Headline News and Top Stories in a single police-action thriller!

In Shades of Fear, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Detective Colt Jessup meets the most urgent and complex assignment of his career; find a serial killer before the sociopath kills again. Having found no apparent pattern in the murders of four disparate people with no links between them, the Feds take control of the investigation. Colt is his usual combative self battling the Feds to keep his team of detectives on the investigation while trying to improve relations with his ex-wife. Several powerful characters appear in this page-turner and help bring into sharp focus headline news seen every day by Colt—and all of us. Susan Mills Wilson, with skill and panache, has Colt and her characters engage with witnesses and suspects affected by matters like: mixing of religious and political beliefs, American domestic terrorism, alcoholism, PTSD, Islamophobia, nationalism, white supremacy, and more societal issues of our time—straight out of the headlines. In Shades of Fear, Susan entertains with a blockbuster that will be the “talk-of-the-town” for a long time. Read Shades of Fear and join the conversation!

https://bobrogers.biz/elementor-2486/

Bob’s Newsletter: Wednesday, 26 August 2020

“The past is omnipresent.” –Bob Rogers

Women’s Equality Day and the United States Postal Service

Women’s Equality Day

Today, some folks in the United States will observe “Women’s Equality Day.” I am saluting the twin continuing struggles for suffrage and pay equity for women. Though I am sharing materials written mostly by women with you that I have “uncovered” (tripped over) while researching other histories, I found 19^th, 20^th, and 21^st Century men who have participated in seeking equity for women.

Beginning in 1980, I joined the fray on behalf of the only and star female performer on my staff (read: best, número uno). A time-worn expression may apply to this subject: “Progress has been made.” I would add that significant work is still needed to close equity gaps.

Enough from me already—before I start on U.S. Soccer. Here are a handful of sources for your understanding and further exploration of the issues:

• Time Magazine (History)
• Yale University (History)
• Forbes (Compare the earnings of Jorge and Jasmine)
• UN Women (“I am Generation Equality: Realizing Women’s Rights.”)

Delivering the Mail

At age nine or ten, among my first letters were ones to the Lone Ranger and Captain Midnight fan clubs in the 1950s. During the days and weeks that followed, I stood beside the street at the appointed hour waiting for our mail carrier. In his kind way, he would patiently ask me to be patient. When my secret decoder arrived from Captain Midnight, our mail carrier was all grins celebrating with me the arrival of that important piece of mail.

As the United States Postal Service has saluted women important to progress in American history, I salute the women and men of USPS.

You can get your FREE copy of the colorful pictorial history of USPS from my website. While you are visiting my website, you are also invited to download the FREE one-page mail delivery story I wrote based on a two-sentence 1867 historical footnote that caught my eye. The story title is Duty Called.

Take a few minutes and share with me your earliest memory of the women and men of USPS or pay inequity.

Until the next time, do all the good you can for all the people you can.

At age 23 in 1966, I was a freshly minted US Army second lieutenant. I had completed the armor officer’s basic course at Fort Knox and qualified at Fort Hood with state-of-the-art tank weapons. When my first army exercises proved successful, I thought I was ready – really ready. I volunteered for an assignment to any armored or cavalry unit serving in Vietnam.

Early in 1967, after administrative delays and travel to Saigon to Pleiku to Tuy Hoa, I, at last, took command of 1^st Platoon, Troop A, 1^st Squadron, 10^th Cavalry. Minutes after reporting for duty with the troop commander, before I even drew a weapon, the first sergeant, a white southerner, called me aside. “Sir, do you know the story of the 10^th?”

“No, First Sergeant. I first heard of the 10^th just days ago.”

I was about to learn that the army was more than weapons and tactics. When the first sergeant handed me mimeographed pages of homework, my army education began – again!

I had no idea that I had just assumed command in a one-hundred-one-year old cavalry unit and that the 10^th was one of two all-black cavalry regiments authorized by Congress in 1866 – the Buffalo Soldiers!

What?

But, wait. There’s more.

In 1877, the first black man to graduate from the US Military Academy at West Point was assigned to Company A, 10^th Cavalry. Lieutenant Henry O. Flipper, a former slave, served the 10^th for five years. Though a “history buff,” I knew none of this – not in my high school or college books. All I knew was the famous 7^th Cavalry from the movies.

