Fort Polk, La. —
Nathan Bland, a 1996 graduate of Leesville High School who works as a United States diplomat assigned to the United States Embassy to the Holy See, attributes part of his success to the diversity and support he found in his hometown.
The Holy See, according to the U.S. Department of State, is the universal government of the Catholic Church and operates from the Vatican City State, a sovereign, independent territory of 0.44 square kilometers (0.17 square miles). The Pope is the ruler of both the Vatican City State and the Holy See. The Holy See, as the supreme body of government of the Catholic Church, is a sovereign juridical entity under international law.
"My parents inspired me," Bland wrote in an e-mail to the Leesville Leader. "They served our country for a long time and they were not afraid of change."
The willingness of his parents to live far from home led to Bland's being born in Germany, he said. Their insistence that he study abroad at least one semester in undergraduate school led him to both London and Hong Kong. He eventually obtained a master's degree in diplomacy and international relations as well as a masters degree in Asian studies.
"If it wasn't for my parents' gentle nudging, things may not have turned out the way they did," Bland said.
Bland went on to write in his email that while his family lived in Leesville, he attended second through eighth grade at East Leesville Elementary School, Vernon Middle School and Leesville Junior High School. After completing the eighth grade in the Leesville schools, his family moved to Fort Drum, New York for a year and a half before moving back to the Leesville area where he completed high school at Leesville High School.
"I feel fortunate to have grown up in Leesville," Bland wrote. Fort Polk made Leesville much more diverse than many other parts of Louisiana. "I found that this diversity was a great opportunity for me to come into contact with other cultures early in life. I had such a great support network of parents and teachers who genuinely cared."
Bland said that it was his parents, friends and teachers who nurtured him in the direction that would eventually lead him to the Vatican.
"I have high hopes that I am also able to frame the future of my child the way my parents have framed my life," he said.
To Bland, black history month is an opportunity to explore in depth the African-American heritage, he said.
The current trend for Black History Month in the United States and in our public diplomacy efforts overseas, Bland wrote, is to get beyond Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and explore other areas of African-American heritage that are not commonly showcased.
Bland said that this year, he's decided to delve further into King, especially King's other writings and speeches that don't usually make the average high school textbooks, such as his the speech "The Rising Tide of Racial Consciousness" which King delivered in September of 1960 for the golden anniversary conference of the National Urban League.
"I was born in 1978, so fortunately I did not experience the blatant, in-your-face, segregated-type of racism that my Mom and Dad had likely experienced growing up as children in Louisiana and Mississippi," said Bland. "This is not to say that I haven't experienced unpleasant incidents in my life where I suspected racism may have been at play, but compared to what went on during King's era, these events were relatively light."
Bland wrote that King had encouraged the African-American community to take a good, hard look at itself while acknowledging that the community's sub-par performance and standards were a direct result of the "legacy of slavery and segregation, inferior schools, slums and second-class citizenship." King also said that it was no longer acceptable to use oppression as an excuse.
According to Bland, King began to call out many of the ills he observed of African-American Society, from the frivolous spending to the high crime rate as he asked parents to encourage the youth to strive for excellence and not just mediocrity.
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