logo
Messages of appreciation, recognition on Memorial Day

Messages of appreciation, recognition on Memorial Day

Boston Globe26-05-2025

Get The Gavel
A weekly SCOTUS explainer newsletter by columnist Kimberly Atkins Stohr.
Enter Email
Sign Up
On this Memorial Day we pause and remember those men and women who made that ultimate sacrifice so that we may have not peace at the expense of freedom but rather both peace and freedom here in this hemisphere.
Advertisement
Andre Grisham
Tiverton, R.I.
The writer, a Navy veteran, is a deputy comptroller at the Surface Warfare Schools Command.
We make strides with patriots like Deborah Sampson as role models
May 23 marked the 243d anniversary of the day
Advertisement
A military doctor subsequently discovered she was female when she contracted a fever and lost consciousness. Because of her valiant military service, she received an honorable discharge and later received a soldier's pension.
In 1983, Massachusetts declared Deborah Sampson to be the
Defense Secretary
Paul Lauenstein
Sharon
The writer is a member of the board of the Sharon Historical Society.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Anti-Woke Crusades Only Make Hegseth and Rubio Look Petty
Anti-Woke Crusades Only Make Hegseth and Rubio Look Petty

Bloomberg

timean hour ago

  • Bloomberg

Anti-Woke Crusades Only Make Hegseth and Rubio Look Petty

The actor Sean Penn has summed up the problem with Pete Hegseth, and by extension the administration of President Donald Trump. 'I've never before seen a Secretary of Defense so aggressively demote himself to the rank of Chief PETTY Officer,' Penn said upon hearing that the Pentagon boss has ordered the Navy to rename an oiler called the USNS Harvey Milk. The naming of a ship (or a gulf, or anything) is often a bureaucratic gesture of forgettable symbolism. Not in this case and a slew of others that Hegseth is currently reviewing. The effort instead points to a worrisome obsession that causes division, distraction and the diversion of scarce energy from real foreign conflicts toward domestic culture wars.

A simple statement that can help cops win people's trust
A simple statement that can help cops win people's trust

Boston Globe

time4 hours ago

  • Boston Globe

A simple statement that can help cops win people's trust

Advertisement As researchers, we've spent more than 500 hours observing, interviewing, and riding along with police officers. We've found that this disconnect is common. Officers feel they're being respectful and polite, while community members — especially people of color, unhoused people, and members of other groups that are disproportionately stopped by or otherwise involved with law enforcement — interpret the interaction as a Get The Gavel A weekly SCOTUS explainer newsletter by columnist Kimberly Atkins Stohr. Enter Email Sign Up But Advertisement Police officers start their conversations with a trust deficit, and strategies that usually put people at ease in regular social situations — like joking around — can backfire in situations where there's a power imbalance. Even a friendly 'How are you? Can I talk to you for a minute?' can put people on edge when the officer's intentions are unclear. Enter the transparency statement. It's a simple sentence an officer can give at the start of a wide range of interactions with community members — from traffic stops to meet and greets to simply stopping to check on someone who looks cold. The statement quickly and clearly explains why they've initiated the interaction. While it sounds simple, our studies with real people and police officers show that a transparency statement can make a difference. A transparency statement is not an exact script. Officers can and should word their transparency statements in a way that captures their true goal for the interaction. For example, one officer's statement was: 'Hi, I'm Officer [Name], how's it going? I'm out here walking around just trying to get to know my beat and my community. Is it OK if I talk to you for a minute?' In this opening statement, the officer states that their intent is to get to know the community, not take the person to task for wrongdoing. Another officer's statement was similar but more casual in tone: 'I'm just walking around getting to know everybody that's hanging out in the area to introduce myself and make sure you're doing OK.' Again, this officer makes clear their benevolent intent from the start. Advertisement Some officers make such statements naturally. On another ride-along, we observed an interaction between two Latino officers and two Latino middle-aged men who were sitting on the curb of a busy street. The officers opened with 'Cuidado!,', or 'Be careful!' in Spanish, and then suggested the men move, explaining that where they were sitting was dangerous for both them and the cars whizzing by. With clear information about the officers' intentions, the two men understood and packed up immediately. These officers hit each of the four key elements that we've pinpointed for effective transparency statements. The first is timing. The statement should be made as soon as possible, to set the tone for the interaction from the outset. Next is benevolence. Officers should communicate an honest reason for the interaction that is ideally motivated by helping the community and specific individuals. This works only if the intention feels genuine — the third characteristic of a good transparency statement. Last, the statement needs to be personal. Officers should speak in the first person (e.g.., 'I'm worried about your safety') and refer to the situation at hand. Generic statements about department-wide efforts to engage the community don't work as well (e.g., 'Our department has a new initiative to get to know community residents'). In our field studies, transparency statements have a simple but powerful effect. In one experiment, we measured electrical signals given off by participants' skin, which indicate stress, during interactions with police officers. We also analyzed the language spoken during the exchanges and surveyed participants after the interactions. Advertisement When officers implemented transparency statements, community members were more likely to respond using language associated with positive rapport and trust-building. They spoke more words during the conversation, suggesting a greater level of engagement. Our skin measurements also indicated they were calmer and more open to the interaction. In tests where an officer did not open a conversation with a transparency statement, skin results showed that stress levels continued to rise over the course of the conversation. In surveys after the interaction, community members were less likely to report feeling threatened: 40 percent said they felt the threat posed by the officer was low versus 29 percent without a transparency statement. And more people reported that they trusted the police officer and his or her investment in their well-being (55 percent versus 46 percent). Around one in five adults in the United States has Teaching the method takes mere minutes, though making it second nature takes practice. After the promising results from our initial experiment, we've begun training officers in one city and will be testing outcomes across the department and the community over the next year. Transparency statements are a simple concept, and that's part of their beauty. Law enforcement officers face a Advertisement

Chinese Aircraft Carrier Seen Operating Deeper Into Pacific
Chinese Aircraft Carrier Seen Operating Deeper Into Pacific

Bloomberg

time8 hours ago

  • Bloomberg

Chinese Aircraft Carrier Seen Operating Deeper Into Pacific

A Chinese aircraft carrier made one of its deepest forays into the Pacific Ocean over the weekend as Beijing continues to project its military power further from its shores. The Liaoning and three other Chinese naval vessels were seen on Saturday around 300 kilometers (some 185 miles) southwest of the remote, uninhabited Japanese island of Minamitori, according to a statement from Japan's Joint Chief of Staff.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store