B4 EZ SU THE WASHINGTON POST.THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 14 , 2019
U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis,
and each time she was promoted.
A World War II veteran in his
90s displays a medal. The camera
lingers on Luria’s gold U.S. Naval
Academy class ring. She grips a
Hebrew bible engraved with her
name that she received in 10th
grade.
The tone shifts and MSNBC
host Rachel Maddow says, “It is
making people sit up and take
notice,” when introducing Luria as
her guest the night the op-ed was
published.
Luria reads the oath she took
when she was sworn into office,but in backward order to empha-
size the meaning of the words, as a
CNN news reel details Trump’s
alleged wrongdoing.
There’s Rudolph W. Giuliani ad-
mitting he asked Ukraine to inves-
tigate Biden, a pro-Trump protest-
er holding an “Impeach Luria”
sign and sun-drenched war me-
morials from across her Virginia
Beach district.
The video ends with Luria
speaking at a town hall in Virginia
Beach in October: “People might
say: ‘Well, why would you do that?
You might not be reelected.’ I don’t
care, because I did the right thing.”
The video is part of a relatively
new fundraising strategy, said
Cayce McCabe of Putnam Part-
ners, who produced the spot and is
Luria’s media consultant. It cost
between $40,000 and $50,000 to
create, he said.
Luria’s campaign spent about
$5,000 to promote her video on
Facebook and Twitter and has re-
ceived donations in the tens of
thousands of dollars.
McCabe created one of the most
talked-about videos of the 2018
election, “Doors,” for M.J. Hegar,
an Air Force combat veteran who
lost her Texas congressional race
and is now running for Senate. It
was viewed 5 million times and
helped her raise $5 million, he
said.
McCabe’s partner and firm
founder Mark Putnam made viral
videos for Amy McGrath, a retired
Marine lieutenant colonel who
lost a Kentucky congressional race
and is challenging Senate Majori-
ty Leader Mitch McConnell
(R-Ky.), and former CIA officer Val-
erie Plame, who is running for
Congress in New Mexico.
Luria’s video was inspired in
part by reversible poems that can
be read forward and backward,
McCabe said.
“I wanted the words of the oath
to be the message,” he said.
[email protected]porters. Republican candidates
have begun to line up to run
against her in a swing district
Trump won by five points.
But there’s little reason to think
Trump voters will be swayed by
Luria’s video, said Mark Rozell,
dean of George Mason Universi-
ty’s Schar School of Policy and
Government.
“There has not been a signifi-
cant amount of movement among
Trump supporters over the course
of his presidency,” he said. “It’s
risky politically, but she knows
that. I think she looked in to her
heart of hearts and decided there’s
something much bigger at stake
here than her own political surviv-
al.”
She faces challenges from Re-
publican Ben Loyola, a retired
Navy captain and defense contrac-
tor who ran unsuccessfully for the
seat in 2010, and lesser-known
candidates Andy Baan and
Jarome Bell. Other GOP candi-
dates are also expected to join the
race for the nomination, which
will be decided by a primary.
Trump campaign spokeswom-
an Samantha Cotten said the con-
gresswoman “no longer cares
about representing Virginians in
Washington” and “broke her cam-
paign promises to become a pup-
pet of Nancy Pelosi and the social-
ist squad” because she supports
the “baseless impeachment cha-
rade.”
LURIA FROM B1 A former Navy commander, Lu-
ria was one of the first-time Demo-
cratic candidates who unseated
Republicans in 2018 to help Dem-
ocrats win control of the House.
She is one of several congress-
women with national security
backgrounds who co-wrote an op-
ed declaring their support for an
impeachment inquiry, following
the revelations about Trump’s
phone call to the Ukrainian presi-
dent. The next day, House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) emerged
from a closed-door meeting with
Democrats to announce a formal
impeachment inquiry.
Luria has defended her deci-
sion on TV and in town halls, but
she decided a video was the best
way to explain herself to her con-
stituents, many of whom have tak-
en the oath themselves.
It’s about “not being afraid to
own the fact that this is what I
believe,” Luria said in an inter-
view. “I believe that we’re doing
the right thing. I may be more
forward-leaning than some of my
colleagues in talking about it, but I
truly think it’s the right thing.”
Luria said she believes the pres-
ident violated his oath when he
solicited the help of the Ukrainian
president to investigate Joe
Biden’s son Hunter and withheld
aid from a U.S. ally that depended
on it. That put national security at
risk, she said.
The video begins with Luria
reciting the oath she first took at
age 17 when she enrolled in the
Video is Luria’s
attempt to deflect
Republican attacks
in New York City from 1946 until
1982.
It returned to Baltimore in 1988
after a few years dormant in New
York and Virginia, and volunteers
spent the next two years renovat-
ing it to make it seaworthy once
more.
