At the age of 16 years old, Tammera L. Holmes was introduced to the world of Aviation by the Tuskegee Airmen Inc., (TAI) Young Eagles Program sponsored by the Chicago DODO Chapter. That day she took her first flight and it was a life-changing experience for her. She decided then to pursue a career in Aviation. Later enrolled at Southern Illinois University, she majored in Aviation Flight/Management and Spanish. After only 4 weeks of flight training, she was one of the first in her class of over 200 students to solo. She graduated from SIU having completed both the Spanish and Aviation Programs in only four and a half years. She began her professional aviation career in 2001 by assuming employment with Landrum & Brown, one of the nation’s leading Aviation Consulting Firms. In 2008, she launched AeroStar Corporation to pave the way for tomorrow’s leading organizations both within and outside of the Aviation Industry. All of AeroStar’s programs exist with the vision to enhance, promote, and support the academic awareness of aviation and aeronautical career path opportunities for students, particularly female, minority, underprivileged, and at-risk youth. By providing aviation academic curriculum development, programs, activities, and support services for youth Grades K-12, interested in Science, Technology, Engineering & Math, AeroStar has paved the way for the future of our industry. Ms. Holmes has volunteered countless hours as a motivational speaker addressing the topics ranging from careers in aviation to successful leadership and management.

Kenyatta Scott is the self-published author of The Violet Book Series, a morally based children’s book series that builds self-esteem in children and works to combat the mass stereotype that fathers are not present in communities of children of color. The book series was featured on WCIU-TV for black history month as a book series that celebrates cultural diversity and inclusion. Kenyatta is a Chicago native, born and raised on the South Side of Chicago. She attended Morgan Park High School, U.I.C., and Yale University. Her M.A. is in I-O Psychology, from Adler School of Professional Psychology. Kenyatta is the Executive Director of The Violet Foundation, NFP, and supports equal access to high-quality education for all. “Violet Takes Flight” is the 4th book in The Violet Book Series and the 1st collaborative book in the series. In 2005, Ms. Holmes was featured in a publication dedicated to the City of Chicago’s Dynamic Women in Aviation.

Longtime friends, Kenyatta wanted to share one of the books with Tammera, not only as a collaborator from her Violet Book Series “VIOLET TAKES FLIGHT”, but also with the intent to give a portion of proceeds to AeroStar Avion Institute NFP! Kenyatta also surprised her friend with not only an acknowledgment the back cover of the book but also for the pilot to be illustrated in Tammera’s likeness as a tribute. The two women are working together to build self-esteem in black children and combatting the mass stereotype that black fathers are not present in the home while also enhancing, promoting, and supporting academic awareness of aviation and aeronautical career path opportunities specifically for black students.

 Nicci: Can you tell me about the book?

Kenyatta Scott: Violet and her little brother, Derek, are flying on a plane to visit their Step-Mommy, with Daddy. Violet is afraid. She meets a special person in her day that talks to her about “doing it afraid”.

Tammera: This book for me was more than a tool to teach about overcoming fear. It is an opportunity to show children that success is oftentimes just on the other side of something that they must overcome; even the success of becoming a pilot.

I don’t want to give away the storyline so I will ask that you not only buy the book ut follow the ladies here!

AeroStar Avion Institute

http://aerostarcorp.com

The Violet Book Series

https://www.thevioletbookseries.com

The Aunt Becky story finally comes to a grossly inadequate close. Two months of prison time (which will likely be reduced to some sort of shorter house arrest given covid), a $150,000 fine, 100 hours of community service. Her husband Mossimo Giannulli got five months of jail time, a $250,000 fine, and 250 hours of community service. Both also received two years of “supervised release,” which I guess is probation. This, after the couple brazenly pleaded “not guilty” for the longest time. From a brief CNN article, it seems like the prosecution erred in delaying the release of some exculpatory evidence for months, which apparently tanked their case. 

I think we over-incarcerate nonviolent criminals so while the jail time is extremely unfair compared to sentences received by BIPOC for lesser crimes, I’m not going to opine here. Plenty of discussion on that exists. I’m more focused on the other levers: the monetary fines and service hours that should have been multiples of what they were. How much leeway do judges have here? I don’t know, but 100 hours of community service is basically a few weeks of volunteering—it’s nothing. Why not at least two years of community service to make it transformative and meaningful? Not like either of these two goons will have a day job any time soon. Aren’t criminal sentences supposed to be partly about rehabilitation? 

The money: their crime was a function of their privilege, so a proper sentence could have chipped away at that privilege. The couple paid at least $500,000 for Rick Singer’s services, and yet their combined financial penalty totaled only $400,000. Why not make the monetary fine equivalent to a small endowment to fund full scholarships at USC for the two slots they stole for their daughters? Ballpark estimate: it’s a $2 million fine. These are people of means—use those means to undo some of the harm. 

I feel like monetary fines are vastly underutilized in white collar crime sentencing. If we agree that significant jail time essentially destroys a convicted criminal’s life (and that of the criminal’s family), the monetary fine, too, should be crippling. I’m thinking of the big banks that settled for all the Great Recession mortgage security frauds. If our criminal justice system refuses to convict white collar criminals, the bank settlements should have been financially devastating then to compensate for the lives they destroyed. Banks should have taken a financial hit large enough to require major restructuring and the killing off entire lines of business. This could have triggered the breaking up of big banks that many have called for. Instead, they, like all people/bastions of privilege, just got a slap on the wrist after promising to do better. 

Remember on Gilmore Girls where Rory steals a yacht because Logan’s dad vaguely insulted her? (I can’t remember if that was the actual cause honestly, but that sounds about right, doesn’t it?) She got no jail time and 300 hours of community service. She raked like two leaves, and it was done. It’s funny because in the show it was painted as a severe punishment, when it is barely even an admonishment in reality. The judge sternly told Rory, “I understand that the defense is presenting this as ‘a childish lark, a youthful indiscretion.’ Well, I take the law very seriously. And if there’s one thing I have very little tolerance for, it’s rich, privileged children viewing the world as their private playground. I don’t care who you are. I don’t care who your family is. When you commit a crime, Miss Gilmore, there must be consequences, period. Twenty hours of community service won’t do it.” In other words, the fictional alternative to Rory’s sentence was not 500 hours (and a steep fine), but 20. She would have raked half a leaf instead of the two she raked on the show. 

It’s an unfair comparison since it’s fiction, but it speaks to how ingrained white privilege is. Hollywood writers know how the justice system works for people with money and power. But with Rory’s 300 hours painted as severely punitive, the privilege of the writers themselves seems clear. They just had no sense of the real consequences that normal/underprivileged people face for even lesser crimes.