Editor: Leighton Bradford, Article Houston LaVida News

TBR - Leighton Bradford, Editor-in-Chief - originally published Houston/La Vida News

Popular culture is ever so reluctant to let Tupac Shakur go despite the death of the entertainer a short time ago. Is there any correlation between his death and the working towards the demise of other leaders? Are Black male leaders being purged from American society, making way for an ideal or premise that coincides with white supremacy?

 During the time of Jesus, a ruler by the name of Herod engaged in what was described as infanticide of male hebrews. Ron Brown (Fmr. Secretary of Commerce), Tupac Shakur, Mickey Leland, El Hajj Malik Shabazz, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Marcus Garvey and Huey Newton are a number of Black men silenced for whatever reason.

What will this become, yet another conspiracy theory? Or will society come to grips with this disturbing trend? Another variable within this equation revolves around the high incarceration and death rate of Black men. How can a scholar or African leader live with the destruction of hope? There also remains the short list of Black men hemmed up over trumped up charges and imprisoned because of it. If only we could see into the past, maybe the future. What would we do? Maybe adjust flaws of character, and bring back Moses? Are any of these acts or actions related? What measures will some take to keep power out of the hands of Africans? Geo-political destabilization of Africa and America may benefit a white supremacist ideal; our old friend divide and conquer rears its ugly head. The aforementioned issues suggest fault--I ask candidly, who is to blame? There is a belief that certain elements within American society are administering policies which seek to destroy or destabilize the American Black male.

Young Blackmen are not being nurtured to hold power. So similar are the tactics of Herod, attuned with the shadowy enemy of a would-be messiah. Is there a direct correlation between a male leader of African descent, and an effort to work towards his demise? In college, some taught the varying aspects of logic, be it deductive  or inductive. Why not borrow from this concept, and begin to look further in what has been suggested. Maybe it's a coincidence that so many Black male leaders have been assualted. W.E. B. Dubois spent his mature years in Accra, Ghana. Dubois may have washed his hands of society's treatment of individuals of African descent. Hopefuly life for young Black men can be productive and prosperous so long as King Herod doesn't get a hold of them. Our current leaders have yet to devise a plan which embraces the young Black male, in an apprentice like posture, preparing them for leadership. So many questions, so few answers--our faith shall respond to all.
 

The first Chinese American woman to fly for the U.S. military.

TBR-  Special To

 By Tech. Sgt Jim Araos, Air Force News Services

Born and raised in Portland, Oregon, Hazel Ying Lee became the first Chinese American woman to earn a pilot’s license and fly for the U.S. military under the Army Air Corps.

Lee’s bravery and service record paved the way to secure military status for women pilots and echoed a legacy of equality and inclusion.

In her youth, Lee had a passion for becoming a pilot. After graduating from high school, she took a job as an elevator operator to earn money for flight lessons. At the age of 19, she joined the Chinese Flying Club of Portland, took flying lessons, and earned her pilot's license.

In 1933, Lee went to China in the hopes of becoming a military pilot. The Chinese air force turned her down because women were not allowed to become pilots. Despite the adversity, she remained in China, working a military desk job and occasionally flying for a commercial airline. When the Second Sino-Japanese War began in 1937, Lee again attempted to join the Chinese air force and was again rejected due to her gender.

Lee returned to the United States in 1938 and worked for the Chinese government in New York as a buyer of war materials.

In the fall of 1942, Lee applied for the Women’s Flying Training Detachment, which later merged with the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron to become the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots or WASP. She began her training at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas, where she learned to fly a variety of military planes. As one of only two Chinese American pilots in the WASP program, Lee relished her role and ethnicity. She enjoyed teaching her fellow WASPs about her Chinese culture and Asian cuisine and even helped her classmates inscribe their nicknames in Chinese characters on their aircraft using red lipstick.

After training in Texas, Lee was stationed at the Air Transport Command’s Romulus Army Air Base, Michigan. While there, she flew in a Boeing-Stearman PT-17, a North American T-6 Texan, and a Boeing C-47 transporting military passengers and cargo. For Lee, flying was a way for her to feel the freedom she didn’t have on the ground. Her passion for flight drove her to pursue a qualification in flying single-engine fighter aircraft, which she earned through a Pursuit School in Brownsville, Texas, in 1944. While there, she familiarized herself with the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, North American P-51 Mustang, and Bell P-63 King Cobra.

