NJ Gets New Civil Rights Division Director

Only three weeks on the job and completely invested in the fight against discrimination in the Garden State. That's New Jersey's new Civil Rights Director Craig Sashihara.

This week he's promoting a newly launched outreach to veteran's to inform them of their civil rights when it comes to the work place discrimination. He told me that many Veterans and active-duty Military personnel don't know that they can't be fired or demoted and removed from promotional consideration simply because they're absent from work while fulfilling their service obligations.

When asked if he knew of instances of discrimination? Sashihara says he has no examples because the Military community is silent about it. He says "here's the thing, we don't get many cases from active-military personnel and that was one of the things that made us want to go out and reach out to them." So, apparently members of the Greatest Generation and the new Iraqi and Afghanistan Vets are reluctant to talk or complain about Civil Rights violations.

Sashihara's concern took a personal turn when he told me that his father was a decorated Korean War Veteran who received a Bronze Star and his nephew, a Central Jersey native, was a Marine for four years who served in Iraq. He told me his Father didn't talk to the family about his military service and it wasn't until recently, when he told him about the Civil Right's initiative, that he learned about his military decoration.

So why don't veterans talk about their service? Maybe someone can shed some light.