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I Believe I Can Touch the Sky: From Poverty to Prosperity in Stories

 

I was born in rural Shelby County, in East Texas, in the 1940s, a time of rigid segregation. Parking in my hometown of 715 people was segregated by race and I went to a separate school where books and desks were hand-me-downs from the town’s white school. The first new textbook I ever laid hands on was a physics textbook in high school when the school district included physics for the first time and had to buy a sufficient quantity for both schools.

     After graduating from high school in 1962, too poor to attend college and refusing to accept the employment available to black people in East Texas at the time, I joined the United States Army to see the world that I’d been introduced to through crinkled pages of old National Geographic magazines.

     In the ensuing fifty-plus years, I rose from the poverty of a small farming town to prosperity, from tending the pigs on our small farm to meeting with kings in their palaces and presidents in their state houses.

     Thanks to the urging of my daughter, Denise Ray-Wickersham, I have finally put down stories from my life in written form—stories that I bored her and her brother with when they were growing up and her children with during the past few years.

     I Believe I Can Touch the Sky: Stories from My Life is not your usual memoir. The focus is not really on me, but on the incidents and events that impacted on me in my life. Short and to the point, much like the novelettes I write, it is a series of stories that stretch back over seven decades. Stories about the famous and infamous, the well-known and the unknown. It is a story of the persistence and patience of a young boy who refused to accept that the pine-covered clay hills were all there was to the world, or that he was limited to what other people said he could do because of the color of his skin.  

    

Available in hardcover, paperback, and Kindle version on Amazon. Get your copy today:

Hardcover:  $15.99  https://www.amazon.com/Believe-Can-Touch-Sky-Stories/dp/B0B2J26KVD/

Paperback:  #$7.99  https://www.amazon.com/Believe-Can-Touch-Sky-Stories/dp/B0B2HQ7KLC/

Kindle version:  $0.99  https://www.amazon.com/Believe-Can-Touch-Sky-Stories-ebook/dp/B0B2QV1BW1/

 

STATEMENT OF THE AMERICAN COLLEGE OF NATIONAL SECURITY LEADERS AS THE INVASION OF UKRAINE BY RUSSIA PASSES THE THREE-MONTH MARK

As a non-partisan organization composed of retired Generals, Admirals, Ambassadors, and Senior Government Executives, and dedicated to promoting policies and measures to ensure the security of the United States, democratic principles, and international peace and prosperity, the American College of National Security Leaders fully supports our Commander-in-Chief’s stated resolve to support “a democratic, independent, sovereign and prosperous Ukraine with the means to deter and defend itself against further aggression,” as articulated in his May 31 “guest essay” in The New York Times. U.S. leadership and collaboration with NATO and, indeed, all of our allies and partners are essential in this effort, as it has now been more than three months since Russia expanded the brutal and unprovoked invasion and occupation of Ukraine—and we must prepare ourselves for the likelihood that this conflict could last many months, if not years. It is important to recall that Russia first invaded Ukraine in 2014 with the annexation of Crimea and the occupation of portions of eastern Ukraine. This conflict did not start in February 2022, rather, this was an escalation of a conflict that has already seen over eight years of violence and repression. Supporting Ukraine is not only the moral thing to do, but it also is in the vital interest of the United States. Russia’s unprovoked attack on Ukraine is also an attack on the rules-based international order that we fought so hard to establish at the end of the Second World War. If Russia’s actions are not met with firm, unified and resolute action from freedom loving nations, other wouldbe aggressors will be emboldened to impose their will on weaker nations. We should take pride in stalwartness of NATO in this effort, remembering that in NATO’s infancy, President Truman termed NATO “a shield against aggression.” The addition of Finland and Sweden, two partner nations, strategically located, who share our values and interests, will significantly strengthen that shield. From a practical aspect, we point out that supporting Ukraine now will save billions (if not trillions) of US taxpayer dollars in the future. We recognize that the current US aid package of over 40 billion dollars is considerable, but this pales in comparison to the price, in lives and money, that United States has borne in previous wars. Let us also not forget that appeasement does not work - it was ineffective in 1938 and again in 2014. Ukraine is not asking us to fight their war, 15 June 2022 they are asking for the tools they need to fight for their own country, their own interests, their own freedom. We also can neither neglect nor forget the second and third order costs of this conflict that will only increase if Russia is allowed to impose its will on its neighbors. The cessation of food exports from Ukraine has resulted in disastrous shortages and exorbitant prices of grain for much of the world, with likely resultant hunger and starvation, especially, in lower income countries. Similarly, severely decreasing energy (petroleum and natural gas) availability yields additional economic and additional humanitarian crises. Hence, Russia’s ongoing war on Ukraine directly threatens the welfare of not only Ukraine, but of the entire planet. We, the undersigned members of the American College of National Security Leaders, are resolute in our belief that the United States has a moral obligation to boldly counter the unprovoked and continuing aggression by Russia against Ukraine. American leadership until this conflict is ended, however how long that takes, is in our strategic interest. Along with our allies, our sustained and unified support is critical. 

Lieutenant General Ronald Blanck, USA (Retired) Vice Admiral Kevin Green, USN (Retired) Vice Admiral Dirk Debbink, USN (Retired) Mr. Bruce Lemkin, former Deputy Under Secretary of the Air Force (International Affairs), SES (Retired) Major General David Burford, USA (Retired) Major General Mari K Eder, USA (Retired) Major General Sanford Holman, USA (Retired) Major General Margaret Woodward, USAF (Retired) Major General Gale Pollock, USA (Retired) Major General Peter Cooke, USA (Retired) Major General Donna Barbisch, USA (Retired) Major General Paul Eaton, USA (Retired) Major General Randy Manner, USA (Retired) Major General Richard Haddad, USA (Retired) Major General Robert Harding USA (Retired) Major General Steven J. Lepper, USAF (Retired) Major General David Zabecki, USA (Retired) Major General Andrew F. Turley, USAF (Retired) Ambassador Gerald Feierstein (Retired) Ambassador Douglas Silliman (Retired) Ambassador Patrick Kennedy (Retired) Ambassador Dennis Jett (Retired) Ambassador Hugo Llorens (Retired) Ambassador Earl Wayne (Retired) Ambassador Glyn Davies (Retired) Ambassador Pamela White (Retired) Ambassador John M. Jones (Retired) Ambassador Kurt Tong (Retired) Ambassador Cameron Hume (Retired) Ambassador Steven McGann (Retired) Mr. Robert McBrien, SES Dept of Treasury (Retired) Mr. Thomas Countryman, SES State (Retired) Rear Admiral Jan Hamby, USN (Retired) Rear Admiral David Oliver, USN (Retired) Rear Admiral Harold Robinson, USN (Retired) Rear Admiral Charles Harr, USN (Retired) Rear Admiral Todd Squire, USN (Retired) Rear Admiral Sandy Adams, USN (Retired) Rear Admiral Jamie Barnett, USN (Retired) Brigadier General J. Scott O’Meara, USMC (Retired) Brigadier General Ricardo Aponte, USA (Retired) Brigadier Carlos Martinez, USAF (Retired) Brigadier General Joseph V. Medina, USA (Retired) Brigadier General John Douglass, USAF (Retired) Brigadier General Robert Felderman, USA (Retired) Brigadier General David R. Irvine, USA (Retired) Brigadier General Dan Woodward, USAF (Retired) Colonel Robert Gaylord, USAF (Retired)

Return to my childhood?

 

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Raven Tale - Episode 1

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