Library Lecture Series resumes in September

 

Rolly Prager

Friends of SaddleBrooke Libraries (FSL) is excited to announce the two new lectures scheduled for this fall. All lectures are scheduled for 4:00 p.m. at the MountainView Ballroom.

Mark Schwartz will open the series on Thursday, September 13 with “Operation BLACKLIST,” the story of the American military and the occupation of Japan. As World War II neared an end, American planners drafted an operations order to preclude or deal with the resistance to the occupation of Japan. Operation BLACKLIST gave military authorities the power to undermine and even crush resistance, from civil disobedience to a full-scale insurgency. BLACKLIST cautioned occupation troops to be wary of “…a fanatical population…every Japanese national is an enemy.” It also authorized sanctions and reprisals for various forms of resistance. But General MacArthur and his troops never applied the potentially draconian elements of BLACKLIST. Instead, the occupation helped develop a peaceful and prosperous Japan that emerged as a democracy seven years after the war’s end. Operation BLACKLIST became a footnote to a much better outcome.

Mark Schwartz is well known to FSL lecture attendees. Mark has given outstanding presentations, “The Samurai’s Peace” and the “Sinking of the Reuben James,” both well received by enthusiastic audiences. Mark chairs the Cold War Symposium.

There will be a $5 charge for non-FSL members.

H. Alan Day will delight listeners with his lecture “Life on the Lazy B.” on Thursday, October 25. In 1980, Alan Day’s grandfather homesteaded the Lazy B. Ranch. This dusty dry tract of land produced a Supreme Court Justice, a lauded Arizona state senator and a career rancher, cowboy and conservationist. Alan explores the ranching and cowboy life from the chuck wagon years of his childhood, through his adult years of increasing bureaucracy, airplanes, computers and now even drones. At the heart of his stories lie adventures that most of us will never experience, as well as a deep love of the natural world.

If it is possible to say someone was born a cowboy, then Alan Day was born one. He was the third generation to grow up on the 200,000-acre Lazy B cattle ranch straddling the high deserts of southern Arizona and New Mexico.

After graduating from the University of Arizona, Alan returned to manage Lazy B for the next 40 years, during which time he received awards for dedication to land stewardship. In addition to co-authoring with his sister, Sandra Day O’Connor, the best-selling memoire Lazy B, Alan is the author of The Horse Lover: A Cowboy’s Quest to Save the Wild Mustangs

and Life Lessons from the Lazy B.

Mr. Day comes to us via Arizona Humanities. There will be no charge for this lecture.

FSL will present an additional two lectures in November and December. Stay tunes for announcements with details.