or being chased by suitors "at pta meetings . . .when she buys groceries / or takes the dogs out for a pee." While Dubrow continues this in another part 2 piece, "Penelope, Stateside," by beginning with "On an island called America . . . Go shop for bras / and lacy thongs at the px," she also foreshadows the tension of part 3, in which the soldier-husband returns, suggesting to the reader that "He won't be satisfied . . . because he's stateside / and dreaming of the combat zone." Not only do these poems display Dubrow's thoughtful exploration of emotion, they also feature her precise use of plain language. Nevertheless, she marries common language to elevated form. Indeed, militaristic meter contributes to Stateside's mood of duty, reinforced by the reoccurring presence of subtle employment of rigid form: traditional iambic pentameter, poignant sonnets. For example, the anxiety of part 1 seems to culminate in "Against War Movies," in which the speaker states that: I see my husband shooting in Platoon,and there he is again in M*A*S*H (how weirdto hear him talk like Hawkeye Pierce), and soonI spot him everywhere, his body smearedwith mud, his face bloodied. He's now the starof every ship blockade and battle scene—The Fighting 69th, A Bridge Too Far,Three Kings, Das Boot, and Stalag 17.In Stalingrad he's killed, and thenhe's killed in Midway and A Few Good Men.He's burned or gassed, he's shot between the eyes,or shoots himself when he comes home again.Each movie is a training exercise,a scenario for how my husband dies. [End Page 177] This poem not only manages to incorporate cultural references that ground the reader in the immediacy of the speaker's predicament but also does so in a Shakespearean sonnet, reminding us of the corrupting effect war makes on what...

Assessment of Admissions Policies for Veteran Corpsmen and Medics Applying to Physician Assistant Educational Programs

The purpose of this study was to assess the admission policies, experiences, and attitudes of physician assistant (PA) program directors with regard to recruiting, admitting, and training veteran corpsmen and medics. A descriptive survey consisting of 18 questions was distributed to all 154 PA program directors in the United States. One hundred ten (71.4%) program directors participated in the survey. Veterans were admitted into 83.6% of programs in the years 2008-2010, and accounted for an average of 2.6% of all students. A minority of PA programs accepted college credits earned by veterans for their military training (45.3%) or for their off-duty education (28.4%). Few PA programs participated in the Yellow Ribbon Program (16%) or actively recruited veterans (16%). Over half of PA programs (56.7%) would be more likely to give special consideration to the admission of veteran corpsmen and medics if it was easier to equate their military education and experience to the program's admission prerequisites. The most frequently reported benefits for educating veteran corpsmen and medics in PA programs are their health care and life experiences, maturity, and motivation. Barriers for educating veterans include veterans' lack of academic preparedness for graduate education, a lack of time/access for recruiting, and the cost of PA school. Most PA program directors cited multiple benefits for educating veteran corpsmen and medics, but veterans face barriers for admission into PA programs. Approaches are discussed for facilitating the transition of corpsmen and medics from the military to careers as PAs.

Description of two new species of Rissoella Gray, 1847 (Mollusca, Gastropoda, Heterobranchia) from Venezuela, with a key to the Caribbean species known for the genus

Two new species of the genus Rissoella Gray, 1847 are described from Venezuela, one from the National Park Morrocoy, Rissoella morrocoyensis sp. n. and the other from the Wildlife Refuge Isla de Aves, Rissoella venezolanicola sp. n. Rissoella morrocoyensis sp. n. has a deep umbilicus (partly closed), preumbilical cord, black head, hypobranchial gland marked by a pale yellow boomerang-shaped ribbon and it lives on the leaves of the seagrass Thalassia testudinum Banks & König, 1805. Rissoella venezolanicola sp. n. has an angled preumbilical cord which extends to the columella delimiting a trapezoid, a hypobranchial gland marked by a yellow quaver-shaped ribbon and protoconch with fuchsia highlights. It lives on the brown alga Dictyota spp. The records of Rissoella in the Caribbean are revised and illustrations, a comparative table and a key to the Caribbean species known for the genus are provided.

