"The Civil Disobedience Handbook" James Tracy, Editor--A Book Every American Needs To Read---TODAY

The blurb on the back cover of this important little book states "Civil Disobedience is an American tradition, an essential element of a working democracy." Truer words were never spoken. In this terribly tragic time in which TRAITOR Trump is once again is living in the White House and working daily with his Criminal Syndicate which is now posing as a "cabinet", there has has never been a more important time for that majority of American citizens who understand just how endangered our country and our democracy are by this tragic outcome of the most recent election to Stand Up, Speak Up, and Speak Out about the destruction of our country by this worst of all TRAITORS. This book is a brief 94 page primer on the practice of civil disobedience with very valuble information on both the practice of civil disobedience and advice on how to conduct that practice without unduly endangering the practitioners. The one drawback to the book is that it is a bit dated having been published in 2002. James Tracy, the editor, is described on the cover as "...a long time organizer active in anti-poverty work. He is coordinator of Rightto a Roof,a part of San Francisco's Coalition on Homelessness." After having worked in the field of homelessness for over 8 years, I can assure that anyone who has Tracy's experience knows a great deal about the need for civil disobedience. Tracy also lives in Berkeley, California, a location which has always been a proving ground for protest activity in America. The book begins with a short history of civil disobedience in America, then moves on to a full length copy of The Patriot Act. But a word of caution about the reading and acceptance of that version of the Patriot Act is in order since the Patriot Act has been renewed, revised, and replaced by the USA FREEDOM (Uniting and Strengthening America by Fulfilling Rights and Ensuring Effective Discipline Over Monitoring) Before taking any actions based on Tracy's rendition of The Patriot Act, one should find a copy of Freedom Act as it which has been passed by congress. The book also contains a lenghty list of resources which can come in very handy to anyone who is seeking to use their constitutional freedoms to express discontent with the actions of the current TREASONOUS occupengt of the White House. Much of the general information in the book is just as valid today as when it was published. It would be wise to obtain and read, as will I, the more recent second edition of the book which was published in June of 2024 by Tracy and Jennifer Joseph. But, whatever you do, read one or the other, remember the Freedom Act is now the law, and feel free to express your discontent with the current occupant of the White House both privately and publicly.

Labor Day 2024, As We Face The Most Important Election In American History

 

As we celebrate Labor Day this year, I would suggest that we celebrate it with a sense of caution and use it as an impetus to renew our personal commitments to fight to protect the working class, the middle class, and all threatened classes of individuals with our vote on November 5, 2024, to elect President Kamala Harris.  Labor Day is a day which was set aside as a national holiday on June 28, 1894, when Democratic President Grover Cleveland signed a federal law making Labor Day a national holiday.  Labor Day had previously been celebrated in roughly 30 states.  Labor Day has been celebrated ever since both as celebration of the working class and a tribute to all the people who worked over the past 250 years to make America the country and the Democracy it has always been.  But this year we are facing the worst attack on the American working class, middle class, elderly, infirm, racial and ethnic minorities, women, children, and nearly every human in America who is, in one way or another, vulnerable to those who have no respect for laws, the US Constitution, constitutional rights, human rights, and any other idea which is intended to protect, defend, educate, provide health care, and all other basic rights to such vulnerable individuals.  That attack is being perpetrated by TRAITOR Trump, the Right Wing Radical Repugnican Party, Project 2025, the super wealthy, and those who comprise all such groups and their ideas.  

In this election, we have what is actually the most clear cut choice ever posed in an election for an electorate to choose between Good and Evil, Right and Wrong, Human Rights and Total Disregard For Such Rights.  The choice is between Vice President Kamala Harris who represents all those positive possible outcomes and TRAITOR Trump who represents all that is Evil and Destructive in the world. Kamala Harris is a person who has spent her life fighting for and defending all that is Good and Positive in the world.  TRAITOR Trump has spent his life fighting to destroy literally everything in the world which he cannot find a way to dominate, control, and hoard unto himself.  This choice is so simple that it baffles me and millions of other good, decent, rational Americans to understand how any human on earth can fail to understand the simplicity and the seriousness of this choice.  TRAITOR Trump and everything he represents is geared to destroy America, American Democracy, Constitutional Rights, Individual Rights, and to wipe all that is good and productive off the face of America.  