Although she achieved a pinnacle of flight prowess, Lee was still often mistakenly seen as a Japanese enemy due to her appearance. During an emergency landing on a Kansas farm, she was chased down by farmers with pitchforks as she was mistaken for a Japanese aggressor. Lee was able to settle the confusion but not before suffering anguish as a result of their prejudice.

In World War II, Lee and other pursuit pilots delivered more than 5,000 fighters to Great Falls, an essential link in supplying Russian allies with planes.

During a routine aircraft transport to Great Falls, Montana, a faulty communication between the air traffic controllers caused Lee’s P-63 to collide with another P-63. She was able to land her damaged and burning plane, but she was severely injured. On Nov. 25, 1944, she died of her injuries. A few days after her death, her family was informed her brother, Victor, was killed in action in France. The two siblings are buried at River View Cemetery in Portland.

River View Cemetery initially refused to bury the siblings alongside white Portlanders, but their sister wrote to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and the cemetery allowed it. Lee was denied military death benefits because the WASPs were considered civilians.

In 1977, after years of fighting for recognition, the WASPs were granted veteran status along with full benefits. In 2010, Lee and the other 1,073 women who served as WASPs received the Congressional Gold Medal.

Lee is now regarded as a local heroine in Portland and recognized by the Department of Defense as the first Chinese American woman to fly for the U.S. military.

Creating parity within international trade with China.

TBR Leighton Bradford Editor-in-Chief

Whenever you’re at home, look around at what might be a manufactured good. Let’s start with your kitchen! Go and pick up any electronic device and find out where it was made? Chances are it was manufactured in China. With the U.S. economy bordering on a historical depression. The Covid-19 pandemic has changed everything associated with life in America. Unemployment and foreclosures are at record highs, the need for financial due diligence becomes apparent. 

China is a declared communist regime! The Nixon administration was credited for opening modern diplomatic relations with the sleeping giant. The inner-city classmate majoring in Chinese, I went to college with, becomes a profound gesture. She had the insight to take advantage of the awakening power of U.S.-Sino relations.  Individuals of African descent are not receiving enough business contracts. An obvious consequence, of an overall maligned trade practice. 

 

Some would denounce creating a more favorable U.S. tariff with China as protectionism! There are elements within the U.S., that consider trade deficits an attack on national security. What if one day China told the U.S. not to pursue an embargo on a terrorist sponsoring nation; at least not until they finalize a trade deal? The Wheeler-Lea Act of 1938 enabled the FTC the ability to suppress unfair trade practices, whether unfair to competitors or consumers. "Trading with the enemy act of Oct.6, 1917"; May be an attributed point of reference as well.

Keeping the American worker gainfully employed should not be a conservative or liberal agenda, but a U.S. agenda. As recent college graduates raise their hand patiently within the opportunity lecture; a cautionary tail arises with proponents of skilled workers afforded work visas, while companies fail to demand efficient HR recruitment practices. Devoid of xenophobia, there are a multitude of highly skilled workers right here in the U.S... Foreign investment affects the average American in so many different ways. China has saturated our country with cheap goods. There is a direct correlation of the wares pricing, and its competitive effect upon U.S. manufacturing. The working-class American is forced to accept low wages associated with the Sino attack on our overall GDP and the U.S. worker.  NAFTA created parity for Mexican citizens, but not blue-collar American workers!  You don't have to fight a conventional war with the U.S., when you can undermine their economy. The rust belt understands the dynamics of a bad trade initiative. When you control how U.S. citizens acquire gas or local services, you undermine mom and pop stores throughout the U.S.  Global trade has to be about trade deals that create parity along all lines. 

NAFTA was detrimental to the U.S. businessman. Should the FTC/SEC collaborate with the State Department and NSA in a more deliberate manner? Further, as it relates to quantifiers of foreign investment, Threat Levels [National Security], and Trade Deficits, which just hit $3.1 trillion? The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services was $616.8 billion in 2019. Imports were $3.1 trillion, and exports were only $2.5 trillion. Globalization will contend with protectionism; until the WTO, and foreign regimes, begin to create parity along all lines of global trade. My former boss comments lend to the aforementioned subject matter,” I started CGI in 2005 to help turn good intentions into real action and results” William J. Clinton, 42^nd President of the United States. Wal-Mart is involved with CGI. Wal-Mart is a company that relies on China for a number of manufacturing goals