Liberia: Medal of Honor for Soldier Roberta

Roberta Minor, US Army

 

In June 2022, people who love Liberia decided that the late Chief Inspector Alfred Nayu Boley of the Liberia National Police (LNP) deserves a Medal of Honor and the naming of the National Police Academy in Liberia in his honor.

This honoring helps us to know that something good can come out of Liberia. This something good is based upon commitment, competence, and earning, rather than upon dishonesty, corruption, and incompetence. 

Today, people who love Liberia are being consistent by saying that the Soldier named Roberta Minor, born in Liberia, deserves a Medal of Honor and promotion to the rank of Major in the Armed Forces of the United States of America (USA). This Honoree was born in Liberia forty years ago but had to go as a refugee to the USA during the Civil War in Liberia when her Uncle, Ambassador Charles Minor, was jailed illegally and her Aunt Comfort Minor was weeping, trying to get her husband out of jail.

Coming from a societal problem-solving background, the Honoree joined the Armed Forces of the USA and served twice in Iraq, trying to end the war and prevent its recurrence. Although the Honoree was an adult, she joined the US Armed Forces looking like a teenager, just as she looks today.  

Now, back in Liberia, when her Uncle has turned eighty years of age, the Honoree is back to help her parents build a better Liberia. Her Uncle is retired but not tired of working to help others to help themselves to get out of poverty. In her work, she is using the knowledge that her parents gave her, especially the learning to work not for herself but for others.

This work means that someone should be selfless rather than selfish. On the basis of this selfless attitude, she has joined her parents in participating in a School Project in Siafa Keh, Grand Cape Mount County, Liberia. This is a project initiated and supported by the First United Methodist Church (FUMC), now 200 years old, in Monrovia, Liberia. The Minor family's contribution to the Project is a major contribution, as it is focused on establishing a Public Library to be a Learning Center for the Community in which nearly everybody is not a Methodist.  The focus of the Minor family is to make a major contribution to help build a better Liberia rather than to build a better self.

With plenty of talk about good things coming from America, the USA, and nothing good coming from Liberia, it is of the highest importance to bring out the story of the Honoree Roberta Minor. Let us recall the Classic Article on Re-americanization, written by the Veteran Journalist Stanton Peabody when he pointed out the dependency of the powers that be in Liberia on the American attitude and financial resources.

It is this dependency that we point out today, in the season of the 246th “Independence” Anniversary of the USA. In this dependency, there continues to be the production of raw materials for export without any prioritization of Value Addition. It is this colonial production system that places Liberia in poverty generation rather than in poverty alleviation. 

So, the little Daughter from the Minor family went to Iraq, prepared to give up her life to save the lives of others, especially others in the big USA. Therefore, it is wrong to continue to say that there is nothing good coming from Liberia. Yes, we need to learn correctly the lessons from the services rendered by Chief Inspector Boley of the LNP and Soldier Minor of the US Armed Forces and say that something good comes from Liberia.

A great part of the good thing that we are presenting is the point on gender equality. Boley is a male and Minor is a female and there is a call for the honor to be bestowed on each of them. This is a good thing that is coming from Liberia. The Security Forces of the Armed Forces and the Police Forces are to Save Lives and not to Take Lives, no matter where a person comes from. 

LET US WORK TOGETHER TO SAVE LIVES.