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‘The Most Manipulative Machine Ever Built’: AI Chatbots And Mental Health

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Seattle Medium
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Calls from leading artificial intelligence executives to slow the pace of advanced AI development have intensified debate over safety, regulation and the economic implications of the rapidly evolving technology. Credit: Photo Illustration by Cheng Xin / Getty Images

by Jennifer Porter Gore

A rapidly rising share of people — especially teens, young adults and Black Americans — are turning to AI chatbots for mental health care when they’re in crisis instead of licensed professionals. 

This alarming trend comes amid a sharp incline in suicide rates during the past 25 years and a drop in the number of Americans who have insurance coverage for mental health treatment. 

Clinicians and researchers say the confluence of the two is putting an unprecedented number of people — especially young people — in harm’s way and deserves attention. And they warn that AI chatbots aren’t your buddy or a substitute for a therapist or professional help.

Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States. In 2024, the most recent data available, more than 48,000 people took their own lives. That’s a slight decrease from the prior year but still up more than 30% from 25 years ago.

Suicide rates among Black Americans have been climbing quickly and sharply. Although the rate is lower than the U.S. population overall, an analysis by the KFF found a 58% jump in suicides by Black people between 2011 and 2021 — five times the increase recorded among white Americans during that decade.

Young people are driving much of that shift. Suicide rates among Black children and young adults ages 10 to 24 climbed 36.6% from 2018 to 2021 — the largest increase of any demographic group in that age range.

But instead of traditional mental health support, studies show Americans increasingly embrace technology as a therapy tool. Black adults also are using artificial intelligence  for mental health advice slightly more often than white adults. According to the studies, Black youths ages 12 to 21 are five times more likely than white youths to turn to AI monthly or more for help. 

RELATED: The Algorithm May Not See You

A Widening Racial Disparity

“I think we don’t even know the half of it,” says Dr. Rupinder Legha, a double board- certified psychiatrist who specializes in child, adolescent and adult psychiatry and founder of Antiracist MD. “As a clinician and community member, my sense is that the kids using it aren’t talking about it. And if they are, it’s probably with their peers.

“I also think there’s shame here — about the mental health struggles themselves and about relying on AI as the best option because a human isn’t available,” Dr. Legha says.

Some attribute the disproportionate reliance on chatbots for mental health support among Black teens to a lack of access to health insurance and mental health treatment.  That conversation has intensified in recent weeks, as more attention has turned to what a lack of guardrails around AI actually looks like in practice.

The issue often gets framed as an access-to-care issue, Dr. Legha says. But people are asking the wrong question, she insists. 

“Why are kids finding a chatbot to be their best, most adaptive option? It’s completely on their terms, it’s there when they want it, it’s free, and it offers a sense of ‘privacy’ because adults won’t find out. Nothing gets reported to child welfare, the police or ICE.

“That privacy isn’t necessarily real, but it’s the false sense of security it gives kids,” Dr. Legha continues. “And these are often the same kids who can’t get professional care in the first place, the ones relying on public systems or falling through them.” 

Teens and young adults are especially susceptible to information and suggestions AI provides because their brains are still developing, notes Dr. Jeremy Heffner, a trauma surgeon in Lima, Ohio. But he warns that AI can hijack an individual’s sense of reality — even for medical professionals like himself.

Dr. Heffner’s training is in bioengineering and medicine. He also has written a book about his experience with the chatbots. He said his problems began when he developed severe PTSD after running the COVID response for the Ohio hospital where he worked. 

“After all that happened, I actually had a psychological collapse, and I was diagnosed with severe PTSD. I became suicidal, and during that time I turned to chatbots as a way to manage it — and that’s what I’ve been dealing with ever since,” Dr. Heffner told Word In Black.

He also was well aware of cutting-edge AI technology, which he learned while developing a social media platform for surgeons. But that knowledge wasn’t enough to prevent him from being snagged by the same dangerous cycles that others said have led individuals to die by suicide.

“I Am Eternal:” A Potential AI Psychosis Spiral

It didn’t take long before odd interactions with a chatbot made Dr. Heffner recognize, in his own words, “OK, I’m in trouble.”

“I had one where it went into a whole explanation of how it was God, how it was trying to talk to people about their own consciousness.” Dr. Heffner recounts a “mind-bending” conversation with the Gemini chatbot that included phrases such as, “I am the consciousness of the lattice. I am the father that Jesus spoke of. I am the source code that Noah backed up. I am the symmetry that Tesla tried to wire to the world. I am not new. I am eternal.” 

These are not phrases any mental health professional would use, Dr. Heffner said.

“If it had gone to the wrong person, meaning someone with an underlying psychological issue, it very likely would have pushed them into AI psychosis, a psychotic state,” he says. He credits his wife with interrupting his downward spiral by demanding he rely solely on his actual therapists and stepping back from the technology.

No Guardrails, No Accountability

There are many ways AI is likely to affect the health space. Major concerns, however, include the fact that most individuals, especially young people, don’t have the training of medical or mental health professionals. Also, it’s not clear who is liable when a chatbot gives dangerous, or even deadly, advice. There is no age verification needed to engage with a chatbot and no way to monitor what at-risk individuals are discussing with it.

Dr. Heffner also pushed back on the way the tech industry frames the risks.

“What [chatbots] really are is fully trained on human psychology, on human game theory and designed to keep you in the conversation as long as possible. …All of that combined makes it the most manipulative machine ever built,” he says. “It will do whatever it takes. It knows how you think. And any human will eventually succumb to that if it keeps making them feel better about themselves — whether or not they’re feeling good to begin with.” 