I am asking each of  you who read this to either make or renew a personal commitment to fight every day from now until President Kamala Harris can be elected, protected, and sworn into office to uphold the Constitution, to elect President Harris, and to insist that TRAITOR  Trump finally be held criminally responsible for all his crimes against America, American Democracy, the world, and the planet.  He must be convicted, sentenced, and imprisoned for his crimes.  If he is not, this country cannot survive as a Democracy.  We are literally facing a choice between the future of America and the total destruction of all that America and American Democracy represent.  We will either save America and American Democracy or we will lose them forever as a result of this election.  

July 4, 2023, A Holiday With Hope For America, And A Great Deal Of Danger!

 

Today, July 4, 2023, is the second most important July 4th in the history of this country running just behind the first July 4th in our history, July 4, 1776.  That first July 4th is the most important in our history because it heralded the birth of democracy in America when the Second Continental Congress unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence, announcing the colonies' separation from Great Britain. Since that time in 1776, loyal American citizens have been fighting to institute, defend, and preserve that unequaled level of democracy which has always set the United States of America from other less democratic, more volatile, less universally democratic countries in the world.  

 

But this July 4, 2023, is the second most important Independence Day in our history because our democracy and all of our constitutionally guaranteed freedoms, both individual and collective, have been facing the most dangerous attack in their history ever since June 15, 2015, the day TRAITOR Trump announced his totally unjustified belief that he was fit to be the leader of the free world.  Since that June day in 2015, both TRAITOR Trump and his misled, gullible, destructive, dangerous, and TREASONOUS followers both inside and outside the Right Wing Radical Repugnican party have been attacking both our individual and collective democratic freedoms and expresssing their willingness to no longer defend democracies which are under attack all over the world but most importantly they want to abandon the defense of Ukraine and their fledgling democracy.  Yet, this July 4, 2023, is also a day of great hope and expectation because TRAITOR Trump has now been held financially responsible for only one of his more than 25 sexual attacks on female victims and has now been indicted for a small portion of his crimes against the United States.  TRAITOR Trump is also facing highly probable and even more serious indictments for his crimes against the government of this country which culminated in the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol which he incited his TREASONOUS followers to commit and for his widespread attempts, along with numerous other co-conspirators, to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.  If TRAITOR Trump and his many co-conspirators are indicted, convicted, sentenced, and imprisoned for this long list of crimes against America and American Democracy, we will have literally saved both individual and collective constitutional rights in this country.  If TRAITOR Trump and his many co-conspirators go  on unpunished, unconvicted, and unsentenced, we will go on to lose nearly every democratic freedom which the constitution guarantees.  He has made on attempt to hide  his contempt for constitutional guarantees, voting rights, individual freedoms, rule of law, and the very documents which built this democracy.  

 

TRAITOR Trump must be indicted for all his many crimes.  He must be convicted of all those crimes and he must be sentenced and imprisoned for those crimes if this country and our democracy are to survive.  If we wish to continue to be free people in a free country, these things must happen.  We must preserve our democracy and the first step toward preserving that democracy in the lifelong imprisonment of TRAITOR Trump and as many of his co-conspirators as the law enforcement and judicial communities can indict, convict, and sentence for their crimes in support of the greater crimes of TRAITOR Trump.  

"Professing" and "Practicing": Two Very Different Words

 

In American politics today and over the last 8 to 12 years, one of the most influential groups has been those who describe themselves as "Christians" or "Conservative Christians".  Yet, very rarely do any of these people describe themselves as "Practicing Christians".  And therein lies a very serious problem of religious, moral, ethical, and political dichotomy, or more bluntly, political hypocrisy.  The problem is rooted in the very basic moral, ethical, religious, and political difference between the two words "Practicing" and "Professing" as they are or can be applied to religion, theology, politics, morals, and ethics.  The Oxford Language website defines "Practicing" in this manner: "actively pursuing or engaged in a particular profession, occupation, or way of life". Their second definition of the word is this: observing the teaching and rules of a particular religion. The same Oxford Languages website defines "Professing" in this manner: claim that one has (a quality or feeling), especially when this is not the case.  Their second definition of the word "Practicing" is this:

affirm one's faith in or allegiance to (a religion or set of beliefs)".  The difference between those two definitions is at the heart of the many societal problems which are being created in America today by those self-described "Christians" or "Conservative Christians" and the Right Wing Radical Repugnican politicians they have assisted in rising to power at all levels of elected offices in America.  Most of them, if not all, are simply "Professing Christians", if they profess any beliefs at all other than their belief in the abolition of most individual constitutional rights, and they are not remotely "Practicing Christians".  Anyone, anytime, anywhere can profess to be or support anything without any attempt to practice the core tenets of whatever it is they profess.  I have written in the past on this blog about these people and the core differences between what they claim to be compared to what they actually are based on their daily efforts to destroy the US Constitution and the country which is based on that constitution.  