By the time I was promoted to captain and in an airborne assignment, I had all but laid my cavalry heritage aside. During an army project with IBM, I was made an offer I couldn’t refuse; I left the army for a career in IT.

Decades passed before my interest in the Buffalo Soldiers was rekindled. A chance encounter at a shopping center with a retired sergeant brought back memories. The sergeant invited me to a meeting of retirees, including Brigadier General George Price. We formed the Baltimore Chapter of the 9^th and 10^th (Horse) Cavalry Association.

Before the Internet became a thing, one received sales flyers via snail mail. The noted artist-historian, Don Stivers, sent me a flyer announcing the release of his painting titled: “Proud to Serve.” In Don’s painting, a black soldier leads a saddled cavalry horse. Admiring the flyer, I said, to no one in particular, “Someone should write his story.” Across the room, my wife said, “Why don’t you write it?” Not realizing that she had heard me, my jaw dropped. Huh? Me? The chemistry major, turned soldier, turned IT-guy?

For guidance, I enrolled in creative writing at the University of Maryland. Two lessons emerged that shaped First Dark. As expected, I learned the basics of the craft. A learning bonus emerged when I presented a chapter to classmates. I was not ready for this challenge: “Your story is totally unrealistic. Everybody knows slaves can’t think. So, how could one be a blacksmith – much less plan an escape?”

Wait…

What?

Another jaw-dropping experience…

Upon hearing that “revelation,” I scrapped my “Buffalo Soldier only story” idea. Instead, First Dark would begin during slavery – two years before the end of America’s Uncivil War and three years before the Buffalo Soldiers. To chip away at the ignorance that I thought existed in the population, as confirmed by my classmates, I added needed context of the times: enslaved life, the black codes, the violence of the Reconstruction era, and westward expansion. That meant including characters (non-fictional and fictional) who were Native American, Mexican, European American, and African American. It also meant interviews with their descendants who are now farmers, museum curators, librarians, professors, historians, authors, and business owners – plus, digesting many history books and hundreds of 19th-century hand-written documents and personal letters.

While the book entertains as an adventure and love epic, First Dark is historically correct; written to help educate Americans about our shared past. Acclaim for First Dark has come from Reader’s Favorite, Kirkus, The Baltimore Post-Examiner, and readers. Spin-offs include Lieutenant Flipper’s Trial – The Play, and the novel, The Laced Chameleon.

Don Stivers’ painting, “Proud to Serve,” adorns the cover of First Dark: A Buffalo Soldier’s Story – Sesquicentennial Edition.

Defeat Fake News –“Friend” a Librarian!

Where are the “facts?”  It appears that in a “postfact” epoch, there may be cause to question the need for

assistance for stalwarts who seek “real facts.”  Perhaps it is time to add Reference Librarians to the shrinking list of neutral purveyors of truth and make our way to our local library.  Boldly walk where too few walk today, face the Reference Desk and ask directions to the facts on a wide range of topics–from multinational trade deals to climate change, from robot-assisted manufacturing to four decades of declining wages suffered by the 99%.  At the Reference Desk, it may be appropriate to use a line from television’s Dragnet character, Sergeant Joe Friday, “All we want are the facts, ma’am.”

“Friend” and support your local library by donating through the library’s Friends organization, or by volunteering, or do both.  Here are examples of Friends in action at two libraries in Georgia and North Carolina.  Find a “Friends of the Library” group where you live.

Charlotte, North Carolina:  The Friends Council began in 1982 as the Friends of

the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting the Library through grassroots advocacy and fundraising.  In 2013, the Friends of the Library joined the newly-formed Charlotte Mecklenburg Library Foundation and became the Friends Council. With the new name came an expanded role: To engage broad community support for the Library through community awareness and fundraising events as part of the Foundation’s overall strategic plan.

Decatur, Georgia:  The purposes of the Friends of the Decatur Public Library are charitable, literary and educational. These purposes are:

• to develop activities that focus public attention on library service, programs and collections
• to encourage financial support of libraries
• to be actively interested in all cultural and educational aspects of the community
• and to give support to the Friends of the Library at national, state and local levels.

Know more from the American Library Association…  Competencies for Reference Librarians

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