Mike Bernhardt is an award-winning writer whose work has appeared in many print and online publications including DIVE Magazine, Journey Beyond Travel, GeoEx Travel, and Hidden Compass. He’s also the editor of “Voices of the Grieving Heart,” an anthology of grief poetry. His new short story for Hidden Compass, “The Tides of War,” explores his search for what happened to his wife’s grandparents during World War II.
Hear Mike discuss:
1. The motivation behind writing “The Tides of War”.
2. The challenges that he faced in researching and writing this story.
3. How can we learn from past mistakes and look at individuals, rather than their racial or ethnic affiliation, when determining who is a risk to public safety?Too many of us don’t take an interest in our elders’ past and stories until it’s too late. History is far more interesting when viewed through the eyes of those who lived it. In times of war or conflict, societies tend to fear and even criminalize innocent people.
Robert Chelsea was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA where he lived and was educated as average black person, but became a Burn survivor, Amputee and Face Transplant Recipient. Hear his passion for advocacy in Transplant Technology and what caused him to advocate for the disabled diaspora.
Patrick Donaldson is a church Elder, husband and father. He has worked in the financial services industry for over 20 years, focusing on retirement benefits and financial literacy. In addition to his Bachelor of Science degree, he has a Masters of Human Resources, holds a Tennessee insurance license and is a FINRA Securities Registered Representative with Primerica Financial Services. He has volunteered his expertise to the Chattanooga community with hands-on education workshops at numerous local churches and recreation centers, as well as actively working with the Citizen Safety Coalition.
Kimberly Rollins is the wife of Pastor Donald Rollins Sr. of Chattanooga’s Born Again Christian Church. She worked for 23 years for the City of Chattanooga, acquiring the leadership skills that she taught co-workers and the women of her church. Then 7 years ago, she expanded her calling to help others by working in finance, helping as many people possible to accomplish their goals and dreams with the knowledge that she’s acquired over the years.
Christopher Johnson is President of Global Financial Services at Pitney Bowes, where he manages the financing and lending businesses, as well as the consumer and merchant payments and risk management functions across the company. Christopher also holds leadership responsibility for Pitney Bowes Bank, a state chartered industrial loan company.
Daphne Jones serves on the Boards of three public companies—AMN Healthcare, the Barnes Group, and Masonite International—where she offers critical business savvy, cyber security expertise, and digital insights. Previously, she enjoyed a 30+-year corporate career at some of the world’s most recognizable companies, such as GE, Johnson & Johnson, IBM, and Hospira (now Pfizer).
andra M. Moore is managing director and chief impact officer at Advantage Capital. The firm focuses on high growth and high wage business investing in communities where access to investment capital has historically been hard to find.
Reverend Fred Davie is a Senior Advisor for Racial Equity at Interfaith America, where he executes programming with a primary focus on the intersection of race and religion. He is also a minister in the Presbytery of New York City, and recently served as the Executive Vice President at Union Theological Seminary.
Born prior to WWII Giselle Roeder spent her early life in the relatively tranquil setting of a rural village in Pomerania, the most eastern part of Germany ceded to Poland in 1945. The bloody trauma of the fighting between the advancing Russians and the retreating German army in her neighborhood meant that thousands of people, including her family became displaced persons. l
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Andrew documents the history of the Rosenwald schools program which transformed education for African Americans in the first half of the twentieth century. The founders were Julius Rosenwald, born to Jewish immigrants, who rose to lead Sears, Roebuck & Company and Booker T. Washington , born into slavery, who became the founding principal of Tuskegee Institute. In 1912 the two men launched an ambitious program to partner with Black communities to build public schools for African American children. Andrew examines the role of education as the onramp to the American middle class as well as the past, present and future of the Black/Jewish progressive alliance.