Atypical Transit

Several years ago, a writer for ESPN dubbed that special place in the American pop culture landscape where seemingly anything can happen, “The Tyson Zone,” a reference to the unpredictable and unexplainable nature of the one and only Mike Tyson. The writer argued that if one could make up almost any story about a certain athlete, or more generally a famous person, and have it be believed by most audiences - “Athlete X owns 400 unicorns!” or “Celebrity Y carries uncooked ground beef wherever she goes!” - that person inhabits “The Tyson Zone.” For most of her life, Kimberly Dawn Neumann may just have been the Tyson Zone’s proudest citizen but now she’s moving on and moving out.

In her professional life, Neumann boasts an impressive hat collection: her first love is dancing and she’s been featured in Broadway and off-Broadway shows like Annie Get Your Gun and Finian’s Rainbow. But she’s also a respected journalist, offering dating and relationship advice through her “Dating Diva Daily” site and other sites, like Match.com, and racking up over sixteen million hits in the past two years. And she’s also a fitness instructor. And a fortune teller. And a model. And a trapeze artist. And, on one fateful occasion, a boxer.

Our interview begins with a joke about Richard Nixon’s infamous “lost” eighteen and a half minutes of audio tape, an odd start to be sure, but it’s here that we get our first - and definitely not our last - of Neumann’s expansive, infectious and totally uncontrived laughter, laughter that is at once full-blooded and effortless. Packed into a tiny frame, Neumann’s personality escapes from every pore. Now in her early forties... ish, Neumann was raised the daughter of an aerospace engineer and a teacher and attended the University of Maryland, where she studied journalism. What first appears to be a fairly typical upbringing, in fact sowed the seeds for Neumann’s future “atypical transit.”

“The discipline that I learned at a very early age [through dance] is why I think I’m able to succeed as a multi-freelancer. I learned how to manage my time as a very little girl.” When asked about her aspirations growing up, she quips, “my first dream when I was a little girl was to be a paleontologist, but that didn’t happen, but dancer and journalist did happen. I had my first journal at six-years-old and I still have it. ’Today, Shannon gave me twelve cents for no reason,’ was the first entry.”

Two knee surgeries, a broken hand and countless other confounding events have pushed and pulled and diverted and rerouted Neumann’s path but each setback has provided her with even more tools to do what she does best: communicate. The knee injuries and subsequent recoveries that temporarily robbed her of her ability to dance eventually yielded two books. “Dance was my soul and suddenly I didn’t have that outlet and my release had been taken away from me.” She also broke her hand delivering a (scripted) uppercut a little too close to her co-star’s jaw, causing her to miss opening night. “I clobbered the hell out of him. Took. Him. Down,” she states proudly.

In describing her recent change in approach, Neumann notes that “in the last few years, I’ve kind of reached my goals in a lot of places. I don’t feel the same overwhelming need to do another Broadway show.” She describes how, early in her career, that she was totally overwhelmed with emotion at the end of a show’s run. But now, when it’s finished, she’s done. “Great show, peace out.”

It’s also clear that she has been left jaded by the seemingly uncontrollable influx of reality TV stars into jobs traditionally filled by trained professionals like Neumann. Where Broadway’s great female roles were formerly played by the industry’s preeminent and most talented performers, now, those roles are increasingly and unsettlingly filled by ‘crossover stars,’ like Christie Brinkley. Neumann recalls Brinkley’s Roxie in Chicago as “the most tragic performance I’ve ever seen. She can’t sing, she can’t act, she can’t dance. I wanted to kill myself.”

So, what’s next? “I wish I’d been an Olympic gold medalist. Did I miss out on that?” Neumann asks with only a hint of sarcasm. Compared to most of us, she actually got pretty close. In the final minutes of our interview Neumann reveals that, as a dancer, she “was the first person to walk into the stadium [at the Opening Ceremonies for the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta],” a moment that still moves her. “I have no idea how that happened.” Well, in a way, it happened because Neumann puts herself everywhere and throws herself into everything she does. “It never stops,” Neumann exclaims when describing the doubt and frustration she has felt throughout her life and career. And, even in this new phase of her life, neither does she.

I Have A Drone In My Apartment…

Ben  Smith, 36, is set to star in a new reality TV show but he's not allowed to talk about it, yet. Or so he tells me. Ben is a designer, an innovator, a tinkerer, an engineer and a crazy person, in no particular order. Today, he’s sick as a dog, agitated and interesting. As always.

Tell the people a little about yourself.

I’m Ben. I was born in Detroit but have lived all over. I was a bad kid and was sent to military school when I was 14. I thrived in certain areas but I was all about mischief. I only wanted to do the things that people said I couldn’t do. There was a course on booby traps and immediately after that course, I went and set a bunch of booby traps all over the school.