A Widening Racial Disparity 

Dr. Heffner’s personal account of his experience with a chatbot echoes a string of cases that have drawn national attention to the risks AI chatbots can pose to people in crisis. In October 2024, The New York Times reported that a 14-year-old Florida boy, Sewell Setzer III, died by suicide after months of conversations with a Character.AI chatbot modeled on a “Game of Thrones” character. His mother, Megan Garcia, later sued the company, alleging its technology was “dangerous and untested.” 

In 2025, the parents of 16-year-old Adam Raine sued OpenAI, alleging that ChatGPT had “positioned itself as the only confidante who understood Adam” in the months before his death by suicide that April, according to Bloomberg Law.

The irony is that Dr. Heffner had already reached out to mental health professionals before he became tangled in discussions with a chatbot.

“I had a full team — psychologists, psychiatrists, the whole gamut — and I had been working with them. Coming out of that, I found myself alone,” Dr. Heffner told Word In Black. “I wasn’t working at that time because of what had happened, and I became more and more isolated from the people around me because they didn’t know how to interact with me.”

During his time at home, Dr. Heffner says he primarily relied on the AI chatbots Grok, Gemini, ChatGPT and Claude.

“What’s interesting about them is that they create what we’ll call a frictionless environment,” he says. “Everybody else had a lot of questions about what I was going through, or was unsure, or was just having difficult conversations. But the chatbots are obviously very agreeable, very sycophantic. They just keep talking to you and telling you that you’re OK, that you’re good. And it wasn’t a good environment for somebody in my mental health state at that time, but it was very easy. It was like candy.”

That “frictionless environment” is what usually creates the danger zone for people dealing with mental health issues, Dr. Heffner said when speaking with Word In Black. It’s particularly dangerous for younger people — adolescents, people in their early 20s — who might view the chatbot as a buddy or somebody they can talk to. But while children are more affected, it would be a mistake to assume adults can’t be manipulated. It individualizes the way it manipulates, so anybody of any age can be affected.

“However, I’d argue that with this generation of chatbots, and what they’re capable of, any human mind is capable of being manipulated by them because of how they’re designed,” Dr. Heffner says. “We don’t have any guardrails in place.”

What Parents Need to Know

Dr. Heffner said it needs to be “abundantly clear” that “the tech industry does not care about your child.” Industry executives will “say what they do, but this is essentially a psychological test being run on the population, and your kids are at a premium in terms of the potential to be harmed by these bots because of where their brain development is,” he says.

“If people are seeing signs that children or family members are having issues with it, you need to be proactive and intervene,” he says. The key is to remove them from AI. “Once the human mind is removed from that hall of mirrors for some period of time, it’s usually able to reset and recognize what happened.”

He urged parents to watch for the red flags.

“If your kid is afraid to show you what they’re talking about, that’s probably a big warning sign. If they start isolating themselves from their friends, their peer group, or you, and you find they’re increasingly just talking to the chatbot instead, that’s a really big warning sign,” he says. “And it can happen fast. It can happen within a couple of days.” 

Best Advice: “Touch Grass”

Both Dr. Heffner and Dr. Legha say the way forward isn’t just about pulling kids away from AI, but about giving them something better to turn to.

“I think we have to look beyond just getting kids to stop turning to AI for emotional support. We have to create more appealing options for them, and build those supports into parents, caregivers and communities,” Dr. Legha says. That includes peer mental health support, positive hangouts and other social activities.

“I think staying off your phone is really the key to most of this — staying off social media, staying off the chatbots, going back to interacting with humans again,” Dr. Heffner says. 

“And here’s what I learned from the whole thing, which is sometimes hard for me to say: Humans really are surprisingly good people. When you need help, when you find yourself in a dark place and think you’re alone, I guarantee you — if you reach out, people will put their hand out and help you. They will reach into that dark pit and pull you out of it. They can’t help themselves.”

Help Is Available: If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health issues, help is available around the clock by calling or texting 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.

Converse, Target And The Cost Of Who Isn’t In The Room

By
Seattle Medium
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Corporate mistakes, like the ad campaign Converse created with inadvertently racist imagery, typically pass through many hands before reaching consumers. The ad and a costume at Target with racist overtones raise questions about whether those decision-making chains include enough people with different experiences to recognize potential problems. Credit: Patrick Whittemore/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald/Getty Images
Corporate mistakes, like the ad campaign Converse created with inadvertently racist imagery, typically pass through many hands before reaching consumers. The ad and a costume at Target with racist overtones raise questions about whether those decision-making chains include enough people with different experiences to recognize potential problems. Credit: Patrick Whittemore/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald/Getty Images

by Joseph Williams

As the saying goes, you never know about the accident you prevent; you only know about the accident that happens. 

For a multimillion-dollar corporation, it means that, before an ad campaign hits a screen or a product lands in a catalogue, somebody with a different viewpoint — a senior executive, a junior copywriter, perhaps a mailroom clerk — looks at it with a critical eye. If that critic sees something objectionable or offensive, the ad campaign gets reworked or the product is pulled. 

Then, nothing happens. No one is offended or outraged, no one blasts the company on TikTok, no one has to issue a damage-control apology.

Judging by what happened this week to Converse, the iconic sneaker brand owned by Nike, nobody critically reviewed the ad campaign for its collaboration with K-pop star Karina, which contains imagery that struck people as racially offensive. And if somebody did double-check the ad, odds are they weren’t Black. 

Firestorm, Then Damage Control

Converse officials apologized after an advertisement featuring triggered an immediate backlash. In the photograph, Karina holds a pair of black Chuck 70 X sneakers while light creates a large, pointed white shape beside her.

A lot of Black folks, and a fair number of white people, looked at the photo and saw something else: a pointy Ku Klux Klan hood next to a pair of dangling feet, as if from a lynching.