The Liberty ships, often known
as the workhorses of the war,
could carry up to 500 soldiers and
9,000 tons of cargo. During dock-
side visits and cruises in the Ches-
apeake Bay, the John W. Brown
now educates the public about the
vital role of the wartime American
Merchant Marine, Naval Armed
Guard and shipbuilders, which
were all unheralded yet key con-
tributors to the Allies’ victory.
The ship is “is an important live
artifact,” said Alan Walden, a
member of the board of Historic
Ships in Baltimore, a group with
stewardship of the Coast Guard
cutter Taney, the USS Constella-
tion and the USS Torsk submarine.
“The loss of that kind of an
artifact is truly a dreadful idea, as
far as I’m concerned,” Waldensaid. “We have to maintain our
connection to the past or we really
have no idea what our future is
going to be.”
Tom Watson, the president of
the Propeller Club of Baltimore,
one of Project Liberty Ship’s top
sponsors, said he had not heard
about the upcoming expiration of
the ship’s berthing lease but
planned to raise it with the club’s
board, which includes members
who work in and around the port.
“We do our best to help whenev-
er we can,” he said.
The John W. Brown is among
the final remnants of Baltimore’s
contributions to the nation’s
World War II effort, said Joseph
Abel, the research historian at the
Baltimore Museum of Industry.
The crane that stands over the
museum’s building was used to
build hundreds of Liberty ships.
“That’s all that’s left,” Abel said.
“These are literally the vessels that
supplied the war effort in Europe
and Asia. This is a tangible piece of
Baltimore’s World War II history.”
— Baltimore SunPARKER MICHELS-BOYCE FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
U.S. Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Va.) appears in a video called “Oath,” which lays out her support for
impeachment proceedings. The video has been viewed 1.8 million times since its release on Veterans
Day. In an image from the video, Luria holds the Hebrew bible that she received in 10th grade.MICHELLE LURIABY NICK ANDERSON
Virginia Tech plans to launch a
biomedical research facility in
the District by early 2021, focused
on pediatric health, in a venture
with Children’s National Hospi-
tal that will expand the universi-
ty’s presence in the capital re-
gion.
The collaboration, announced
Thursday, will establish four or
five Virginia Tech research teams
on a campus Children’s National
is developing at the site of what
was once the Walter Reed Army
Medical Center in Northwest
Washington.
The university expects tospend $5 million to $10 million to
establish the teams and laborato-
ries in a 12,000-square-foot space
that officials said will be ready in
late 2020 or early 2021. Virginia
Tech will hire new faculty for the
initiative. It expects the research
will draw students from its medi-
cal school and biomedical re-
search institute in Roanoke and
the main campus in Blacksburg.
Kurt Newman, the hospital’s
president and chief executive,
hailed the partnership as an ad-
vance for the project, called the
Children’s National Research &
Innovation Campus. “Together,
we can really jump forward,” he
said.The Army medical center that
had been on Georgia Avenue
closed in 2011 in a reorganization
of the region’s military medical
facilities. The Children’s National
campus will occupy a 12-acre
portion of the old Walter Reed
site.
Michael J. Friedlander, vice
president for health sciences and
technology at Virginia Tech, said
the “singular focus” of the univer-
sity’s D.C. research center will be
on cancers of the brain and ner-
vous system that afflict children.
“We think it’s an honor,” he said.
“We’re extremely excited.”
Virginia Tech, a public univer-
sity with about 36,000 students,is based more than 200 miles
southwest of Washington. But it
has been raising its profile in the
capital region. The university is
developing a graduate campus
for technological innovation in
Alexandria, a $1 billion project
intended to complement the ar-
rival nearby of an Amazon head-
quarters in Arlington.
Virginia Tech President Timo-
thy D. Sands said in a statement
the partnership with Children’s
National fits Virginia Tech’s am-
bition “to solve big problems and
create new opportunities in Vir-
ginia and D.C. through educa-
tion, technology and research.”
[email protected]THE REGIONVirginia Tech to establish research facility in D.C.
and giving passionate testimony
about the importance of the holy
day, which marks the end of the
fasting month of Ramadan.
“This is a wonderful compro-
mise,” said Zainab Chaudry, direc-
tor of Maryland outreach for the
Council on American-Islamic Re-
lations, a civil liberties and advo-
cacy organization. “It would give
flexibility to local school boards,
based on whether they are giving
students the day off for the Eid
holiday.”
Montgomery’s school board
voted in late October to notify the
College Board of the potential
conflict between AP testing and
the Muslim holiday, and to ask
that no exams be held on Eid
al-Fitr.
School board vice president Pa-
tricia O’Neill, who had proposed
writing the letter, lauded the Col-
lege Board decision.