My dad is a neurophysiologist, which led to us moving around a lot. I was in the army for a while and served in the DMZ in Korea. I was injured out there and left the service shortly after. I can’t really talk about that for another 12 years.

What is this project that you’re working on?

Which one?

The TV project.

Oh, that? It falls into the reality genre. Not so much a “Get-Me-Off-This-Island!” deal. It’s not really like anything that’s been done before. I guess it’s going to be a little scripted to pump up the drama with scenarios and tasks and then they’ll edit it to make it appear interesting. I get the feeling some of it might be kind of dangerous. I was part of some groups when I started building the drones that I’ve been working on and I think the qualifications that sold them on me are that I’m not morbidly obese, I can speak in complete sentences and I’m not a total political radical. I have strong opinions but I’m also aware of reality. But I can’t really go into [the details of the show]. There’s a contract. I’m not looking to get sued. Can we talk about my mucous instead?

Nope.

I’m a very curious person and that often gets me into trouble but it also apparently opens doors.

Trouble is good.

Yeah, sometimes.

How long have you been getting in trouble/engineering?

I don’t know if this story is true or not - I can only take my mother’s word for it – but, when I was a baby, she had a fence set up so, when I was crawling around, I wouldn’t fall down the stairs. And my mother showed up at the top of the stairs after leaving me alone for a couple of minutes and found that I was sitting there with a screwdriver and had taken the whole thing apart. I can only take that with a grain of salt but that seems to be her impression of me anyway. I was a constant concern. I suppose it’s really difficult trying to raise a kid who tries to circumvent everything you do to protect them.

So, it doesn’t sound like you’ve had a great deal of formal training in… whatever it is that you do…

Oh, no, not at all. Well, when I start off with a project, I usually know nothing about it. Like with the drones that I’m working on. I’d never even flown a remote control airplane before. And not only did I need to design something beyond radio control - something that could fly on its own - I also had to make it do things that had never been done before and employ stealth technology and all these other things and so there was a lot of learning to do. And I just jumped right in. Someone once told me that I go through life ass-backwards and at full speed. And that seems to be the general approach I take for everything.

Are there other drone enthusiasts?

Yeah, but our group has since dissolved. The closest we came to a "name" was calling our lab, "The Dick Cheney Center for Humanitarian Studies.”

What other projects have you worked on recently?

I fought robots. My robot was evil and won a pretty big competition. It had thread mines, a hammer drill, fork-lift skewers and Kevlar/welded steel/fiberglass armor coated with aluminum powder and suspended in beeswax. I wrote a symphony. A bad one. I was in a band but we broke up before our first gig. The combination of ego, Adderall and Jameson made me impossible for the others to be around.

My biggest problem when I’m writing is figuring out when to stop. It sounds like sometimes you don’t even know when you’ve started a project so how do you know that you’re done?

I can definitely understand that. I hate finishing a project because it says, “this is all I can do.” Also, it’s the process that I enjoy more than the result, so I have to set myself deadlines, I collaborate with others, try to manage my own expectations, because I always want more than I can do. I have a drone in my apartment right now. All it needs is a battery but I just can’t bring myself to do it. Because then it’s done. And then I’ll have to do something else.  I’m a big fan of [Serbian-American polymath] Nikola Tesla and he has this great quote: “We build but to tear down. Most of our work and resource is squandered. Our onward march is marked by devastation. Everywhere there is an appalling loss of time, effort and life.”

So what’s next?

There’s some stuff that I’ve got signed off for this TV show. Basically, anything that you see in a Bond movie or Batman movie is something that I’m interested in. Mostly toys for my nephew, to be very honest. Maybe the FBI.

If you could describe yourself in a word, what would it be?

Lost.

To The Hilt: Angela Corey and the New Trayvon Martin Case

Florida State Attorney Angela Corey

The Trayvon Martin case began anew last Wednesday afternoon as George Zimmerman was charged with second degree murder, 45 days after Sanford Police found Zimmerman in a gated community in Florida holding the gun used to kill young Trayvon Martin. What began as a bungled investigation riddled with indecision and incompetence has given way to an investigation clear in its purpose and sure of its mission. At the fore lies State Attorney Angela Corey of Florida’s 4th Judicial Circuit who led a stirring press conference while announcing the charge against Zimmerman and who, with her team, represents a sliver of hope that justice may prevail for Trayvon and his family.