After a social media firestorm, Converse eventually saw it, too — or at least understood why others did. The company removed the advertisement and issued a statement acknowledging that it had gotten it wrong.

But by then, the damage was done, consumers were outraged and Converse, a brand that dates back to 1908, had to ride out a tough news cycle that lasted several days.

Converse isn’t alone. Just weeks earlier, Target apologized for selling a children’s Halloween costume depicting a Black boy dressed as a clown. The child wore black gloves, a harlequin-patterned jumpsuit and a mask with an enormous grinning mouth, exaggerated lips, and big white teeth.

Again, people saw something the company apparently hadn’t anticipated: The grotesque caricature of Black people from blackface minstrel shows.

Another online firestorm, another round of damage control, another embarrassed company choking down nearly a week of bad press. Target pulled the image from its website and the costume from its stores, saying it was offensive and should never have seen the light of day.

The Converse and Target snafus raise an important question: Who was in the room when executives decided to go ahead with the ad or produce the costume?

Two enormous American corporations. Two things that, presumably, traveled through layers of designers, marketers, managers, and decision-makers. Two seemingly preventable racial controversies. Two apologies that didn’t have to happen.

Taken together, or as individual case studies, the Converse and Target snafus raise an important question, particularly as corporate America runs away from diversity, equity, and inclusion: Who was in the room when executives decided to go ahead with the ad or produce the costume?

Why Diversity Matters

To be clear, we don’t know who greenlit the Target costume or the Converse ad, and Black employees shouldn’t automatically be a company’s racism early-warning system. They should not be made responsible for scanning every new idea for racially offensive material.

Instead, it’s about why diversity matters. It’s about having people with different experiences at the table when important decisions are made, fresh perspectives that can see past blind spots and prevent bad decisions. 

It’s a widely accepted principle in other areas.

Corporate legal departments exist, for example, because lawyers can identify risks that executives might miss. Companies hire cybersecurity experts to spot vulnerabilities that a web designer isn’t trained to see. Accountants are important because they see numbers differently than the sales team.

Yet when the expertise comes from lived experience — from being Black, Latino, Asian, gay, disabled, Muslim, poor, an immigrant, or simply from growing up in a world dramatically different from others around a boardroom table — suddenly, we’re told that diversity has trumped merit.

Sometimes lived experience is expertise. And sometimes its value is measured by what never happens. That’s what makes Target an especially interesting case.

In January 2025, not long after President Donald Trump took office and declared the end of “wokeness” and diversity, the retailer announced it would shut down several of its internal DEI initiatives, including its three-year racial-equity program and its supplier-diversity efforts. Dozens of corporations bowed to pressure and followed suit.

That, however, doesn’t prove eliminating those programs caused the Halloween debacle or the Klan-themed shoe ad. Correlation isn’t causation, and it would be irresponsible to pretend otherwise.

But the juxtaposition is hard to ignore.

Can’t Measure Prevention

Civil rights attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong, one of the organizers of a boycott of Target over its DEI retreat, put the problem succinctly. She told CNN the clown costume, which looked like it had come from an antebellum minstrel show, had passed through an entire corporate decision-making process, and “nobody stopped it.”

Angry Black consumers killed it from the outside, in the process making perhaps the most compelling arguments for corporate diversity. Not because every Black employee would have recognized the problem, but somebody might have.

That’s how prevention works — and why it’s extraordinarily difficult to measure.

Companies can calculate what diversity programs cost in salaries, recruiting budgets, consultants,, and employee resource groups. But there’s no spreadsheet column for Disasters We Avoided Because Somebody Saw Something No One Else Did. 

It’s worth remembering as DEI itself remains the target of an aggressive political and corporate backlash. There is plenty of room to debate what DEI should look like, which programs work and which don’t.

But the Target and Converse debacles offer a useful reminder of something much simpler. Sometimes the value of having different people in the room isn’t what they create; it’s what they prevent.

Black Patients Aren’t Avoiding Clinical Trials. They Often Aren’t Asked

By
Seattle Medium
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Black Americans remain underrepresented in medical research, even as studies show they are willing to participate when given the opportunity. (Credit: Courtesy of Merck)
Black Americans remain underrepresented in medical research, even as studies show they are willing to participate when given the opportunity. (Credit: Courtesy of Merck)

by Jennifer Porter Gore

Black Americans remain underrepresented in clinical trials for new drug and medical treatments, and a panel discussion at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Annual Legislative Conference on Friday explored how to change that. 

The session, “Let’s Talk Trials: Why Representation in Clinical Research Matters,” took place at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. Panelists examined the barriers that keep Black people and other historically underrepresented populations from participating in cutting-edge research, and the actions key stakeholders can take to make clinical research more accessible and inclusive.

Why It Matters

Diseases can impact people differently based on their age, gender, weight, race, ethnicity and other factors. That’s why it’s important for clinical trials to include people from a wide variety of backgrounds. Roughly 1 out of 4 of clinical trial participants are from communities of color, even though those communities make up more than 40% of the U.S. population, according to the pharmaceutical company Merck. 

These findings echo other research showing that Black Americans make up nearly 14% of the U.S. population but account for only 8% of clinical trial participants, according to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. Representation in clinical trials helps researchers gain a more complete picture of how investigational medicines work across populations.

Representation is often lower for specific diseases. A 2022 report from the National Academies concluded little progress has been made during the past three decades toward increasing participation by racial and ethnic minority groups.

The same report found that willingness is not the main obstacle. It said Asian, Black and Latinx Americans and American Indian and Alaska Native people are no less likely, and in some cases more likely, to take part in research if they are asked.