How to Ease the Transition for Returning Veterans

How to Ease the Transition for Returning Veterans

Adolescent Help-Seeking and the Yellow Ribbon Suicide Prevention Program: An Evaluation

The Yellow Ribbon Suicide Prevention Program has gained national and international recognition for its school- and community-based activities. After the introduction of Yellow Ribbon to a Denver-area high school, staff and adolescents were surveyed to determine if help-seeking behavior had increased. Using a pre-post intervention design, staff at an experimental school and comparison school were surveyed about their experiences with student help-seeking. Additionally, 146 students at the experimental high school were surveyed. Staff did not report any increase in student help-seeking, and students' reports of help-seeking from 11 of 12 different types of helpers did not increase; the exception was help-seeking from a crisis hotline, which increased from 2.1% to 6.9%. Further research with larger, more inclusive samples is needed to determine whether Yellow Ribbon is effective in other locations.

Two new sacoglossan sea slug species (Opisthobranchia, Gastropoda): Ercolania annelyleorum sp. nov. (Limapontioidea) and Elysia asbecki sp. nov. (Plakobranchoidea), with notes on anatomy, histology and biology

Two new sacoglossan species, belonging to the genus Ercolania Trinchese, 1872 (Ercolania annelyleorum sp. nov.) and the genus Elysia Risso, 1818 (Elysia asbecki sp. nov.) are described from Lizard Island, Great Barrier Reef, Australia. Anatomy of both species was reconstructed by analyzing histological serial sections. Radula morphology was investigated by using light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. Sequence analyses (NeighborNet; sequence divergence) and tree reconstructions showed for both species their distinction from con-generic species, but also two distinct mitochondrial lines in the new Ercolania species. Adults as well as freshly hatched juveniles of E. annelyleorum sp. nov. have been found in clusters of the ulvophycean alga Boodlea sp., which are sucked out by piercing the cell walls with their radular teeth. This new species differs from other, similar transparent, Ercolania species by its pattern of the green branches of the digestive gland and the presence of two distinct red patches, one in the anterior and the other in the posterior third of the dorsal body part. This coloration and furthermore the combination of following characters distinguishes the new species from all other described Ercolania species so far: rhinophores, elliptic in cross section, with one distinct branch of digestive gland running half way up; cerata not inflated; smooth cutting edge of sabot-shaped tooth; two-lobed prostate gland and presence of two allosperm receptacles with no re-opening of the receptaculum seminis to the outside. According to sequence divergence data of CO1, two mitochondrial lines seem to be present in the new species, which are clearly distinct from all other included Ercolania species. Elysia asbecki sp. nov. differs from other Elysia species by its whitish coloration with orange and dark brown dots and a distinct lighter spot in the neck region of the head. The rhinophores exhibit a black and yellow ribbon at the tip. The species has distinct reddish patches at the anterior base of the parapodia (at the conjunction with the head), one along the middle part of the parapodial edge on both sides and very distinct lateral patches at the end of the foot. CO1 sequences clearly distinguish this species from all closely related Elysia species. The food source of Elysia asbecki sp. nov. could not be verified yet. Measurements of photosynthetic activity within these two new species indicate that E. annelyleorum sp. nov. digests chloroplasts immediately after sequestration, whereas Elysia asbecki sp. nov. shows high maximum quantum yield values, similar to E. timida (Risso, 1818) and E. crispata (Mørch, 1863), both known as long term retention forms.

Tie a Yellow Ribbon ‘Round Public Discourse, National Identity and the War: Neoliberal Militarization and the Yellow Ribbon Campaign in Canada

The yellow ribbons that have become so ubiquitous in Canada as the emblem of the national “Support Our Troops” campaign are highly charged semiotic tools in a battle for control of public discourse, marking the growing militarization of Canadian society in an age of empire. I read the Yellow Ribbon here as neoliberal cultural pedagogy, an everyday means by which individuals learn and teach specific cultural values and tropes, both explicitly and implicitly. As a symbol and a commodity, and perhaps more importantly as an everyday social and cultural practice, the Yellow Ribbon offers a glimpse into the dense cultural and political forces involved in the re-scripting of Canadian national mythologies,according to a logic of militarized neoliberalism.

