During my 50+ years in government, 20 years in the military and just over 30 years in the U.S. Foreign Service, I have been privileged to have been assigned to a number of challenging leadership positions.

These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country. But he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.

Harriet Elam-Thomas spent a brilliant Foreign Service career successfully encouraging communications between American publics and our foreign interlocutors in order to promote mutual understanding and support for U.S. foreign policy.

The May 17 Style article The Making of Meghan Markle discussed the decision by Ms. Markle– now Meghan, Duchess of Sussex — to call herself biracial. Many families identified as African American are truly multiracial because of consensual or forced sexual relations with white masters during slavery.

With the broad array of problems facing the United States and the world today, we need a strong, professional diplomatic service to look after our nation’s global interests. This has not always been the case.

Protests and demonstrations over the past two months at the deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, John Crawford, and Tamir Rice have ignited debates across the United States and around the world.