My name is Terry Clarke. I have held many jobs and sat on many commissions throughout my lifetime. I am an environmental attorney and adjunct professor of graduate courses (Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Environmental Ethics, Public Administration), a former prosecutor and prison guard, I am a current member of the City of Ashland (KY) Commission on Human Rights. Although forced to slow down because of health issues, I remain involved in the protection of civil rights, human rights, anti-bullying efforts and Russian Orthodox Christianity.

In addition to English, I speak Russian (high intermediate) and Kazahk (lower than novice level, if such a level exists). I have a wonderful teenage daughter adopted from the Republic of Kazakhstan when she was 18 months old, and in addition to learning and ensuring that she retained her first language, Russian, I have adopted her rich Kazakh heritage and culture and maintain friendships with a number of ethnic Kazakhs, who have humbled me with their efforts to help me keep Milena, my daughter, connected as much as possible (living literally halfway around the world from her motherland) to her ethnic Kazakh roots. She is from the Naiman tribe (ru) and the Middle Horde (zhuz). Apart from her incredible compassion, she is extremely intelligent (obviously as a result of not sharing my DNA–though she and I are so much alike and so close that my wife accuses us of sharing DNA).

Milena went through a terrible ordeal at her former school system, suffering racial slurs and unwanted physical contact by members of her school basketball teammates. Not surprising, in rural Kentucky–at an essentially all white school–politics prevailed and one of her teammates (whose friends were responsible for the majority of her mistreatment) was the daughter of one of the school coaches and the niece of the high school principal. My daughter’s `Genghis Khan” DNA ultimately failed her when not only did the coach (who widely proclaimed Milena the best player on the high school varsity team) began to verbally harass her to the point of tears and when I complained about the racial harassment from her teammates again, the coach, the most arrogantly foolish human I have met outside the prison system, summoned my daughter to her office and told her she “was not good enough” to play on the varsity team, and transferred her to the JV team, where she was a little used reserve. I will cut this decision short, and simply say that after being rebuffed at every level of the school system and contacting the Kentucky Department of Education, with no results I contacted the best Asian American civil rights group in the country, the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, who also was rebuffed. Currently, Milena is thriving at every level at the school to which she transferred, is playing on an “elite team” sponsored by NIKE, up two age groups and is receiving attention from Major NCAA Division I basketball programs, though she has just completed her freshman year of high school. When Milena’s new high school team played the team from the school from which she transferred after her 8th grade year, her new team beat the racist team by 50 points. Currently, both the U.S. Department of Education and Kentucky Commission on Human Rights are actively investigating the “racist” school system from which Milena transferred, even though she no longer attends that school (Thank God)!

Please feel free to contact me at terryclarke@windstream.net or terryclarke@outlook.com, of follow me on Twitter at @terryclarke76.