Support for Adolescents Who Experience Parental Military Deployment

Support for Adolescents Who Experience Parental Military Deployment

Why We "Support the Troops": Rhetorical Evolutions

This essay tracks the genealogy of the contemporary call to "support the troops," a rhetoric that includes but goes beyond the strategic and argumentative use of the phrase itself. Support-the-troops rhetoric has two major functions: deflection and dissociation. Deflection involves discursive trends in play since Vietnam that have redefined war as a fight to save our own soldiers—especially the captive soldier—rather than as a struggle for policy goals external to the military. As such, this discourse directs civic attention away from the question of whether the particular war policy is just. The essay explicates these trends through an examination of the POW/MIA, war film, and the symbol of the yellow ribbon. The second trope, dissociation, quarantines the citizen from questions of military action by manufacturing distance between citizen and soldier. Dissociation often goes further to define civic deliberation and dissent as an attack on the soldier body and thus an ultimate immoral act. This essay explores this trope through executive rhetoric, an analysis of the particular phrase "support the troops," metaphor for war, and John Kerry's run for the presidency in 2004. Both deflection and dissociation work to discipline and mute public deliberation in matters of war. The essay concludes by considering strategies for reopening spaces for democratic deliberation.

Table of Contents

Abstract Cover Story Prepare to recruit veterans, provide resources to retain them Boost enrollment with help from new legislation for vets Participate in Yellow Ribbon Program to help cope with high tuition Advocate for a campus resource center for veterans Be sure to include these 4 features in your center Briefing Free online university set to begin Tool allows students to avoid deadlines Univ. offers Ph.D. in adult education Transitions Create booklet that provides advice from students What Would You Do? Would you accept a donation if you had to endorse a bookstore? Support Services Start an Alpha Sigma Lambda chapter to recognize students' achievements Host an induction ceremony, dinner to recognize new members Program Profile Offer a cohort model to help students succeed Managing Your Office Don't just gather data — learn the secrets to sharing it Legislative Watch Legislative Watch Lawsuits & Rulings ACADEMIC AFFAIRS Law student's ‘good standing’ harmed by financial delinquency FACULTY University must pay $1.65M for destroying adjunct's property Rush to attain associate's degree lands culinary instructor in hot water Leaders & Innovators BARBARA RANDAZZO, DIRECTOR OF ADMISSIONS AND MARKETING, CENTER FOR CONTINUING EDUCATION AND DISTANCE LEARNING, ELIZABETHTOWN COLLEGE Use conferences, newsletters to boost marketing know‐how Avoid making these marketing mistakes

Reading Steven Crane’s “War Is Kind” to My Husband, and: Surface Warfare, and: Sea-Change, and: Ithaca, and: Penelope, Stateside, and: The Rooted Bed

Reading Steven Crane’s “War Is Kind” to My Husband, and: Surface Warfare, and: Sea-Change, and: Ithaca, and: Penelope, Stateside, and: The Rooted Bed Jehanne Dubrow (bio) Reading Steven Crane’s “War Is Kind” to My Husband I packed your seabag today: six pairs of pants, shirts folded in their rigid squares, your socks balled up like tan grenades. I put my photo in as well, laid it there between the Kevlar vest and heap of clothes. Don’t weep, the poet warns, don’t weep. On 60 Minutes, a soldier turns his face toward us, shows the camera his burns, small metal slivers still embedded in the skin, his mouth a scrap of ragged tin. The young man’s face was beautiful before, smooth, unblemished as my own. For war [End Page 54] is kind, I read. Great isthe battle-god and great the auguries, the firing squad, the neon green of night vision that cuts the darkness open at its seams, gutted and spilling on the sand. Great is the Glock, the Aegis Weapons System, the Blackhawk circling. Great are the Ka-Bar fighting knives, the shells that sing through air, as though alive. Surface Warfare Our arguments move across the surfaces of things, smooth flat areas where silence floats for weeks. The rule: whoever speaks [End Page 55] first loses. If he patrols the living room, then I control our bed, an Atlantic filled with my insomnia, the quilts too thick to wade through. Some nights I think drowning would be easier and drink mouthfuls of salt. No shallows here, only the fathoms of marriage, and we anchored side by side, the darkness wide, percussive as a mine. Sea-Change Imagine this: saltwater scrubbing sand into my husband’s skin, his fingers pale anemones, his hands turned coral reef, and in his eyes the nacreous pearls of Ariel. This could be my husband, drowning in the swell. A sea-change means a shift, a change of heart, and how the oceans turn [End Page 56] glass shards into a jewel, rip apart familiar things. Waves churn. The surf is a liquid body that peels a carrier from bow to stern, the keel bent back, steel bands pliable as kelp. And long before I wake, the sailors drown. No point in calling help. Each night, my husband shakes me out of sleep. I cannot reach for him or drag him to the surface so he’ll swim. Ithaca There’s war beyond the shores. But here there’s Dairy Queen and Taco Bell, the Westfield Shopping Mall, the cell phone superstore, Home Depot, Sears. And home remains a metaphor for something else: a wife who tries to guard her chastity, ties it like a yellow ribbon to her door, sticks it to the bumper of her car, so that the neighbors know she sleeps alone, almost a widow to the Trojan war, her love preserved in plastic wrap like some dessert too beautiful to taste. [End Page 57] At PTA meetings, she’s chased by divorcés and other glum suitors. Nobody seems to care that she still wears a wedding ring. Odysseus is gone—same thing as being dead. And so men stare at her when she buys groceries or takes the dog out for a pee. She’s Ithaca, trapped in her own body, an island circled by the seas. Penelope, Stateside On an island called America, start fantasizing of the sex you had with him. Go shop for bras and lacey thongs at the PX, black garters, bustiers, a cream that leaves your body woven silk, a self-help book for self-esteem, a bag of M&Ms, skim milk to keep you thin, and Lean Cuisine (you hate to cook-for-one). Or buy a pair of True Religion jeans, the denim pressing on each thigh so that there’s no sensation but blue fabric like a second skin, [End Page 58] no lover’s touch more intimate than the zipper pressing in. But don’t forget. He may come home so torn that purchases won’t mean a thing, not the Posturepedic foam pillowtop mattress, or the sateen duvet. He won...