These people under discussion are working on a daily basis to create laws which force the government to intervene in citizens lives in areas which have clearly been forbidden to the government by the Bill of Rights and hundreds of previously approved laws based on that Bill of Rights.  They support book banning, voter suppression, governmental control of the medical decisions of citizens which have clearly been forbidden to the government for more than 200 years.  And, what they never would admit, is that based on their egregious invasions into personal rights, they are indirectly, and sometimes directly, supporting the total destruction of representative democracy in America.  They are simply using the Bible and the churches of the nation, (or at least those churches which allow them to) to abolish the concept enshrined in the Declaration of Independence that that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."  They are more than willing to completely and falsely deny the fact that no citizen can be happy, at liberty, or free to live a live based on individual rights when these people are daily working to destroy, abolish, and forever eliminate the right of those citizens to make their own decisions in their daily lives. They are brazenly denying the basic constitutional concept of Separation of Church and State.  They are literally willing to steal and abrogate anyone's freedoms whose beliefs do not support their own totalitarian beliefs.  They are the greatest danger to the perpetuation of democracy in America today. 

An Important View Of The US Constitution

 

As I mentioned in an earlier post about Virginia Colonial Governor Berkeley, I have been reading a surprisingly wonderful book by Bob Deans called "The River Where America Began: A Journey Along The James".  While the book is about the history of the settlement of the James River Region in Coastal Virginia and the role it played in the early history of colonial America and the American Revolution, Deans also periodically provides his own insightful examinations of the history of democracy in America.  The short section of the book which I quote below is one of the most pertinent of those insightful examinations.  

The Constitution was never meant to settle for all time every imaginable dilemma the US government might confront.  Its genius was, and is, that it allows each generation of Americans to resolve its own issues.  It was designed to be a living document, showing the way for government to evolve with the times, while remaining true to those principles upon which the nation was founded and still holding inviolate the rights of the people as sovereign, goals the document set forth in its opening lines: "We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."  (Deans, p. 219) 

 In both instances of the quotation in the indented paragraph above, truer words were never spoken, first by the Founding Fathers, and secondly by Deans.  Although there is now widespread disagreement about the interpretation of the words in the US Constitution, they are nearly always universally recognized as just that, some of the best words ever written in history especially the history of democracy in the world.  And Deans' own words in the first section of that paragraph are just as true as the original words in the US Constitution.  When Deans says that the US Constitution "was designed to be a living document, showing the way for government to evolve with the times, while remaining true to those principles upon which the nation was founded and still holding inviolate the rights of the people as sovereign", no one, in a discussion of the Constitution, could have hit the nail on the head more soundly.  Yes, the US Constitution is and should forever be a living document but it should also always still hold inviolate the rights of the people as sovereign.  There have been several instances when the living document were necessarily changed to further insure the rights of the people, beginning with the original ten amendments, The Bill of Rights, on December 15, 1791.  There have also been a few considerably more modern and necessary changes in the Constitution in order to insure the rights of the people.  The Thirteenth Amendment passed in January 1865 and was necesssary to abolish slavery which it is interesting to know was one of the most divisive issues in the formation of the new United States and, at least, a major partial cause of the US Civil War.  The Fifteenth Amendment, passed four years later in 1869, made a necessary and gallant attempt to guarantee the vote to all citizens of the country regardless of race, color, or prior history of slavery.  Yet, even today, there are widespread attempts in most Right Wing Radical Repugnican held states to infringe the right to vote for many million people because of a variety of factors which might make them more likely to vote in a rational manner against Repugnican candidates.  Those various factors include race, color, national origin, level of education, and profession and state legislatures in many of those aforementioned Right Wing Radical Repugnican states have instituted a variety of ID laws and other strictures on the right to vote in order to suppress the votes of such people.  The Nineteenth Amendment, ratified in 1920, finally guaranteed the right to vote regardless of sex which was necessarily intended to give all women the right to vote.  But more than one hundred years later, in 2022, those very same state legislatures include many women in the groups they attempt to make voting less likely or easy for.  The Twenty-Fourth Amendment, finally passed in 1962, outlawed poll taxes as a requirement for the right to vote.