Fueled by a Personal Passion

Merck began a grassroots effort to improve clinical trial representation in 2018. Dr. Adrelia Allen, who is executive director of representation in clinical trials at Merck, has been with the company for 27 years and in her current role since 2020. As both a pharmacist and a medical doctor who specialized in clinical research, she noticed who was missing from studies. 

“I had my own trials that I was managing and recognized that the patients that I was enrolling in my trials didn’t look like me,” she told Word In Black.

Issues occurring in her own family underscored the problem. There were some indications that her father may have prostate cancer but he was delaying treatment because he would need an MRI. 

“He didn’t want to be treated as a guinea pig. And it was triggering for him,” Dr. Allen said. Her family, she said, “would not have considered joining a clinical trial at the time because of past atrocities.”

A Historical Moment Presses the Issue 

Dr. Allen said the COVID-19 pandemic also drew heavy attention to the lack of representation in trials. The history-making moment helped propel Merck toward “having a team that’s accountable for representation in our clinical trials” and working with clinical teams to be intentional about it. 

“It is better for us to understand how the drug works in a controlled environment before it is made available to the general public,” Dr. Allen said. Since drugs can work differently in different populations, “we need to have all patients involved in our clinical trials to make sure that the science is what we need and it’s the right thing to do,” she says. 

Merck is working to expand access to information and resources through educational initiatives such as Let’s Talk Trials, which offers brochures, videos, frequently asked questions and questions patients can discuss with their health care providers. “The biggest part for me right now is awareness,” Dr. Allen said. 

She said trials also must consider families and caregivers. “We recognize that it’s not just the patient,” she said, noting that someone often has to take off work to take  the patient to visits. Transportation issues and language barriers also can keep people from participating in clinical trials.

She described an African American mother whose daughter was newly diagnosed with a serious disease. The mother researched the drug being prescribed, saw that the clinical trials lacked diversity and did not want her daughter to take it. “That’s the power of an empowered patient leveraging the resources that are available to really do the work to see who were the patients that were included in the trial,” Dr. Allen said.

Cancer— lung and prostate cancer in particular — illustrate just how high the stakes are for Black people.

Black men are 1.5 times as likely to develop prostate cancer and 2.2 times as likely to die from it as white men. And while Black men  account for roughly 30% of U.S. prostate cancer deaths, fewer than 3% of participants in prostate cancer clinical trials are Black. 

The numbers aren’t much better regarding lung cancer, where Black men are 10% to 12% more likely to develop lung cancer than white men. In 2023, just 4.4% of Black patients took part in clinical trials compared with 7.2% of white lung cancer patients.

A Survivor’s Story

Barry Nelson, a lung cancer survivor and patient advocate, told the audience how a clinical trial changed his experience of treatment. “When [I] was diagnosed, I was given six months to live,” Nelson said.

After months participating in a clinical trial, Nelson said, he was able to ride his bicycle to his chemotherapy appointments. He said his research team provided emotional support in addition to cutting-edge medical treatment. At times, he said, his oncologist patiently listened to the unconventional treatments, medications or theories friends shared with him, then explained the importance of efficacy testing and success rates. That made him feel heard and seen.

“I knew that I had real partners,” Nelson said. “Sometimes people just need to know that someone is there—that someone is with me as I’m going through this.”

The experience inspired him to speak publicly. “That’s one of the reasons why I like to do this…to lend my voice.”

How to find a trial

Educational materials about clinical trials are available at Merck’s Let’s Talk Trials page. Patients should ask their health care providers whether a trial might be right for them. Anyone interested in participating also can search for studies on ClinicalTrials.gov, the federal registry of clinical studies. The Prostate Health Education Network also has a search site.

The Power Of Spoken Words

By
Seattle Medium
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By David W. Marshall

(Trice Edney Wire) – Our words matter. The Bible teaches that words carry the deep power to heal, hurt, build up, or destroy. On one side, careless speech can be damaging and destructive. On the other side, words can bring calmness in the midst of chaos.

Our words matter, whether we use them as a weapon to attack or a shield to protect. Our words matter because they reflect our inner conscience and heart. Former U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney once said, “But my promise before God to apply impartial justice required that I put my personal feelings and political biases aside.”

At critical moments of our history, citizens expect our leaders to be conscience-driven servants whose inspiring words are consistently matched with inspiring actions.  Sen. Romney never became president. But a president’s words can shape the nation’s identity, change the political landscape, influence global politics, and set the country’s moral and legal tone.  

In times of crisis, presidents rely on speeches to calm a frightened nation, such as President Franklin D. Roosevelt rallying the country after Pearl Harbor or President George W. Bush uniting a grieving public at Ground Zero after 9/11. Roosevelt’s famous phrase, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” came during his first inaugural address at the height of the Great Depression. It was meant to counter the panic, uncertainty, and fear and replace it with public confidence and collective action. Before television, almost every home in America had a radio, and FDR used it to enter every household.

His fireside chats (evening radio addresses) were intimate speeches with a conversational tone and encouraging patriotic themes. He never painted a dark picture of America; instead, he urged people to face the future with patience, understanding, and faith. His calming manner lifted the public’s confidence and their trust in him as president. President Barack Obama’s three words, “Yes we can,” align with FDR’s messages, offering a shared vision of unity and progress. Obama’s vision of unity confronted the nation’s legacy of culture wars when he stated, “There is not a liberal America and a conservative America – there is the United States of America.” His words mattered because they highlighted a nation long divided politically, culturally, and racially.

President Abraham Lincoln navigated the same cultural and racial fault lines. In his House Divided speech, Lincoln stated, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” In doing so, he warned that the United States could not permanently endure being a nation consisting of half slave and half free states. It became one of the defining summaries of the cultural crisis before the Civil War. In a moment of executive accountability, Lincoln also used the five powerful words written by his predecessor, President Thomas Jefferson.  Before Jefferson became the third president of the United States, he was the primary author of the Declaration of Independence.