G-Quadruplex DNA Structures and Organic Chemistry: More Than One Connection (Eur. J. Org. Chem. 14/2009)

The cover picture shows the monomeric G-quadruplex structure of the 22-mer human telomeric DNA sequence AGGG(TTAGGG)3 derived by X-ray crystallography in Neidle?s group (G. N. Parkinson, M. P. Lee, S. Neidle, Nature 2002, 417, 876) in a potassium ion solution (PDB code 1KF1). The molecular graphic was produced by using the UCSF Chimera package from the Resource for Biocomputing, Visualization, and Informatics at the University of California, San Francisco (supported by NIH P41 RR-01081). The DNA backbone is in cyan, covered by a semitransparent meshed surface; K+ ions are represented by violet spheres, and a yellow ribbon follows the strand topology. The four arrows indicate the related main areas of interest for organic chemists: design and synthesis of G-quadruplex ligands, study of ligand interactions with quadruplex and duplex DNA, quadruplex-forming modified oligonucleotides and nanostructures based on the G-quadruplex. In the background, the structures of some well-known G-quadruplex ligands, based on perylene, coronene, berberine, porphyrin and acridine moieties, are shown in yellow, as well as the natural compound telomestatin. Details are presented in the Microreview by M. Franceschin on p. 2225 ff.

Graphical Abstract: Eur. J. Org. Chem. 14/2009

AbstractThe cover picture shows the monomeric G‐quadruplex structure of the 22‐mer human telomeric DNA sequence AGGG(TTAGGG)3 derived by X‐ray crystallography in Neidle?s group (G. N. Parkinson, M. P. Lee, S. Neidle, Nature 2002, 417, 876) in a potassium ion solution (PDB code 1KF1). The molecular graphic was produced by using the UCSF Chimera package from the Resource for Biocomputing, Visualization, and Informatics at the University of California, San Francisco (supported by NIH P41 RR‐01081). The DNA backbone is in cyan, covered by a semitransparent meshed surface; K+ ions are represented by violet spheres, and a yellow ribbon follows the strand topology. The four arrows indicate the related main areas of interest for organic chemists: design and synthesis of G‐quadruplex ligands, study of ligand interactions with quadruplex and duplex DNA, quadruplex‐forming modified oligonucleotides and nanostructures based on the G‐quadruplex. In the background, the structures of some well‐known G‐quadruplex ligands, based on perylene, coronene, berberine, porphyrin and acridine moieties, are shown in yellow, as well as the natural compound telomestatin. Details are presented in the Microreview by M. Franceschin on p. 2225 ff.

