Women’s Independent Press

Detective Brenda Tate has served in the field of law enforcement for 35 years, thirty of which have been as a police officer with the City of Pittsburgh Police Department. During her career she has served in many high profile assignments and has mentored numerous female officers to help them navigate successfully through the male dominated culture. Several of her mentees have risen to high rank within the department. She has also taken a leadership role in her non-work activities such as: Boy Scouts of America for Troup #59 and Scoutreach Committee, Centre Avenue YMCA Board of Management, Hill House Board of Directors, New Dawn Ministry “Winner in You” Mentorship program, and CORO Center for Civic Leadership/Women In CORO.
Detective Tate was one of the first female officers to serve on foot patrol in the city of Pittsburgh Housing Authority community. She also served in the high profile Dignitary and Witness Protection Unit, where she was responsible for organizing and providing protective services for high profile dignitaries, kings, queens and other royalty from abroad, as well as several US presidents and vice presidents and other high ranking US and foreign government officials. Also, Detective Tate has played a critical role in cultivating relationships with many agencies throughout the city (i.e. Housing Authority City of Pittsburgh Section 8 and Allegheny County Housing, Allegheny County MH/MR, major Hotel chains). These relationships are the life’s blood to the sustainability of the unit. She is currently a Detective in the PIRC Unit (Pittsburgh Initiative to Reduce Violence), which reports directly to the Chief of Police on matters related to community issues, gang and drug related violence.
Detective Tate has served her community as an Activist on the One Hill Coalition Task Force that was successful in the acquisition of the Benefits Agreement between the Hill District community and the Pittsburgh Penguins. In her church Ebenezer Baptist Church she is involved in the Women’s Mission Ministry and Senior Usher Board and played a significant role in the reconstruction of the church after a fatal fire destroyed the historic structure completely. She has served as chair in both functions as well as the Ebenezer Trustee Board. She currently serves on the Ebenezer Development Board. She has also performed missionary work for her church locally and in Africa, Eastern and Western Europe.
She is committed to helping her community in any way she can. She is a Pennsylvania State Addiction Counselor and an internationally certified Alcohol and Drug Counselor. She is able to use her expertise in these areas in her informal counseling and mentoring activities. Brenda is the proud mother of two sons, Reverend James E. Tate Jr. and Demetrius J. Tate.

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Exceptional Children by Ransom Riggs

This young adult novel is based on a series of very unusual old photographs
which is a very odd set-up for a book and that nearly worked but in my
opinion, completely missed the mark. I found the central character, Jacob,
extremely unlikeable. His personality issues reminded of me of those shared
by the female protagonist in the young adult novel “Revolution” but that
character had a dead brother, a sick mother, and an absentee father to blame
for her emotional turmoil. Jacob, on the other hand, has a two-parent cushy
life that he can’t seem to get comfortable with. Fair enough, it happens,
but I was never sure how Riggs wanted me to feel about Jacob — was I
supposed to think his self-induced ennui was cool? Was I supposed to pity
him? I didn’t quite get it.

Jacob is the narrator and his writing skill is impressive for a teen(though
often nearly sunk by the overuse of adjectives and metaphors) but this is
explained away by our being told that he takes accelerated high school
classes. His hopelessly hateful attitude and burdened writing were sometimes
difficult for me to slog through. But slog I did and that’s because the plot
points in the first half of the book reeled me so powerfully that I couldn’t
stop in until I discovered what had happened to Jacob’s grandfather (BTW,
the only character I found appealing, a Polish Jew who fought in WWII). But
as I entered the fantasy world of the book’s second half, I felt as if I was
Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale, poised to open a door into a living color Oz
but instead ending up in an peculiar world of drab grey. It’s
different but not terribly appealing or even interesting.

However, it’s a credit to Riggs that even readers who don’t like the book
will probably have difficulty not slogging to the bitter end where we find
some key questions answered, see a key decision made, and watch a sequel –
shamelessly? — being set up. The idea of basing a novel upon quirky old
pictures is one that I find fascinating but the end result isn’t as good as
it looks.