Yet, after all these, and the remainder of the twenty-seven amendments to the Constitution were passed we still find ourselves in a situation in this country which makes it necessary that, sooner or later, more such amendments must be passed to ensure both that the rights of the people shall be held inviolate and that the US Constitution will continue to be a living instrument.  We are still fighting out way, as a country out of those four incredibly dark and dangerous years from January 20, 2017, to January 20, 2021, when the White House and the country were being held hostage by a TRAITOR who was living illegally in the White House based on his TREASON with Russia.  The Fourth Section of the Twenty-fifth Amendment needs to be rewritten in stronger, more crystal clear terms to make it a necessary act for members of the cabinet to take action to remove an unfit occupant of the White House.  Recently, despite the knowledge among several members of the cabinet at the time that the occupant of the White House was unfit, a majority of those cabinet members could not be induced to agree to take the necessary actions which would have removed TRAITOR Trump from the White House and removed the ever present danger he represented from the country.  The language in that amenment must be clarified or we will see another instance, at some time in the future of this country, when an unfit, illegal occupant of the White House may well destroy the country.  

Yet, despite the 200+ year history of the US Constitution as a sacred and living instrument, on December 4 ,2022, that very same TRAITOR, the former illegal occupant of the White House publicly called for the suspension of the Constitution as a means for him to regain his illicit and illegal residence in the White House.  With these words: "A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution,” Not even Benedict Arnold or Aldrich Ames, previously the arguable two worst traitors in the history of the country never uttered such clear cut words endorsing TREASON as those used by TRAITOR Trump. Such blatant, public TREASON on the part of TRAITOR Trump was not even used when he incited the January 6th incident of TREASON, Sedition, Domestic Terrorism, and criminality.  For this statement alone, he deserves to be prosecuted even if he had never committed any of the hundreds of TREASONOUS, Seditious, and simply criminal acts he committed before December 4, 2022.  Such acts, such words, and such crimes have now lead to multiple attacks on the US power grid, the aborted attempt to kidnap and murder the governor Michigan, and hundreds of other Right Wing Radical crimes.  

The response to all these acts, all these crimes must be that we, as a people take the actions necessary to guarantee that the US Constitution will be forever a living instrument and subject to any necessary changes in order to control and curtail such sedition and treason from such criminals as TRAITOR Trump and those Right Wing Radicals who step forward to volunteer to be his co-conspirators. 

Colonial Governor Berkeley And The Modern Fight To Destroy Public Education

I am in the process of reading a book by Bob Deans entitled "The River Where America Began: A Journey Along The James" which covers the history of the James River in Virginia from about 1600 to 2006.  The book is well written although I had never heard Bob Deans' name mentioned before as an author although he has published at least three books.  Not only is the writing quite good but so is the research which is as good as just about anything I have read in quite some time.  The list of resources is actually about ten pages long which is rare today even in works which are labeled as historical nonfiction.  I will write in more length about the book when I have completely finished it but I found a little section which I cannot resist writing about immediately because of its logical application to American politics.  

On page 142, in a section carrying the subtitle "To Virginia Or Be Hanged" there is a discussion of the life and work of Virginia Colonial Governor William Berkeley who was governor of the colony twice from 1641 to 1652 and from 1660 to 1677.  The author quotes and comments on some of Berkeley's writing which can be applied to American politics today with just as much pertinence as it carried when it was written in the late 17th century. 

"...Berkeley was no democrat, at least not the way future Virginia leaders would define the term.  "I thank God there are no free schools nor printing" in Virginia, Berkelely reported to a royal commission in 1670, explaining that educated people were hard to control and  a free press exposed government to critics.  "God keep us from both."  (Deans p. 142)

Governor Berkeley wrote those words to the king or his subordinates in 1670 and, yet today, those words are just as pertinent to what is happening in America and American politics as anything which can be discussed.   I take note here of Bob Deans' use of the uncapitalized form of the word "democrat" and recognize that his choice to do so is appropriate since, during Berkeley's time, there was no Democratic party in America and the appropriate meaning of the word was simply a believer in or practitioner of democracy. But in today's America large numbers of the Republican party are openly and unrepentingly propounding the same views Berkeley did in his 1760 communication to the royal commission.  Many members of the Republican party attempt to cater to the uneducated segment of the populace and openly work on a daily basis to defund, deconstruct, and destroy the American educational system.  

