Obituary from Military Times - Dabney Montgomery Tuskegee Airman

At 93, Dabney Mongomery died in a hospice, of natural causes, in New York City.

Tuskegee Airman Who Marched with MLK in Selma Dies at 93, years old.

Obituary notice:

NEW YORK -- Dabney Montgomery, who served with the all-black Tuskegee Airmen in World War II and marched with civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., has died. He was 93.

Dabney Montgomery attending a baseball game in New York on June 5, 2013 (AP- Kathy Willens)

His wife, Amelia Montgomery, said he died of natural causes Saturday morning at a Manhattan hospice care facility. He had lived in Harlem until he entered the facility Aug. 25.

Montgomery was born in in Selma, Alabama, in 1923 and was inducted into the armed forces in 1943. He served as a ground crewman with the Tuskegee Airmen in southern Italy during the war.

He attended Livingstone College in North Carolina on the GI bill and later moved to New York to find work.

Montgomery was active in the civil rights movement, serving as a bodyguard to King during the famous 1965 Selma to Montgomery march.

Amelia Montgomery said the heels of the shoes and the tie her husband wore on the Selma march will be part of the permanent collection at the new National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. , when it opens on Sept. 24.

Montgomery was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 2007 after President George W. Bush signed a law awarding the distinction to all original Tuskegee Airmen.

He worked for the New York City Housing Authority and as a volunteer outreach worker for a nonprofit that assists the elderly.

Montgomery remained active until his final weeks, frequently visiting schools to talk to children about his experiences growing up in Alabama, serving in the war and marching for civil rights.

"He just loved motivating young people to be somebody," Amelia Montgomery said. "That was his joy."

Commencement address by First Lady Michelle Obama

City College of New York welcomed Michelle Obama to give the 2016 commencement address.

First Lady Michelle Obama addressed City College of New York Class of 2016

First Lady Michelle Obama delivered the commencement address during the 170th Commencement Ceremony at The City College of New York on Friday, June 3, 2016, at 10:30 a.m., on the South Campus Great Lawn on the CCNY campus, in historic Harlem, where more than 3,000 students make up the Class of 2016.

In fact, Michelle Obama "zinged" Donald Trump at City College

In fact, Mrs. Obama denounced one of Trump’s signature proposals — construction of a wall at the U.S.-Mexican border — lamented “name-calling” and faulted “some folks out there” who “demonize and dehumanize entire groups of people.”

The City College of New York is the first public higher education institution in New York City and has one of the most diverse student bodies in the nation. Established as a free institution dedicated to overcoming barriers to advancement, CCNY continues its mission of access to excellence and keeping tuition affordable.

CCNY students are frequent recipients of national and international awards, including Fulbright, Goldwater, Gilman, National Science Foundation Research Fellows, Rhodes and Truman. The college also is a top producer of U.S. Fulbright Scholars among its faculty members who also are frequent recipients of other prestigious awards, including Guggenheim, National Endowment for the Humanities, NSF fellowships and grants, and national book writing awards.

CCNY is home to 10 Nobel Prize winners, at least 11 Oscar recipients, and secures nearly $60 million per year in research awards that address pressing needs and lead to improvements in people’s lives and communities around the world. Recently launched is the new CUNY School of Medicine on the City College campus. The college also opened the City College Center for Discovery and Innovation as a magnet for international researchers and learning for students, faculty, and scientists working across multiple disciplines. U.S. News, Princeton Review and Forbes all rank City College among the best colleges and universities in the United States.

About The City College of New York
Since 1847, The City College of New York has provided low-cost, high-quality education for New Yorkers in a wide variety of disciplines. More than 15,000 students pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in the College of Liberal Arts and Science; Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture; School of Education; Grove School of Engineering; Sophie Davis Biomedical Education/CUNY School of Medicine; and the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership. As the precursor to CUNY, City College is part of one of the largest public urban university systems in the country.

Mrs. Obama is a Princeton and Harvard alumna; she urged the graduates to heed “the lessons of our history” and cherish 

immigrants’ contributions to America. She listed prominent Americans who were foreign-born, including Intel founder Andrew Grove, who came to America from Hungary to flee Nazi persecution. 

“Here in America, we don’t give in to our fears. We don’t build up walls to keep people out, because we know that our greatness has always depended on contributions from people who were born elsewhere but sought out this country,” Obama said.

The first lady spoke at the nearly 170-year-old school’s main campus in upper Manhattan under cloudy skies and sporadic drizzle. The Class of 2016 has 3,848 undergraduates and graduate students, and as many as half are the first to go to college in their families, according to CUNY. 

