The Daily Northwestern Monday, April 17, 2017
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Thousands call for Trump’s tax returns Biss, Schakowsky speak at protests ahead of Tax Day By AARON BOXERMAN
the daily northwestern
Colin Boyle/Daily Senior Staffer
The Rock is painted black and gold to memorialize the death of first-year student Mohammed Ramzan. The students who painted The Rock are asking that it be left unpainted for at least three days to respect the beginning of the Muslim mourning period.
Students paint Rock as tribute By ERICA SNOW
daily senior staffer @ericasnoww
Less than a week after the death of first-year student Mohammed Ramzan, Communication freshman Kimani Isaac said she started processing the loss of her friend while guarding The Rock. Using only smartphone flashlights, Isaac and a few other students began to paint The Rock black 24 hours later, as a sign of mourning for their friend. They then painted intersecting gold lines
over the black paint. The paint, which Isaac said was inspired by the Japanese practice of kintsugi –– a method to repair broken ceramics with a lacquer mixed with gold –– represents both the fracturing and coming together of a community after a death. “The Rock, for many of us, symbolizes community,” Isaac said. “This community was drenched in mourning, which was the black, but fractured in a way that is somewhat more beautiful than it was before, because it’s revealing something that was underneath, which is our love for each other.”
Ramzan passed away after he fell off a nine-person shell during a Northwestern men’s crew team practice on the North Shore Channel on April 10. His death was ruled an accidental drowning, according to a Cook County Medical Examiner’s report. Isaac helped organize the painting of The Rock, and said she appreciated the eagerness of many other QuestBridge Scholars to help guard and paint it, as it brought a community of friends together. Ramzan was a QuestBridge Scholar. For Sophia Ruark, the temporary memorial was a therapeutic
way to show her love for Ramzan, who she had seen a few days before the accident. The McCormick freshman said if there are ever future tragedies, she hopes other people could use The Rock as a public memorial. Isaac asked other students and organizations to not paint The Rock for at least three days to respect the beginning of the Muslim mourning period. An Arabic saying, “May God make heaven his abode,” is painted on the side of The Rock. Students may also leave candles, flowers » See ROCK, page 10
Large protests rarely begin with the Chicken Dance, but Saturday’s Tax March in Chicago’s Richard J. Daley plaza was an exception. The march — attended by thousands of protesters — called for President Donald Trump to release his tax returns. It was one of about 200 such marches held across the country ahead of Tax Day on Tuesday. U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and State Sen. Daniel Biss (D-Evanston) spoke, as did Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) and the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. “Stop being a chicken, Mr. President, and release your tax returns,” the Chicago protest’s organizer Taran Singh Brar told the crowd, standing next a 30-foot inflatable “Chicken Don.” The float was crowdfunded by more than 80 people ahead of the Saturday march. S o u s a ph on e s A g a i n s t Hate — a Chicago-area brass band formed to resist the Trump administration — led the crowd in the Chicken Dance, following with the Beatles’ smash hit “Taxman.” Other demonstrators chanted “Chicken in Chief ” while
holding signs that read “Grab Him by the 1040,” a reference to the IRS filing form. Brar, a documentary filmmaker, told The Daily he is not a professional activist, but that with some hard work, anyone can start a protest and mobilize thousands of people. In addition, Brar said the release of tax returns is a non-partisan issue supported by a majority of Americans, which makes it especially compelling. “That’s been missing, and it kind of hurts the activist left protest scene that they don’t fully explore that element … they overlook how potent some of this humor is,” Brar said. “People like laughing … so I keep going back and saying, ‘Chicken Don, what’s in your nest egg?’” Trump, in a break with tradition, has consistently refused to release his tax returns. Though presidents are not legally required to make their returns public, Trump is the first president in 40 years not to do so. He has repeatedly claimed that only the media was interested in seeing his returns. In response to the national protests, Trump on Sunday tweeted that, “Someone should look into who paid for the small organized rallies yesterday. The election is over!” Michael Mellini, a Chicago resident who attended » See TAXES, page 7
Holmes reflects on NU-Q student works with refugees lifetime of service By ALLY MAUCH
By KRISTINA KARISCH
the daily northwestern @kristinakarisch
When Ald. Delores Holmes (5th) finishes her final term next month and leaves office, it won’t be her first retirement. In 2002, after roughly 27 years of service as director of Family Focus — an organization that helps families with young children facing homelessness or financial issues — Holmes thought her career had come to an end. But her neighbors and friends had other ideas; they pushed her to run for alderman. “I really did retire to retire,” Holmes said. “But I got bored very easily because I’m a busy person; I’ve always been doing things in the community. I’m not one to just to sit and watch TV … after about six or seven months I was starting to figure out what the heck I was going to do.” Holmes ended up running against four other aldermanic
candidates and won more than 75 percent of the vote. Her 2005 victory kicked off a new career in public service that would last 12 years and span three terms.
Nearly a lifetime in Evanston Holmes said she grew up “watching community service,” raised by parents who modeled civic involvement. She moved to Evanston from Tennessee in 1941, when she was just three years old. Her father worked as a commander at Veterans of Foreign Wars, and her mother was a member of its auxiliary. Holmes said her parents served as an inspiration for a lifetime of service to the city and her community. When she got married and had children in the ’60s, Holmes began working for the Evanston/Skokie School District 65 Head Start program, which provides early childhood education to young children. The job marked the beginning of » See HOLMES, page 10
Serving the University and Evanston since 1881
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Northwestern University in Qatar student Shakeeb Asrar spent two weeks in March volunteering with refugees in Greece — teaching computer literacy classes to children and adults, packing boxes of donated supplies and helping refugees seeking legal services. “It was demanding physically and also emotionally and mentally,” Asrar said. “Every day I would learn something I did not expect.” Asrar, a senior in the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications at NU-Q, traveled to Greece in March as part of the World Innovation Summit for Education Learners’ Voice program. WISE Learners’ Voice program participants come from all over the world and get involved in a project that tries to solve a problem in education. Asrar said the theme this year is the global
Source: Shakeeb Asrar
Shakeeb Asrar (second from right), a senior at NU-Q, poses with fellow participants of the WISE Learners’ program in Greece. Participants spent two weeks volunteering with refugees and learning about the refugee crisis in the context of education.
refugee and migrant crisis. The two-week trip to Greece is just one part of the year-long program, which began in November. Asrar said participants first completed online learning modules before going to Greece, and will meet again in the summer to further develop their projects before presenting them in Doha, Qatar in November. Asrar said the purpose of going
to Greece is for students to experience the issues they are creating their projects around. “The greatest impact was working with the refugees and realizing how big the problem is and the scale of the refugee crisis,” Asrar said. In addition to studying journalism, Asrar is getting a certificate in civic engagement from the School of Education and Social
Policy. To complete the requirements for the certificate, Asrar spent two quarters at Northwestern’s Evanston campus and took several classes remotely. When he heard about WISE, Asrar said he saw it as an opportunity to take what he was learning in his SESP classes and put it into practice. » See ASRAR, page 10
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