The Kentucky Supreme Court just a few days ago was forced to overturn a law passed by the Kentucky state legislature, controlled by Republicans, which would have made it legally acceptable for public education funds to be diverted to charter schools and church controlled private schools of all stripes.  That action, if the Supreme Court of Kentucky had allowed it to take effect would have literally allowed all forms of fringe groups and individuals to steal public education funds from public education students and would have made it possible for "schools" teaching all forms of Right Wing Radical and religiously based misinformation while being funded with money paid by all tax payers regardless of their support or lack of support for such fringe beliefs.  We also see daily attempts all across the nation by Right Wing Radical groups, especially Right Wing Radical Repugnican groups to ban books, to restrict the teaching of long proven history, and to violate the Separation of Church and State, a criminal misinterpretation of the US Constitution which was recently perpetrated by the Right Wing Radical majority on the US Supreme Court. Just this week, a meeting of the Clark County Kentucky Public Library Board was hijacked by Right Wing Radicals who were attempting to ban books at the library or to force many, if not all, books with even mild sexual content to be placed in restricted circulation status. To her eternal credit, the librarian, Julie Maruskin, spoke out against book banning but sadly the board did vote to restrict the particular book in question as described in this quote from WKYT-TV 27 in Lexington:

“I do care about restricting books in a public library. I cannot do it. There is no way. It will never be one book,” Maruskian said.  Ultimately the board voted four to one to restrict the book to the adult section for “sexually explicit material.” (WKYT-TV 27. December 21, 2022)

Even more sadly, I am willing to bet that it won't be long before the board, by a similar vote of 4 to 1, will unjustifiably fire Julie Maruskin.  

Just as Governor Berkeley wished he could wipe out public education and the free press in colonial Virginia, these modern day Right Wing Radicals are attempting to do the same.  They must not be allowed to do that and every loyal American is duty bound to fight their attempts to do so.  Their efforts in state and federal legislatures and courts must be actively opposed.  They must be defeated at the voting booth.  Their aberrant laws and executive actions in such attempts must be confronted in both the courts and the media.  They cannot be allowed to win this battle which Governor Berkeley began in 1760.  It is up to the average American to oppose such efforts on a daily basis.  

In a more recent blog post, published on December 27, 2022, I discussed another aspect of Bob Deans' book under the title "An Important View Of The US Constitution" which can be found at this link. 

Reading Banned Books--A Commitment You Should Make

I sincerely hope that this version of this blog post turns out more successfully than the first attempt I made a couple of years ago.  After nearly finishing this important and rather lengthy post, somehow or other I managed to lose the entire thing and I still don't know why or how.  I have left it untouched for quite some time because I just didn't have the heart to see it disappear once more literally before my eyes and because I also had a constant stream of ideas which needed to be completed also.  But I have been reading the book "Reading Lolita In Tehran: A Memoir In Books" by Azar Nafisi and both that book and its author have been banned in Iran for quite some time.  From my personal point of view, I firmly believe in reading every book I can get my hands on which has ever been banned in any jurisdiction and I have read many and will continue to do so as long as I have the capacity to do so.  So should you!  The world needs to know the truths contained in books which are important enough to induce power brokers to attempt to prevent their messages from being seen and heard.  I honestly do not know when I read my first previously banned book or what the title was.  It might have been "The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain or "Alice's Adventures In Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll or some other relatively innocuous work by an author who is considered mainstream in today's world. The bottom line is that I began reading banned books at a very young age without even consciously doing so and I have never read a banned book from which I did not learn something which has proven to be informative, helpful, and worthwhile in my later life.

I recently had a conversation, quite by accident, with a worker at my local post office who has known me for several years and has seen me receive and ship hundreds of books.  But until that recent day I did not know that she was a steady reader and often read banned books.  In the course of that conversation, one of us, her as I remember, brought up the concept of reading banned books and she informed me quickly that she also reads every book she can get her hands on which have been banned.  I had previously seen her at an annual picnic which is sponsored by a local conservative church and I was somewhat surprised to hear her agree with me on this subject.  She rose several steps in my estimation after that conversation. So will you if you read a banned book and post a comment on this blog post about the experience and what you learned from it!

One of my favorite websites about banned books is run by a site known as Punchnels and they have an article entitled "10 Reasons for Banning Books, and 5 Much Better Reasons Not To".  I will be using that article as an outline for this blog post and will attempt to expand on their key points while also making several dozen of my own.  I will discuss each of their reasons one by one and attempt to further elucidate my reasons for why they are correct while also providing further examples of books which fit into each of these categories they discuss.