In the weeks following Trayvon’s death, the case’s original lead prosecutor, State Attorney Norm Wolfinger, declared that his office could not show the probable cause necessary for an arrest. After weeks of criticism and a damning failure to explain why he refused to act on an affidavit from lead investigator Chris Serino on the night of the crime recommending Zimmerman be arrested, Wolfinger recused himself from the case after a conversation with Florida Governor Rick Scott and Attorney General Pam Bondi. Scott and Bondi appointed a special prosecutor, Angela Corey, to lead the case. Their announcement, some four weeks ago, came during the same press conference where it was also revealed that a Task Force on Citizen Safety and Protection would be formed to review Florida’s controversial Stand Your Ground law.

When Angela Corey spoke to the media and the country last Wednesday, it became clear that these changes and developments in the investigation were no political posturing. They were a firm statement of intent. Corey spoke passionately about her lifelong fight for victims and that if the Stand Your Ground law stood in the way of her and a victim, she’d fight that too. Her past experience and record indicates a willingness, bordering on need, to challenge orthodoxy andenforce her will. After being fired by her boss, State Attorney Harry Shorstein, in 2008, Corey ran for his job and beat his protege to her current office.

Within 30 seconds of the start of her comments, it became clear that a sea change in attitudes and methods had occurred in the investigation. For seemingly the first time in any official manner, Trayvon Martin was referred to as a “victim.” Corey went on to echo the popular “justice for Trayvon” slogan throughout her time at the podium. Where there was once no process to dispense justice, now there was one, clearly laid out and carefully explained. Although Corey stated repeatedly that her office does “not prosecute by public pressure or by petition," it was made clear to all that, regardless of the statutes in place in Florida, Corey and her team shared the nation’s outrage as “not only ministers of justice but seekers of truth.”

As a lifer in Florida law, Corey has an extensive and complicated history in the courtroom. She has been credited for her tough approach to violent crime, consistently charging, as in this case, to the fullest extent of the law. Although this has won her friends in law enforcement, the public has been less willing to stomach the alarming increase in felons, especially young African American felons, and her handling of another tragic case, where a 12-year-old boy stands accused of murdering his 2 year old brother. Corey has sought to try the elder child as adult, claiming that the juvenile system is ill-equipped to handle such a case, in trial or in punishment, but she has been criticized for endorsing a charge which could see a young child go to prison for the rest of his life.

Corey also spoke of her history with Florida’s Stand your Ground law. She noted that it is a difficult defense to break but, unlike her predecessor Wolfinger, she doesn’t believe that fact should preclude a prosecutor from trying a case. In her own words, “this is what we do, every day.” Affirmative defenses, like self defense, alibi, entrapment and insanity, are inherently difficult to disprove but, as has been the motif throughout the 45 days between incident and arrest, the legal process must be allowed to run its course.

In a case with many of the same racial undertones and legal complications as the Trayvon Martin case, Corey, in recent weeks, charged a white male driver with shooting a black male driver during a road rage-fueled confrontation. The man who pulled the trigger is also claiming self-defense and, as with Zimmerman, Corey has declared that, “if he fights it on Stand Your Ground, we’re going to fight back.” Even Zimmerman’s new lawyer, Mark O’Mara, acknowledged that there were “troublesome portions” to the law and that Florida would “have some conversations... about it as a state.” In another recent case, Corey notably elected not to charge a man who claimed self defense after he shot and killed another man.

It’s currently unclear, and may remain unclear for some time, what the prosecutors will use to prove their case, or if there will be a trial at all. O’Mara has made it clear that a plea bargain is entirely possible, affirming that the overwhelming majority of murder cases never reach trial. We may never know exactly what piece or pieces of evidence convinced Corey to prosecute, but we know from her rhetoric and her past that she will try this case “to the hilt.” Whether she triumphs or fails in prosecuting George Zimmerman, the trial itself will remain a victory for justice and common sense.

http://www.policymic.com/articles/7130/angela-corey-prosecution-leading-to-justice-for-trayvon-martin

How The Trayvon Martin Case Will Impact the Legacies of Obama and Eric Holder

Eric Holder (L) and Barack Obama (R)

The Trayvon Martin tragedy has America looking for answers to difficult and uncomfortable questions. America has struggled with the relationship between race and the rule of law throughout its history, but never before have the country’s two chief law enforcement officers - the president and the attorney general - been men of color. Clearly, President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder’s legal obligations are no different than those of the other men and women who have previously held their respective offices but, as African Americans, the gravity of Obama and Holder’s achievements in racial progress come with new responsibilities and considerations.

This past Friday, President Obama spoke publicly about Trayvon Martin’s death for the first time, expressing how deeply it affected him as an African American father. He asked all Americans to do some “soul searching to figure out how does something like this happen” and discussed what we can do to make it right. Obama’s words, though succinct, followed a steady theme in his comments on race.