"A Charm in those Fingers": Patterns, Taste, and the Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine

are a thousand things that everybody sees, and nobody thinks of, marvels author of Railway Magic, an 1855 article in Englishwoman s Domestic Magazine.1 The writer is particularly interested in drawing attention to sensory experience of train travel. It is not just that new parts of country open up to railway, or that speed allows one to cover new territory; actual sights of everyday are given new meaning when seen from window of a train. The modernity of train travel enables traveler to see English countryside with new eyes: eyes of a housewife. Looking out train window, anonymous author asks, And did you remark not a spike wrenched from its good hold, not a tie un-tied, not a timber splintered? There must be a charm in those fingers indeed. The construction of railway is work of an especially tidy and conscientious laborer, depicted here as domestic woman.2 As train rushes viewer from far to near perspective, features of landscape are crafted from quotidian housewifely objects: Strips of narrow yellow ribbon widen into broad acres of golden grain; scattered skeins of silk floss are webbed into running rivers. Rural idyll and modern power merge into one image, united through a visual perspective that draws its references from needlework rather than farming or factory work. Fingers, ribbon, and silk floss feature prominently in parts of periodical devoted to sewing and fancy-work patterns. Railway Magic concludes that railway marks out and almost creates surrounding fields, lakes, and towns. The railway's relationship to landscape becomes much like a pattern for an embroidered scene: the railway itself, in magic of distance seems double scoring of beautiful fields and lakes and towns along

Alliance Schedules Opportunities for Learning and Fun

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article Annual MeetingFull AccessAlliance Schedules Opportunities for Learning and FunStephanie WhycheStephanie WhycheSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:18 Apr 2008https://doi.org/10.1176/pn.43.8.0023The APA Alliance (APAA), which has planned four days of work and fun at APA's annual meeting in May, is marking a milestone this year. It's the 10th anniversary of one of its most replicated initiatives—the“ When Not to Keep a Secret” essay project.The activities of the 210-member organization to be held in conjunction with APA's 2008 annual meeting (see Original article: APA Alliance Plans Busy Annual Meeting Schedule) comprise a balance of work and leisure activities. Included in the work category are the group's board of directors and business meetings, a workshop titled “Risk Factors Are Not Predictive Factors Due to Protective Factors Applied to the New Orleans School Recovery District,” and the annual luncheon at which the keynote address, “Mental Health Issues With Returning Veterans and Their Families,” will be given by Marie Wood of the International Yellow Ribbon Fund. Established in 2005, the fund assists injured service members as they recuperate at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the National Naval Medical Center. It also assists their families.The APAA was established in the 1980s to bring together the spouses of psychiatrists and later others interested in improving the often-stigmatized image of psychiatry through educational, philanthropic, and advocacy activities. A notable example of the APAA's work is its “When Not to Keep a Secret” essay project.The goal of the project is to encourage students to share information or“ secrets” they may have learned regarding school violence or friends who have mental health problems, especially those who are being abused or threaten suicide. The school-based, teacher-supervised initiative has positively touched the lives of countless high-school-aged children, as well as their teachers and parents, in 19 states.“The power of the essays show that the exercise 'awakens' teens to the possibility of conflict,” observed APAA President Kay Brada, of Wichita Kan. “Our intent and hope is... that students realize they need to let trusted adults know.”According to the APAA, more than 90 percent of the submitted essays express depression and concern about teen suicide. The remaining 10 percent of essays are focused on eating disorders, physical fighting, relationship violence, self-esteem problems, bullying, substance abuse, sexual gender issues, and weapon carrying.Three to five top entries are selected from each participating school for judging each year. APA members and community leaders (media, legislators, policy makers, city and county officials, nonprofit directors) are asked to participate as judges in part because they are in unique positions to educate others or influence policy related to school violence. Awards to the winning students are presented at their local APA district branch.More information about the APA Alliance, including its essay contest, is posted at<www.apaalliance.org/>.▪ ISSUES NewArchived

Homeward Bound or Housebound?

Homeward Bound or Housebound?

Tie a Yellow Ribbon

On November 4, 1979, as tens of thousands of Iranian demonstrators filed past the U.S. embassy in Tehran, a smaller group of radical students broke through the embassy gates, overpowered Marine guards, and took scores of American embassy employees captive. The students were angered and alarmed by President Jimmy Carter's decision to allow Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, Iran's exiled monarch, to enter the United States to receive medical treatment, a move portending, the students believed, a U.S.-led effort to reverse the Iranian Revolution and reinstate the hated Shah. It was at first widely expected—not least by the students themselves—that Iran's revolutionary authorities would quickly step in to rescue the American captives, as they had done following a similar embassy takeover the previous February. This time, however, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the spiritual leader of the revolutionary regime, publicly endorsed the students' action, making a speedy release of the Americans politically impossible. It was, as David Farber relates in this intelligent and lively book, the beginning of a 444-day saga that would further radicalize Iran, outrage the American people, wreck Carter's presidency, and leave a legacy of U.S.-Iranian bitterness that remains with us today.