Obama criticized “some folks out there” who “view our diversity as a threat to be contained, rather than as a resource to be tapped. They tell us to be afraid of those who are different, to be suspicious of those with whom we disagree. They act as if name-calling is an acceptable substitute for thoughtful debate.”

Beyond an $8 billion wall, which Trump says Mexico will pay for, Trump wants a moratorium on Muslims coming into the nation and deportation of the estimated 11 million immigrants who are here illegally. 

Obama has delivered nearly two dozen graduation addresses during her husband Barack Obama’s two terms in office. She said she chose City College as the site of her last one because of its diverse student body and its history.

During the early 20th century, City College became known as “the poor man’s Harvard.” Ivy League schools such as Harvard, Yale and Princeton would admit only a handful of Jews and other minorities.

“City College became a haven for brilliant, motivated students of every background — a place where they didn’t have to hide their last names or their accents or put on any kind of airs, because the students at this school were selected based not on pedigree but on merit and merit alone.”

On Friday, as Obama stood on the dais to receive an honorary doctor of humane letters degree, there were cheers: “We love you, Michelle!” “Four more years!” One young woman said of the first lady: “One of us!”

Dr. Greg Spencer is another victim of the Ebola virus - another tragic consequence for the caregivers

Those calling for a travel ban on people arriving in the US from Ebola stricken areas of Africa can't be living in the real world. NewYork City physician Dr. Greg Spencer is now a victim of the Ebola virus, another care giver infected by the disease. Nothing would have prevented Dr. Spencer from returning to New York City and his home in Harlem. Travel bans simply aren't possible in the 21st century.

It's at least helpful for the public to read how New York City is quickly responding to this latest Ebola virus patient, with the state's Governor Cuomo making a leadership statement quoted in this article from The New York Post.

Ebola strikes NYC: Doctor tests positive for deadly virus

The New York Post reports:

New York has its first case of Ebola.

A Harlem doctor who recently treated patients in Africa tested positive for the deadly disease ­after he was rushed to Bellevue Hospital on Thursday morning with fatigue, nausea and a 103-degree fever. (This information was later modified, the temperature was really 100.3 F not 103 degrees.)

Dr. Craig Spencer, a 33-year-old Doctors Without Borders volunteer, and his live-in fiancée, Morgan Dixon, 30, were quarantined at Bellevue as investigators ­retraced the couple’s steps from the six days since the doctor returned from Guinea last Friday, the sources said. The Associated Press reported two of Spencer’s friends were also quarantined but had shown no symptoms of the virus.

Spencer’s West 147th Street apartment has been sealed, and two of Spencer’s friends have also self-quarantined in their homes, officials said.

And an Uber car-service driver who recently transported Spencer has self-quarantined as well, officials said.

At a press conference Thursday night, officials claimed that Spencer had mostly “stayed at home” since his return.

“We don’t want to give the impression he self-quarantined, but he did limit his contact,” claimed Dr. Mary Travis Bassett, head of the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

“He did attempt to self-isolate,” she told reporters.

Still, officials conceded that Spencer had also made numerous excursions around the city in the days before he was diagnosed.

That included riding the subway, walking the High Line, taking the Uber car and, on Wednesday night — even as he was already feeling fatigued, according to officials — taking a three-mile run and spending the evening bowling.

Spencer went to The Gutter, a popular Williamsburg bowling and music venue, sources said.  In fact, the bowling alley was shuttered Thursday night, and issued a statement saying: “We’ve been in constant contact with the Health Department and they have determined that there was no risk to our customers.”

Spencer rode the subway in the past five days, traveling on the A, L and 1 lines, a law-enforcement source told The Post.

Spencer's along the High Line also involved a meal at a nearby restaurant, sources said.

Spencer also visited Herald Square in his travels around town, sources added.

Spencer did not show up at his job at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital, where he is a fellow in international emergency medicine, officials there assured.

But investigators weren’t taking any chances, and were at the hospital Thursday night to double check that he had no contact with patients or staff, sources said.

The NYPD’s Missing Persons Squad is pitching in, looking at Spencer’s Metro­Card, credit cards and bank statements to track all his travels and determine if any other locations need to be monitored, sources said.

Meanwhile, the federal Center s for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was rushing a special response team to Bellevue.

“We are as ready as one can be for this circumstance,” Gov. Cuomo assured New Yorkers Thursday night at the press conference.