The Tribune Online, 54

First Ladies...Saving America

When doing the research for the book about the life and legacy of Tuskegee Airmen, I came across this intriguing story about First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of President Franklin Roosevelt. Mrs. Roosevelt visited the Tuskegee Airfield to witness in person the skills of the black airmen in the "Tuskegee Experiment". Most, if not all of the white politicians, including the ones from Alabama were seizing on the notion that black men as pilots was a failure in the making. I won't delve into the ignorance of these "racist bastards" but suffice it to say, Mrs. Roosevelt demanded to be taken up by one of the airmen in a demonstration flight. When she landed, she all but demanded that the War Department get these men into action...and pronto!! The rest as they say is history.

This story taken from BlackAmericaWeb News by Dorean R. Pugh, Special to BlackAmericaWeb.com, dated Monday, January 24, 2011, shows First Lady Michelle Obama entering the educational battle with this initiative, as quoted:

"The White House has announced an initiative to place a diverse group of 100,000 American students in educational programs in China within the next four years, with an emphasis on increasing the number of historically black college and university students and Latinos studying abroad.

Addressing students last week at Howard's University Cramton Auditorium, First Lady Michelle Obama said the administration's efforts to get [one hundred thousand] U.S. students to study in China had the potential to strengthen the relationship between the two nations.

'I do believe strongly that young people like you can play a vital role in strengthening ties between people and nations all around the world.' Obama said.

The first lady said studying abroad would not only benefit a student's educational experience, but was a necessity to succeed in today's job market."

Healthcare and its worldwide expanse

Shortly after getting out of the Navy, I immediately got back into a college, a local community college out in California. One of my electives was in healthcare along with other courses...I did so well, that I was offered a full scholarship to attend the University of California, San Francisco in the field of pharmacy. When I visited a local pharmacy to get a better perspective of the field, there was this guy standing and typing on a typewriter behind a cage, not even looking up. I decided being a pharmacist was not for me...thus, I turned down the scholarship.

While attending one of my classes one day, I met this young woman who was studying to become an architect, which was not all that odd for she was a licensed carpenter. I asked her why she chose her professional path, and she said all people good in any professional capacity have that certain God-given, innate talent to be good at most other professions as well. I saw what she meant as I got older and wiser working in a number of professional capacities.

I was most recently reminded of this woman, after seeing the talent of those health care professionals assisting the Arizona Congresswoman that was shot in Tucson. They were able to do what they did because of technology from various professions, that were healthcare related including architects and engineers building and designing the structures and equipment to help in saving human lives.

When creating my business in healthcare technology, which I call INFOBUCK's Institute of Healthcare http://infobuck.com/favorite_links.html I knew it would not be limited to healthcare professionals alone in the advice that they would provide, and I also know that this effort to recruit 144,000 consultants around the world would not be limited just to the healthcare professionals, but would need the assistance of others such as marketing professionals http://www.ndgo.net professional engineers http://www.nspe.org manufacturing engineers http://www.sme.org architects http://www.sara-national.org and more professions not listed.

I would advise any young person to look into these various fields in one's educational pursuits, for they are all mightily needed to develop a strong comprehensive team in the much needed healthcare venue.

Assimilation or Selling One's Soul

I just viewed two very interesting films, both available from "Netflix." The first is "I Passed for White" and the second is entitled "Pinky." The stories plot the lives of two black women with white features, that assimilated to escape the curse of racial apartheid in the segregated south, and the profound effects of their outcomes.

What was as interesting in the second story was how some HBCU's (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) may have been brought into existence, resulting from the racial dilemma. Even more relative, is a book about women for whom many public schools in the Mobile County Public School System were named, in order to honor those women and the struggles that all of them both black and white encountered. The book is entitled "In Memory of You, An Educational Legacy" that can be purchased at any Mobile County Public School for a donation of $25.00 or more...for the schools are in dire financial straits. http://infobuck.com/catalog.html