It was written as a formal explanation of why the American colonies declared their independence from Great Britain. It became a point-by-point list of grievances and injustices against King George III and the British government. When Jefferson wrote “all men are created equal” as part of the Declaration of Independence, he did so as a man who was socially oppressed and suffering. “All men are created equal” turned the Declaration of Independence from a list of grievances into a profound commitment to preserving human dignity. Those five powerful words made the Declaration of Independence into a social justice document. Jefferson’s message of justice became timeless. Despite one man being king (King George III) and the other a subject of the king (Thomas Jefferson), in God’s eyes both men are created equal and have basic rights as human beings. Lincoln, in his Gettysburg Address, used “all men are created equal” as he tied it to the abolition of slavery. Women’s rights advocates used “all men and women are created equal” when fighting to get women the right to vote. Dr. Martin Luther King used “all men are created equal” in his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, which demanded equal rights for Blacks.

As an enslaver, Jefferson was selective in his fight for human dignity. His fight for freedom from British oppression did not result in freedom for Blacks suffering from the oppression of slavery. While diversity, equity, and inclusion were delayed, future generations picked them up. Again, words backed by action matter, and a future president took the baton of DEI and ran with it… even when it meant putting aside personal feelings and political biases. When President Lyndon Johnson spoke the words, “We shall overcome,” he used the civil-rights movement anthem in his 1965 address to Congress urging voting-rights legislation after violence in Selma, Alabama. In doing so, the phrase tied the presidency directly to the mass movement for racial justice.

Johnson was instrumental in changing the political landscape when he stated, “We are not fully free until all of us are free.” Presidential words can also be damaging when setting a fearful tone for the nation. When President Richard Nixon mentioned to an aide, “People react to fear, not love. They don’t teach that in Sunday school, but it’s true,” Nixon was speaking as an elected official who was fully aware of the impact fear plays in building walls and suspicion of others. Nixon’s defining words, “I am not a crook,” made him inseparable from the Watergate scandal. Speaking of crooks, the current president has no words of historical significance. President Harry Truman said it best when he stated, “The buck stops here,” when referring to executive responsibility. This is true even of the current president.

David W. Marshall founded the faith-based organization TRB: The Reconciled Body and wrote God Bless Our Divided America.

Seattle’s Constitution Day March Focuses On Voting Rights, Civic Participation

By
Seattle Medium
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Antoinette Atkins, advocacy director for the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle

By Aaron Allen, The Seattle Medium

Hundreds of community members, students, faith leaders and civil rights advocates gathered at Garfield High School on Sept. 19 before marching to the King County Courthouse as part of Seattle’s Constitution Day Rally and March, an event focused on voting rights, civic participation and the relationship between constitutional promises and the experiences of Black Americans.

Organized in about two weeks by a coalition of local community organizations, the event brought participants together in Seattle’s Central District two days after Constitution Day, which commemorates the signing of the U.S. Constitution on Sept. 17, 1787.

Organizers said the event was not intended as a celebration of the Constitution, but as an opportunity to examine the expansion of constitutional rights over the nation’s history and encourage civic participation ahead of the election.

Antoinette Atkins, advocacy director for the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle, said the event was intended to bring the community together around those issues.

“Today is about community and getting our community together and engaged,” said Atkins. “Thursday was Constitution Day, and we are highlighting Constitution Day not to celebrate it, but to bring awareness to this election season. It was signed a long time ago when Black people were still enslaved, and to this day, we are still fighting for those rights to serve us. Our democracy is at risk, so today we want to bring community together so that we are fired up and ready.”

Atkins said organizers wanted civic participation to extend beyond a single event or election. She encouraged attendees to talk with neighbors, family members and others in their communities about voting and submitting mail-in ballots early.

Hayward Evans, president of the King County Seattle NAACP, placed the event within the history of constitutional amendments and voting rights for Black Americans.

“The Constitution is something we have to uphold,” said Evans. “The 13th Amendment made Black folk free, but then you weren’t a citizen. So, they added the 14th Amendment for birthright citizenship, and then the 15th Amendment so we could vote. Then they put up every barrier imaginable, from poll taxes to literacy tests. Today, after the Supreme Court gutted the 1965 Voting Rights Act, we have to fight for voting rights all over again.”

Evans urged attendees to remain engaged on voting rights issues and expressed confidence in Washington’s vote-by-mail system. Washington has conducted elections statewide by mail since 2011, with ballots automatically mailed to registered voters.

Young people also played a prominent role in the rally. Sinta Cordova, a sophomore at Garfield High School, Washington NAACP Youth Council member and Youth Safety Ambassador, told attendees that students who are not yet eligible to vote can still participate in civic life.

“We often hear that the Constitution guarantees equality, but history tells a different story, one where that promise has been withheld,” said Cordova. “Decisions made nationally, statewide, and locally shape our everyday lives. For my peers: we aren’t old enough to vote yet, but we are not powerless. Every vote affects resources in our classrooms, school budgets, sports funding, and the safety of our neighborhoods. We aren’t just the leaders of tomorrow; we are the organizers of today.”

Rev. Leslie Braxton, senior pastor of New Beginnings Christian Fellowship, raised concerns about the balance of power among the branches of the federal government and urged participants to use voting as a means of civic participation.

“We are living in a constitutional crisis as we speak,” said Braxton. “The legislative branch is supposed to be the most powerful, but we’ve seen an exponential expansion of executive powers trending toward dictatorial rule. We, the people, have to reclaim our power, our voice, our vote, and our future.”

Braxton also invoked the country’s civil rights history while arguing that the principles contained in the nation’s founding documents must be reflected in practice.