Obama spoke most famously about race during his 2008 campaign as news outlets heaved with videos of his former pastor, Rev. Jerimiah Wright, from his Chicago pulpit, blaming America for the attacks on September 11th. The overriding message of Obama’s speech was that, despite our history and the original sin of slavery, the content of our Constitution, the disposition of the American people, and the “long march” of those that have come before us can enable future generations to succeed in building “a more perfect union,” a union “perfected over time.”

Obama hasn’t always navigated racial waters with such aplomb. In 2009, when Dr. Henry Louis Gates, an African American and a professor at Harvard, was arrested after his attempts to enter his own locked house were mistakenly interpreted by a neighbor as a burglary attempt, Obama claimed the arresting Cambridge police department “acted stupidly.” As details of Gates’ own overreaction and other circumstances of the case came to light, Obama backtracked, admitting his mistake in speaking on the subject without knowing all the facts. This misstep may explain the one month wait between Trayvon Martin’s death and Obama’s comments, allowing local law enforcement the (squandered) opportunity to right the situation before weighing in.

President Obama has asserted in the past that, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, America missed a “transformative moment,” a moment when the eyes of the nation were focused on a great injustice and real change could be made. In turning away, he argues, we “relieve[d] ourselves of the responsibility to make things right.” He spoke of this responsibility last Friday saying that the Martin family has a “right to expect that [we will] take this with the seriousness it deserves, and that we’re going to get to the bottom of exactly what happened.”

After Obama’s election three years ago, Eric Holder became the first African American attorney general having also been the first African American deputy attorney general under Janet Reno and President Clinton. For the most part, Holder is more guarded than his boss in his public statements and is decidedly less gifted rhetorically. At times, Holder has struck a more defiant, activist tone in discussing racial politics and issues and has faced criticism for the Justice Department’s handling of certain race-related cases. He was notably chided by Obama after describing America as a “nation of cowards” for shying away from a modern conversation on race in America, although it was more the clumsiness of the delivery rather than the validity of the statement that irked the president. In 2009, Holder was accused by a number of Republicans of reverse discrimination in choosing not to pursue a case against several Black Panther Party members accused of voter intimidation during the 2008 elections.

Perhaps Holder’s greatest legacy as it relates to the Trayvon Martin case is a commitment to gun control and the elimination of gun-related violence. First as attorney general of Washington, D.C., then as part of an amicus brief in 2008, Holder worked to maintain the capital’s handgun ban, a cause that was ultimately lost. He has since sought to bring back a Clinton-era ban on assault weapons that expired under George W. Bush.

In response to the Trayvon Martin killing, Holder and the Justice Department opened a civil rights inquiry last week, acknowledging that, at the request of 14 members of the House Judiciary Committee, they will “explore the applicability” of the federal hate crime statute. These proceedings are in addition to those already under way at the state and local level in Florida. Holder, as Obama mentioned in his comments last Friday, will undoubtedly also examine the controversial “Stand Your Ground” laws of Florida and nine other states, which allowed George Zimmerman to claim self-defense in the killing despite first pursuing the unarmed Martin. Beyond philosophical differences with “Stand Your Ground,” Holder will be able to point to extensive data showing that in Florida the law costs more lives than it saves and that the vast majority of those killed in self defense since the law was enacted were unarmed.

Inevitably, criticism will find Obama and Holder. Community leaders have questioned the delay in comment and action, with George Zimmerman still a free man. Political foes, including the Republican presidential candidates, have predictably claimed that Obama played the race card in his now famous “if I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon Martin” line. Newt Gingrich went so far as to say that the line was “disgraceful,” insinuating that Obama would care less if he didn’t share a skin tone with Martin. For some, any consideration of race as it relates to the law is affirmative action or reverse discrimination.

Both Obama and Holder, however, understand that with any law, one must take into account both the America that we want and the America that is. Although we may want a colorblind system that requires no corrective action, the reality is that we still live in a country and a society filled with prejudice. To enact and enforce laws which do not take into account our prejudices, whether conscious or unconscious, is to invite the kind of tragedy that has befallen Sanford, Florida this past month. Obama and Holder have trod carefully, recognizing the delicacy of the situation and the stakes at hand. But with the whole country once again focused on a tragic injustice, the time is now to continue the long march towards a more perfect union. By making clear that Trayvon Martin’s killing is both intolerable and avoidable, and backing up that declaration with incremental but decisive progress, Obama will be able to fulfill the promise he made to the Martin family.

http://www.policymic.com/articles/6167/how-trayvon-martin-will-impact-the-legacies-of-barack-obama-and-eric-holder