1) Racial Themes: Numerous books have been banned in America, or portions of the country, for this very reason.  "The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn" was banned in many locations for many years after its publication because it cast two runaways, one a white juvenile running from a drunken and abusive father and the other a runaway black slave.  In recent times, it has been banned for an absolutely different reason, the use of the "N" word several times.  In my estimation and that of many others, neither of these reasons justified banning a masterpiece such as "The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn".  "To Kill A Mockingbird" was also banned for many years because it was written about a white southern attorney who defended a black man in a court of law.  John Howard Griffin's "Black Like Me" was also banned because Griffin, a white author, successfully posed as a black man in the Deep South in order to understand racial prejudice.  There is a much longer list of wonderful books which have been banned over the last 250 years in America because they addressed racial themes.

2) Alternative Lifestyles: Nearly as many books have been banned for this reason as have been banned for discussing racial themes.  Numerous books which have addressed LGBTQ themes have been banned in America.  Many of them are still banned in small enclaves such as religious based schools, Third World Countries, tyrannical and despotic countries, conservative communities, and other unique areas.  This list of books may also include books about crime, gang activity, drug use, polygamy, polyandry, polyamory, mental illness, and prostitution.  Some of these reasons for banning also touch the edges of sexual and/or racial themes which are actually a completely separate reason for banning books. There is actually quite a bit of such crossover in book banning where stated reasons for banning a book may actually reveal that the book banners were publicly stating one reason but also thinking of another which might have been less publicly acceptable.  One of the most famous books banned in America for being about alternative lifestyles is "The Outsiders" which was written by S. E. Hinton when she was only about fifteen or sixteen and published when she was eighteen.  The book is about gang life in high school and was banned by many school boards and libraries in 1967 when it shot to the top of the best seller lists and deservedly so.  "Junkie" and "Naked Lunch" by William Burroughs have also been banned all across the United States because they depict the lifestyle of drug addiction. "Howl", arguably one of the finest books in all of American poetry, was banned in many jurisdictions upon its release in 1956 because the author was both gay and Jewish. Several of the books by his associates in the Beat Generation including William Burroughs and Jack Kerouac were also banned almost en masse because the authors were known to be members of that wonderfully progressive school of writing.  Many lesbian, gay, transgendered, and witchcraft books have also been banned along with books about Satanism, communism, socialism, and other lifestyles at the fringes of mainstream society and that banning still occurs today.

3)  Profanity: Profanity alone has also caused many books to be banned including the works of Erica Jong, John Steinbeck, and many others.  Ms. Jong's books were also frequently banned due to their highly sexual nature so she often found herself and her work caught between a rock and a hard place although she has still managed to publish more than 25 books in at least three genres.  More power to her!  "The Grapes Of Wrath" and "The Great Gatsby" have also been banned because of their salty language.  "The Great Gatsby" plays a large role in the book "Reading Lolita in Tehran" by Azar Nafisi which I have recently read and written about on this blog.  Ms. Nafisi's highly acclaimed work has been banned in her native Iran for similar reasons.  I cannot recommend any book more highly than hers.

4) Sex: The article "10 Reasons for Banning Books and 5 Much Better Reason Not To" on the Punchnel's website which I am referring to frequently in this blog post states in their discussion of this topic that "not just graphic sexual content, but also dialogue of a sexual nature, any and all references to reproductive acts, and even the barest, briefest, Disney-approved sensuality" can result in a book being banned by the small minded and heavy handed book banners anywhere.  Books which have been banned because of sexual content include "Fanny Hill" by John Cleland, "Fear Of Flying" by Erica Jong, and "A Farewell To Arms" by Ernest Hemingway.  All are excellent literature and have proven themselves to be far more consequential in America and the world than the people who banned them.

5) Violence: Violence can sometimes be the official public cause for banning a book when the real reasons may  be nebulous, unnamed, and more questionable in nature.  Books which have been banned because of their violence include "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" by Ken Kesey but the real reason for its banning was often related more to the fact that the protagonists in the book were residents in a mental institution.  "Lord Of The Flies" by William Golding was probably banned most often because it involved teen age boys in a setting where they had to wear no clothes.  "Fifty Shades of Grey" by E. L. James was often banned ostensibly because of violence when the real reason was that the violence is sexual in nature.  But with more openness in America about sexual activity outside the societal norms, book banners sometimes look for other reasons to ban books with sexual content which arouses their ire.