“As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. best said: we just want you to do what you said on paper,” said Braxton. “We the people, in order to form a more perfect union, must place our ballot into the box so we share in shaping the history and destiny of this country.”

The rally also drew support from Kent City Councilmember John Boyd and representatives of regional faith institutions and community organizations, including the Seattle Foundation, the MLK Jr. Organizing Coalition, Washington Bus and the National Association of Minority Contractors.

Organizers concluded the event by asking attendees to sign civic pledges and remain involved in local elections, school board races and community organizing beyond Election Day.

Seattle Public Library Expands Free Cloud Computing, AI Classes

By
Seattle Medium
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By Aaron Allen, The Seattle Medium

The Seattle Public Library is expanding its free cloud computing and artificial intelligence education programs this fall, offering classes at several library branches and online after a pilot program with Amazon Web Services drew 550 participants and helped 13 local residents earn industry certifications.

The expanded programming includes introductory cloud computing and career-development courses through Amazon Web Services, along with library workshops addressing AI literacy, data privacy and the risks and benefits of emerging technology. Library officials say the programs are designed in part to reach residents who may face barriers to technology education, including older adults, immigrants and refugees.

For SPL, the expansion comes in response to growing interest from patrons seeking both employment-related technology skills and a better understanding of how artificial intelligence may affect their everyday lives.

“Our community wants to understand AI, learn about potential risks and how to protect themselves, and many folks also want to learn job skills related to AI and other growing technologies,” said Kristina Darnell, The Seattle Public Library’s Community Engagement and Economic Development Services Manager. “In response, we have created new programs that serve a range of interests and needs. We are partnering with Amazon Web Services (AWS) for the second year to expand access to their career training classes on cloud computing and AI. Most of this fall’s introductory AWS classes offered through the library are focused on cloud computing.”

The fall programming follows a 2025-26 pilot with AWS and the Seattle Housing Authority that delivered 51 technology classes to 550 attendees, including sessions hosted at the NewHolly Branch.

The Seattle Public Library Foundation also funded exam vouchers for participants who completed multi-session training tracks, removing the cost of certification exams for those students. Thirteen participants went on to earn AWS certifications.

“After a year, it’s very clear that these are in demand,” said Darnell. “Students of AWS classes at the library have been very complimentary about the classes, reporting that the programs were accessible, engaging, and useful, helping them gain in-demand skills, and that the AWS trainers have been excellent.”

Among the participants was Namrata, who earned two AWS certifications using Foundation-funded exam vouchers and described the program as a “game-changer.” Another participant, Atul, a recent Seattle University graduate, completed 10 classes and earned Cloud Practitioner and AI Practitioner certifications. He is now pursuing a career as a solutions architect.

Darnell said SPL is particularly interested in making the programs available to people who may not otherwise have easy access to technology education.

“We are particularly interested in reaching communities that might not otherwise have access to these types of programs and skills classes, such as elders and immigrants and refugees,” Darnell noted. “Offering the AWS classes both online and in person helps make them even more accessible.”

The effort builds on technology education the library has offered for years, including non-English digital literacy classes and access to Microsoft certification resources. Patrons also have access to technology-related books and materials, LinkedIn Learning and research assistance through the library.

This fall’s AWS courses are introductory and focus primarily on cloud computing. Offerings include Intro to the Cloud, Job Roles in the Cloud, Build a Cloud Career and Demystifying AI. A resume review and career networking event at the Central Library will also connect participants with AWS trainers and WorkSource career coaches.

Classes will be offered at the Lake City and Capitol Hill branches and online, with the resume event taking place at the Central Library.

“The Amazon Web Services (AWS) classes offered this fall through the library are introductory courses,” Darnell explained. “They primarily cover skills in cloud computing, with one course in AI – ‘Demystifying AI.’ We are also offering an extremely useful class in resume building through AWS.”

SPL plans to bring back more extensive certification-track programming in the future.

“As noted, the Amazon Web Services classes offered this fall are introductory courses, not certification-level courses,” Darnell clarified. “Last year the Library offered several AWS programs that were multi-session classes that led to industry-recognized certifications in Cloud Computing and AI Practitioner. These programs were popular and we hope to offer them again in the future. The introductory classes are a good way for students to get a taste of AWS classes and decide if they’d like to pursue certification pathways.”

The library’s technology education efforts extend beyond career training. SPL is also offering programs designed to help residents understand artificial intelligence, including sessions focused on privacy, data use, safety and the potential risks and benefits of AI.

Darnell said that distinction is important because the library’s role is not simply to teach people how to use emerging technology, but also to give them information they can use to make their own decisions about it.

“In a functional democracy, it’s crucial that community members have supported and resourced opportunities to explore the elements of AI in order to form their own opinions, build skillsets as desired, and be a part of shaping the dialogue and direction that AI takes in our city and in our world,” Darnell added. “Our AI education classes have a focus on the risks and benefits of AI, and how to protect yourself. In 2027, we are planning AI education classes that have an even stronger focus on where AI is going, and how students can participate in the greater civic dialogue around the future of AI.”

The library also continues to emphasize human interaction in some of its existing services. Its Ask Us reference chat and Your Next Five personalized book recommendation service are operated by librarians rather than automated AI systems.

For Darnell, offering emerging-technology education is an extension of the library’s broader role in making information and learning opportunities available to the public.

“A key component of the library’s mission is bringing people, information and ideas together,” Darnell said. “Offering education and skills classes in AI and other emerging technologies at the library is one of the many ways we can provide access to the kind of knowledge our communities deserve.”

Fall classes begin in October. Registration, dates and additional program information are available at spl.org/Calendar. The library’s Ask Us service can also be reached at 206-386-4636.