“We live in a global society and
we need to be culturally respon-
sive,” she said. “This was an issue
not just for Montgomery County
but for Muslim students across
the country.”
The Council on American-
Islamic Relations also sent the
College Board a letter asking that
AP exams not be scheduled on the
religious holiday.
Chaudry said her organization
spoke with College Board officials
Wednesday, describing the con-
versation as cordial and respect-
MUSLIM FROM B1 ful. The organization was told the
College Board would create a dis-
tinct exam for each testing day,
she said.
“We appreciate their commit-
ment to inclusivity and diversity
and their flexibility in trying to
accommodate school districts
that are giving the day off for the
Eid holiday for tens of thousands
of Muslim students,” she said.
Montgomery’s school board is
expected to vote on a 2020-2021
calendar in early December. At a
meeting Tuesday, the board dis-
cussed calendar issues broadly,
and Muslim parents, students
and advocates made their case
again.
Schools are closed in Mont-
gomery County on the Jewish
holidays of Rosh Hashanah and
Yom Kippur — a decision officials
say was first made in the 1970s
because of high levels of absen-
teeism.
In keeping with state law,
schools are closed on Christian
holidays, including Christmas
and Good Friday.
For years, Muslim advocates
had pressed to have a day off
when one of their faith’s two ma-
jor holy days fell on a school day.
Montgomery school officials say
by law they cannot close schools
specifically for religious reasons.
The school board voted in 2015
to schedule a professional day on
Eid in 2016.
Elsewhere in Maryland, school
systems in Howard and Balti-
more counties recently voted to
place a professional day on the
Eid holiday in 2020-2021, so that
students can be off. In New York,
schools have given a day off on Eid
holy days since 2015.
Adileh Sharieff, a parent and a
trustee at the Islamic Center of
Maryland, a mosque in Gaithers-
burg, said the College Board ac-
tion reflects a growing inclusivity
and acceptance of different faiths.
“That they are willing to listen
and accommodate, that’s huge,”
she said.
[email protected]
College Board will add
AP testing day to resolve
Muslim holy day overlap
“This was an issue not
just for Montgomery
County but for Muslim
students across the
country.”
Patricia O’Neill,
school board vice presidentestimated last year. Neither option
is off the table, but Basciano
doesn’t have an exact fundraising
goal. She’s holding out hope that
someone will offer the ship a deal
or a political connection.“Maybe somebody can work
something out with us,” Basciano
said. “We really want to get the word
out in hopes that a contact we didn’t
think of comes out of the woods.”
Named for a union leader, the
John W. Brown was built in less
than two months and launched on
Sept. 7, 1942. After more than a
dozen wartime voyages, the ship
served as a maritime high school“Maybe somebody can
work something out
with us.”
Capt. Alaina Basciano, on the effort
to rehome the S.S. John W. Brown,
whose mooring lease is expiringBY COLIN CAMPBELL
Capt. Alaina Basciano calls the
SS John W. Brown “Baltimore’s
best-kept secret.”
The 440-foot, gray-hulled Lib-
erty ship was one of hundreds
launched from the city’s Bethle-
hem Steel Fairfield Shipyard amid
a frenzied American shipbuilding
effort that dispatched thousands
of the vessels carrying supplies,
then troops to Europe and Asia
during World War II. Now a float-
ing museum and historic cruise
vessel, it is one of only two fully
operational Liberty ships left in
the country.
But its time in its home port
might be coming to an end.
The ship’s lease agreement for
free mooring in Canton — which
Rukert Terminals has extended
since purchasing the pier from the
state for $2 million in 2014 —
expires at the end of the year.
Rukert allowed the John W.
Brown to move from Pier 1 near
Clinton Street, where it had been
docked for about 30 years, to nearby
Pier C last year to give officials more
time to find a permanent home.
But the ship will have to leave
the city in January if one cannot be
found, Basciano said.
The private port operator has
been flexible with its 77-year-old
tenant, but its desire to put its
property to other use is “totally
understandable,” Basciano said.
Rukert Terminals did not re-
spond to a request for comment.
Project Liberty Ship, the non-
profit organization that restored
and maintains the ship, has spent
the past few years looking for al-
ternatives that would keep it in
Baltimore, Basciano said. But the
city has fewer than a dozen com-
mercial piers large enough to ac-
commodate it.
“Is this it? We sure hope not,”
Basciano said. “Our ultimate goal
is to stay in Baltimore.”
Buying a pier could cost mil-
lions, and leasing one could cost
up to $15,000 a month, officialsMARYLANDRare Liberty ship faces loss of its Baltimore home
JERRY JACKSON/BALTIMORE SUN
The Liberty ship John W. Brown in Baltimore, where it was produced in a surge of U.S. shipbuilding
for the Allied effort in World War II. It is one of only two functional Liberty ships left in the country.DONATE YOUR CAR
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