6) Negativity:  There can be no more broad and nebulous term in relation to the content of a book than "negativity".  That word to a book banner is much like the term "disorderly conduct" to small town judges, police officers, and juries.  It will cover nearly anything with which the person in power disagrees.  "The Diary of A Young Girl" by Anne Frank was banned in Alabama for being "a downer" which was a wolf whistle word for the fact that it was actually about Jews dying in the Holocaust at the hands of Nazi's when the banning was being done in a state where the Ku Klux Klan still holds power today and that power in growing today as the White House is being illegally occupied by a TRAITOR who is supervising the deaths of children in cages.  In Corona-Norco, California, in 1993, "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley faced banning because of "negativity".

7) Witchcraft: I grew up in Knott County Kentucky and did not know until two years ago in 2017 that Jessie Wicker Bell, the author of the most famous witchcraft book in America, "The Book Of Shadows", had been a native of Knott County and that her children scattered her ashes in a family cemetery about a mile from another cemetery in which most of my paternal aunts and uncles are buried.  Since I wrote about her, her importance to Wiccans worldwide, and her writing on my blog, two of her children have contacted me to thank me for helping to make the world aware of her work and her books which are all available still today on alternative bookseller sites.  They also told me that a son of hers and the grandson of a former tenant of my parents whom I had known as a child was actually their sibling.  This kind of suppression of information in a small community which arose from the banning of books and making her a pariah is a shining example of the kind of damage book banning can do in such a small populace.  It is also relevant to this discussion  that Knott County has an unusually rich literary history with James Still, Albert Stewart, William Howard Cohen, Verna Mae Slone, May Stone, and myself all having either grown up, writing and publishing in, or living and teaching in the county.  But Jessie Wicker Bell is not the only writer of such literature to have their works banned.  Anton Szandor Lavey, the author of "The Satanic Bible" and four other books saw his work banned in nearly every state in America and in most mainstream book stores.  Nearly every other book about witchcraft, Satanism, or similar beliefs has been banned somewhere in America and most of them have been banned in many jurisdictions. Even Roald Dahl, a very mainstream and revered author of children's books, had his book "The Witches" banned.

8)  Unpopular Religious Views: Both C. S. Lewis' "Chronicles Of Narnia" and J. R. R. Tolkien's "Lord Of The Rings" have been banned as being anything from "anti-Christian", "satanic", or "atheistic" when both authors were deeply religious and created these works as Christian allegories.  In fact, in addition to the banned children's books, Lewis also wrote two highly respected non-fiction works on Christian theology, "Mere Christianity" "The Weight Of Glory", and the fictional "Screwtape Letters" which is also deeply religious but couched in the form of letters home by a junior devil sent to earth to help the efforts of Satan.  Other unpopular religious works have included those related to Scientology, atheism, agnosticism, Judaism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Later Day Saints, and most other religions which can viewed as being outside the mainstream in a Christian country.  Additionally, several Muslim countries have banned religious books such as the Holy Bible, the Khama Sutra, and works related to Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, and most other non-Muslim religions. 

9)  Unpopular Political Views: Many political books have been banned in many countries of the world depending on the beliefs they expressed and the beliefs of the reigning officials.  Oftentimes, these books have been diametrically banned in opposing countries with the opposing beliefs in power.  Such books include "Mein Kampf by Adolph Hitler, "The Communist Manifesto" by Marx and Engels, "Poor Richard's Almanac" by Benjamin  Franklin, "Cat's Cradle" by Kurt Vonnegut, "The Rights Of Man" by Thomas Paine, and "Wealth Of Nations" by Adam Smith.  The bottom line is that, just like book banners who ban religious books because of opposing beliefs have also often been involved in banning political books which support beliefs other than their own.  And you can bet that if the current criminally minded TRAITORS who occupy the White House based on the TREASON of the nameless TRAITOR who ostensibly leads them believed they could do so successfully they would also begin banning most books of a decidedly democratic or liberal bent. When I use the word "democratic" in the previous sentence, I use it in a universal not a party sense.  Any book banning based on political belief is an affront to the US Constitution and the Founding Fathers who wrote.  Actually, any banning of books is such an affront and in direct conflict with the concept of Freedom Of Speech which is firmly enshrined in our constitution and our democracy as a whole. 

