From UD to D.C.

While most of us thumb through The New York Times or flip on MSNBC for the latest political campaign coverage, one UD graduate is standing in the middle of the action.

Between tracking primary appearances and researching candidates’ backgrounds, Rodell Mollineau ’99 has his hands full during this election season. Mollineau is president of American Bridge 21st Century, a Super PAC which does extensive research on Republican presidential candidates.

“It was a unique opportunity because no one was doing anything like this,” he says.

Mollineau says the goal of American Bridge is to give voters a full account of Republican candidates’ stances and actions regarding issues so voters can make an informed decision of whether or not to vote for a candidate.

“Republicans usually say one thing in the primary and another in the general election,” he says. “We do extensive research on Republican candidates’ backgrounds, track their appearances and call out contradictions between their actions and words.”

Mollineau began his career in politics and communication at UD as a journalism major.

“I went into college wanting to work for the Washington Post or The New York Times,” he says. “Life has a funny way of leading you one way rather than another.”

While at UD, Mollineau was news editor at Flyer News, but left the publication in his fifth year to become Student Government Association president.

“Where I have really made my career is in the political communications field,” he says, noting that, he still uses the journalism skills he learned at UD doing research for American Bridge.

“I couldn’t imagine having gone to any other school and winding up where I am.”

Modern-day slavery

Before pressing play on the DVD player last Wednesday, the student at the front of Kennedy Union Ballroom prepared the audience for what was yet to come.

“Just a warning: this video contains graphic content,” she said. “If it makes you uncomfortable, feel free to leave.”

The dark images projected on the screen for the next hour stood in stark contrast to the sweet smell of the clementine the student next to me was peeling.

The movie, Cargo: Innocence Lost, and the one shown in the same room a day earlier, was sponsored by Human Rights Week and covered the topic of human sex trafficking — a modern-day form of slavery.

Sex trafficking is a multimillion-dollar industry, creating a market in which humans are the product in demand. Those humans — generally young women and children — are thrust into the world of prostitution through force, fraud or coercion. Traffickers, facilitators and pimps placate the women with false promises of loving care and brighter futures.

A common misconception that both movies debunked is that human trafficking doesn’t occur in the United States. Unfortunately it happens all over the world, with approximately 27 million humans held in slavery at any given time.

The movies advocated not only legal actions to promote change but also education. The average buyer may not realize his “purchase” is being held against her will. The documentary Demand stated if we inform buyers that they’re contributing to human pain, suffering and slavery, demand for the product might cease. Without demand, there’s no need for supply. Without a need for supply, humans will no longer be trafficked and one more form of slavery can be abolished.

Frank Mathias — pro Deo and patria

When, on this Valentine’s Day, after the Mass of Christian Burial for Frank Furlong Mathias, the casket containing his remains reached the doors of Kettering’s St. Albert the Great Church, the white cloth that had been covering it was removed. Placed upon it, after a careful unfolding, was the flag of the United States of America.

Mathias’s role as a soldier was long ago, as a sergeant in the 37th “Buckeye” Infantry Division fighting in the South Pacific during World War II.

The native Kentuckian played many roles in the 86 years of his life.

As a soldier, he was saxophone player and a machine gunner. He became a scholar and a teacher (twice a UD teacher/scholar of the year). He was historian, the author of four books and the contributor to five others. He was a husband, father and grandfather.

Father Paul Vieson, S.M., the celebrant of the Mass and fellow UD historian, put it simply: Frank Furlong Mathias was a gentleman, a man who cut through pretension, a man who on his knees prayed daily to his God.

“Frank,” Vieson said, “has shown us the way to holiness.”

Mathias’s obituary is posted at www.routsong.com.

Live and Forgive

In August 1998, the Congolese government gave orders to gather all of the Tutsis and kill them. Rose Mapendo saw her husband tortured and killed in front of her and was then taken to a death camp with her seven children.

“I made the decision to forgive my captor,” she said. “The day I made the decision to forgive the enemy is the day I survive.”

Mapendo told her story as the keynote speaker at the 2012 University of Dayton Human Rights Week. The audience sat in silence, teary-eyed, listening to her describing the genocide in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Mapendo lived in the Congolese camp for 16 months and while there, found out she was pregnant and gave birth to twins.

As an act of inspiring forgiveness, she named her twins after the guards who had killed her husband. Such naming is a great sign of honor and respect in her culture.

“It was a way I try to save their lives,” she said of naming her children. She also thought the names of her children would tell the soldiers something.

“I [wanted] to give them a message: I am not your enemy,” she said.

Mapendo and her children eventually were granted U.S. citizenship. She was named the United Nation’s 2009 Humanitarian of the Year for her work with Mapendo New Horizons, a nonprofit organization she founded with her brother, Dr. Kigabo Mbazumutima.

“I thank God for this special country,” she said. “I call America, ‘the city of refuge.’”

Her nonprofit provides health and empowerment services to women. “I never planned to do this kind of work, but the experience I have does not allow me to just ignore,” she said.

“There are women suffering beyond understanding,” she said. “That is why we are are here: violence against women.”

Word on the tweet

It was a stormy afternoon last spring when I first met Ed. He was sitting in a shadowy corner of an unnamed coffee shop in downtown Dayton, his face obscured by a pair of oversized glasses and a baseball hat.

I understood his disguise; I am a UD student and he is the anonymous editor of the Twitter account @Fake_FlyerNews.

Since August 2010, Fake_FlyerNews has tweeted witty observations from a student perspective. Known only by a username, @Fake_FlyerNews leaves the man behind the curtain a mystery.

Ed says Fake_FlyerNews has grown to a staff of six, including undergraduate students, graduate students and alumni.

The operation is simple; correspondents keep in touch with Ed, collaborating on the ideas he tweets to his more than 2,000 followers.

“The goal of @Fake_FlyerNews is that it continues to tie people back to the University, whether it be alumni looking back on their shenanigans at college or students in the Darkside reading about their own hijinks,” he says.

Ed abides by a strict code of written standards: no vulgarity or criticism of active administrators and a maximum tweet length of 120 characters for easy retweeting by followers.

A few weeks after I met Ed, I experienced the staff at work. They were gathered around a table in an Applebee’s, splitting an appetizer platter and discussing the future of @Fake_FlyerNews. Tonight’s topic: expansion.

“What do we think about creating a Facebook account?” Ed asked.

The staff was divided. Half were interested in the possible new audience; others were concerned about complicating a simple thing. Everyone was concerned about his or her identity somehow being revealed. Ultimately, the staff voted to stick solely with a Twitter for now.

I pulled aside Newt – the staff member nicknamed because he originally covered only news stories – to ask how he reacted when Ed asked him to join @Fake_FlyerNews.

“I didn’t think I was clever enough, ” he said.

“Are you?” I asked.

“Yes,” he laughed. “But the tweets are few and far between. I think for a long time before putting an idea forth to Ed.”

I asked Newt what it’s like to be an anonymous reporter.

“I’m always amused to see who people think the culprit is,” he said. “It’s amusing they think we’re one brilliant mind.”

Ed has no plans to reveal the identities of the staff because @Fake_FlyerNews represents every student.

“It shouldn’t matter if it’s a roommate, a kid in class, or Dr. Dan,” he says.

I pinky-promised Ed I will keep his secret, but I’ll give you one hint: It’s not Dr. Curran.