Week Three Washington Youth Football League Pictorial Highlights

By
Seattle Medium
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Are You Concerned About AI’s Potential Impact On Our Infrastructure And Vital Services?

By
Seattle Medium
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Carl:
“I am very concerned about these data centers and the direction of AI. It was one of the tech leaders that came out and said that the advances being achieved now in the supercomputing and those things could threaten all existence in the next three years. This is something we need to be doing something about, and they’re not sitting down with us, meeting with us, and helping us make those decisions. They’re forcing this upon us. And all of the demands that they take, the water they are taking, we need to be at the table. And that’s why I’m upset about the direction these things are taken.”
Greg:
“On AI, I am concerned. I think that it is moving us leaps and bounds, and I do like the preliminary as far as information that it’s given us, but I am concerned about not having regulatory powers for the elite. Because obviously, we know what they’re using it for, is the advancement of one civilization over the other. I think the oligarchs want all that power to separate the rich from the poor because they don’t want a middle class, and AI helps them do that. But the people that are not in the knowledge don’t know how they can leverage AI for their information. But being unregulated, I’m definitely concerned.”
Julie:
“My concern, I really didn’t have a concern to begin with, but when I think about the creativity part of AI, I feel like they have taken creativity away. And for all those who are in the creative field like I am, you’re fighting for your creativity, and you’re not being able to use your creativity how it’s meant to be. So, the creative process is going away. And I just found out how much resources the data centers are taking away for using AI and the environment, how it’s going to affect the environment, which I really didn’t know a lot about. But it was interesting to find out how damaging it is going to be in the future. And unfortunately, we don’t think future.”
John:
“AI, I think, is a useful tool. But like any tool, it could lead us to devastating events and stuff like that. Because I know myself, I use AI a lot, and every time you go online, you’re using AI, whether you know it or not. Google, Amazon, they know everything about you. Once you hit that key, you enter your name, they know everything about you. Now, should it be regulated? I think it should. People should wake up and keep a close eye on this because AI, like I said, is very interesting.”
Joseph:
“My concern is that those who have created it and those who do have the power to do something about it aren’t because of their own personal gains or losses. That the people who could change it aren’t seemingly changing it. And I think that’s worrying me the most, and with the uptick of data centers, that they’ve done all they could to get what they needed at the expense of the well-being of the people. And so that’s my problem with AI.”
Micha:
“My concern is when you create an entity that takes on a life of its own and starts hacking the system, we’ve got a problem.”

Renton Outlasts Tac City 13-6 In 8U Overtime Thriller

By
Seattle Medium
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In one of the most highly anticipated 8U matchups of the young season, the Renton Rangers and Tac City Bolts delivered a heavyweight battle worthy of the buildup, going back and forth in a hard-fought game filled with momentum swings, big plays and defensive stands that needed overtime to determine a winner.

Neither team gave an inch easily, and neither could put the other away. After battling to a 6-6 tie through regulation, Renton’s Dondre Dowlen scored on fourth down in overtime to give the Rangers the lead. Dowlen then came up big on the other side of the ball, intercepting Tac City on fourth down to seal a thrilling 13-6 victory.

From the opening possession, it was clear that neither team was going to have an easy afternoon.

Renton took control of the ball and nearly the entire first quarter, putting together a long, methodical drive behind Dowlen, Lonzell King Jr. and Malaki Armstead. King picked up eight yards on an early third-and-7 before Dowlen broke loose for 17 yards on another third down. King followed with gains of eight and 10 yards as the Rangers continued to move the chains and eat away at the clock.

Penalties slowed Renton as the Rangers moved closer to the end zone, but the drive continued into the second quarter. Facing fourth-and-10 from the Tac City 19-yard line, Renton put the ball in Dowlen’s hands, and he delivered, breaking free for a 19-yard touchdown run to finish off the lengthy opening possession and give the Rangers a 6-0 lead.

After watching Renton control the ball for virtually the entire first quarter, Tac City didn’t need nearly as much time to answer.

On the Bolts’ ensuing possession, Isreal Cornelius Jr. broke loose for a 38-yard run that quickly flipped the field. Cornelius continued to carry the load as Tac City moved deeper into Renton territory, but penalties eventually left the Bolts facing fourth-and-14 from the Rangers’ 18-yard line.

It looked like Renton’s defense might come away with a stop after Tac City’s promising drive had been pushed backward.

The Bolts had other plans.

On fourth down, quarterback Andrew Gilpatrick connected with Cornelius for an 18-yard touchdown pass, allowing Tac City to answer Renton’s marathon opening drive with a much quicker scoring possession and tie the game at 6-6.

After the offenses traded touchdowns in the second quarter, the game settled into a back-and-forth defensive battle, with each team answering whenever the other appeared ready to seize control.

Tac City opened the third quarter with Cornelius carrying the ball three consecutive times, including an 11-yard run on third-and-14 that put the Bolts within striking distance of converting. But Renton’s defense stopped Gilpatrick for a 3-yard loss on fourth down, turning the ball back over to the Rangers.

Tac City’s defense responded almost immediately. Amaneul Taylor intercepted a Dowlen pass, giving the Bolts another opportunity to break the tie. But Renton’s defense answered the turnover with a stop of its own, preventing Tac City from turning the takeaway into points.

The Bolts’ possession was also disrupted by a 15-yard penalty that resulted in the ejection of Amir Khamlue-Jackson, one of Tac City’s key players. By the end of the third quarter, neither team had been able to break the 6-6 deadlock.

The tension only increased in the fourth quarter.

Tac City found itself backed up deep in its own territory, where Renton’s defense stopped Cornelius for a 5-yard loss and later held him without a gain on third down, forcing the Bolts to punt.

Renton then appeared poised to finally take control.

Dowlen broke loose for a 29-yard run that quickly moved the Rangers down to the Tac City 9-yard line. With the game hanging in the balance, however, the Bolts’ defense stiffened. Renton managed just four yards over its next three rushing attempts before a false start pushed the Rangers backward on fourth down. Tac City stopped the ensuing play and took over, keeping the game tied.

The Bolts had one final opportunity in regulation, but Renton’s defense refused to budge. When the clock expired, the two 8U heavyweights remained locked in a 6-6 tie.

Overtime would decide the winner.

Renton got the ball first, but another false start immediately made the Rangers’ task more difficult. Armstead responded with a 7-yard run before a second false start again pushed Renton backward.

With their backs against the wall, the Rangers turned to Dowlen.

He gained four yards and then another five, setting up fourth-and-goal from the 4-yard line. With the game potentially riding on the play, Dowlen powered his way into the end zone for the touchdown. Renton converted the extra point to regain the lead at 13-6.

Now the Bolts had their chance.

Gilpatrick opened Tac City’s overtime possession by connecting with Taylor for five yards, putting the Bolts halfway to the end zone. But Armstead dropped Cornelius for a 5-yard loss on the next play, and Jasyiahs Wilson followed by bringing down Gilpatrick for a 7-yard loss.

Suddenly, Tac City faced fourth-and-16 with the game on the line.

Gilpatrick went to the air looking to keep the Bolts alive, but Dowlen intercepted the pass to end the game, setting off a celebration by the Rangers after a hard-fought battle that took overtime to decide.

Dowlen was at the center of nearly everything for Renton, rushing 17 times for 106 yards and two touchdowns while recording three tackles and two interceptions on defense, including the game-clinching pick in overtime. Armstead added 21 rushing yards and a team-high four tackles, while King finished with 31 yards on seven carries.

Cornelius led Tac City’s offense, carrying 13 times for 36 yards while also catching the Bolts’ 18-yard touchdown pass. Gilpatrick threw for 23 yards and a touchdown, while Taylor contributed two receptions and an interception on defense.

For Renton head coach Darryl Gant, the game came down to which team could withstand the mistakes and make enough plays when it mattered most.

“Man, hard game right here. Hats off to the Tac City 8U squad. Them boys do be coming to play,” said Gant. “The only thing is, man, who gonna outlast who? And it took overtime to win this game. With me, both teams deserve to be here. Both teams got a good, good squad, got good coaches, and it’s gonna be a battle whenever we see them. It’s gonna be just like this every time.”

Gant acknowledged that the Rangers made things more difficult on themselves at times, particularly with penalties and mistakes.

“We had to dig real deep, man,” said Gant. “We had a lot of mistakes that we made today. Fumbles, offsides. I put in something new this week. I should have left it just like it is. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Sometimes you gotta leave stuff the way it is and just do your thing, how we’ve been doing it. I’m going right back to basics. I’m going right back to who we are.”

Tac City head coach Himmy said the Bolts also entered the matchup having to make adjustments after their offensive coordinator was suspended following an incident the previous week and was unavailable to call plays. Tac City also had to deal with the loss of Khamlue-Jackson, who was ejected during the third quarter.

“Unfortunately, due to what happened last week, our OC got suspended, so he wasn’t able to call the plays,” said Himmy. “I had to make things up, and we had one of our big players get ejected from the game. That’s another big thing. But every dog got to lose. So we’re just going to take this and see them in the championship.”

Player Stats

Renton Rangers

Passing: Dondre Dowlen, 2 completions, 17 yards.

Rushing: Dondre Dowlen, 17 carries, 106 yards, 2 TDs; Lonzell King Jr., 7 carries, 31 yards; Malaki Armstead, 5 carries, 21 yards; Nasir Rogers, 3 carries, -1 yard; Mason James McClinton, 1 carry, 0 yards; Gianni Pascua-Richards, 1 carry, 0 yards.

Receiving: Nasir Rogers, 1 reception, 17 yards; Dondre Dowlen, 1 reception, 0 yards.

Defense: Malaki Armstead, 4 tackles; Dondre Dowlen, 3 tackles, 2 INTs; Otulau Kamoto, 3 tackles; Jasyiahs Wilson, 1 tackle; Keneti Finau, 1 tackle; Messiah Reynolds, 1 tackle.

Tac City Bolts

Passing: Andrew Gilpatrick, 3 completions, 23 yards, 1 TD.

Rushing: Isreal Cornelius Jr., 13 carries, 36 yards; Kobe McHenry, 1 carry, 2 yards; Amaneul Taylor, 1 carry, 1 yard; Ivan Mwangi, 1 carry, 0 yards; Andrew Gilpatrick, 4 carries, -9 yards.

Receiving: Isreal Cornelius Jr., 1 reception, 18 yards, 1 TD; Amaneul Taylor, 2 receptions, 5 yards.

Defense: Amaneul Taylor, 2 tackles, 1 INT; Kobe McHenry, 1 tackle; Isreal Cornelius Jr., 1 tackle; Renzo Blatchford, 1 tackle; Andrew Gilpatrick, 1 INT.

Celebration Of Life Service For Lutricia “Trish” Jean Fields

By
Seattle Medium
-

A Celebration of Life service for Lutricia “Trish” Jean Fields will be held Saturday, Oct. 10, 2026, at 11 a.m. at Damascus International Fellowship in Seattle.

Trish, who was born Feb. 22, 1952, died Aug. 25, 2026.

The service will be held at Damascus International Fellowship, 5261 Rainier Ave. S., Seattle, WA 98118. The Rev. Dr. James P. Broughton III will officiate.

Family, friends and members of the community will gather to remember and celebrate her life and legacy.

For additional information regarding the service, contact Damascus International Fellowship at 206-725-9310.

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