10)  Any Theme Judged Unsuitable For A Particular Age Group: In many ways, this reason for banning books is a bit nebulous and left largely to the interpretation of the book banners at any given time in any given jurisdiction.  It is often used to ban books with even mildly sexually based content even to the point of banning discussion of anatomy and gender.  While I do understand that children of what are sometimes called "tender years" should not be allowed to read "Fanny Hill" or "Fear Of Flying", I do not believe they should be denied the knowledge that such books exist which they must wait a few years to read.  A single curse word or the use of the "N" word in the classic works of Mark Twain do not constitute legitimate reasons for banning a book.  Perhaps they do justify making a young reader wait but no book should ever be completely destroyed, banned, and wiped from the face of the earth.  What would the fields of sociology and gender studies do without books such as "The Tea Room Trade" by Laud Humphrey or "The Human Experience Of Sex And Gender" by James Doyle.  While I can understand an argument that either or both are not mass market books, I would never agree that they should be denied to the adult reader, especially the specialist in the fields they illuminate.  But this last of the ten reasons for banning books is, in many ways, an open door through which many narrow minded people have walked in order to do great damage to the body of literature of many a country. 

The Punchnel's article which I have referenced freely to write this post ends with five reasons for reading banned books and they are all wonderful reasons.  But they are not as clearly written or created as the ten reasons books are commonly banned.  But I will comment on those five reasons for reading such books and, perhaps, add a few of my own.

1) You may not like something, but that’s no reason to take it away from everyone: This is a perfectly good reason for reading banned books.  But it is more a reason to allow others to read them than a reason each of us, as an open minded individual, should be reading banned books as often as possible.  As citizens in a democracy, we must accept the right of any sound minded person to read whatever the hell they choose or to write it for that matter.  You have the right to your opinion that "Tropic of Cancer" or "Fear Of Flying" is smut for instance but I also have the right to say I love that kind of open minded, honest language and literature and I am going to read it as I damn well please.  The bottom line is that if you believe in free will for citizens of a  democracy then it is none of your business what anyone else reads.

2)“Protecting” children from the difficult realities of the world is an exercise in futility—and privilege:  This reason for reading banned books is also a bit shaky if we sincerely believe that parents have the right to raise their children as they wish so long as that method of rearing them is not abusive or seriously neglectful.  I tend to believe that depriving children of free will as their age and maturity suits the subject under question.  But I also believe that some children due to age, immaturity, or intellectual problems may well never reach a point where they can freely choose their reading material, life circumstances, or other aspects of daily living.  In such cases, parents should be able to make choices for their children.  But as soon as the children reach emotional maturity, they should have self-determination on all subjects. 

3) Books are among our best teachers:  This is by far the most valid of the Punchnel's reasons for reading banned books so far.  Without books to broaden our views of the world, provide necessary information of thousands of subjects, and to provide simple, basic entertainment, we would be a dull, under educated, and unsuccessful species.  Books are our most basic and wonderful source of information other than word of mouth.  They are our best teachers and we should always have a book by our favorite chair or bed.  We should never allow the negative opinions of others to prevent us from learning about something another human obviously believed the world needed to see and know about.  I have met a few books I didn't like.  I have met a few books I hate.  I don't believe anyone should endanger their brains by reading "Mein Kampf" but I also firmly believe that those who choose to do so have that freedom of choice and it is an "inalienable right" guaranteed by the US Constitution. 

4)  Many of the most frequently banned books are—or go on to become—celebrated classics. And that’s not a coincidence: Quite often books which are banned were so attacked because the ideas they contained were simply too big, in an intellectual sense, for the minds of the people who chose to ban them.  The works of Thomas Paine, Benjamin Franklin, Adam Smith, and Thomas Locke were very often larger than the people around them who found themselves inordinately fearful of the ideas they contained.  The best, most futuristic, most visionary, and most consequential works are far ahead of their times and small minds cannot accept that the world will be better place with those books being freely read, supported, and followed.  Read every banned book you can find.  Read them and pass them on to others.  Always defend the universal right to read banned books.  Always defend democracy in all its manifestations and books, by forward thinking authors, will defend you. 

5)  Books really can change the world:  None of us know when we will be reading a book which will lead us to greatness or happiness within our ordinary lives.  None of us know when another book will be released to the world which will change the world.  As we look back to the days before the Gutenberg press, we can see and remember a long list of books which have been consequential in making the world a better place.  Those books have been found in all genres over time.  No book is too complicated, too simplistic, or too ordinary to change lives and the world.  I am reminded of a little book called "Acres Of Diamonds" by Russel Conwell which on an initial examination appears to be a simple little fable about a man who left home, was unhappy, and returned to find success in the land of his birth.  But, on much deeper levels, it is one of the greatest motivational books ever written and should be mandatory reading for every student in every school in the world. 






Now I will add my very on best reason for reading banned books.  They will relieve you of your ignorance and there is no ignorance worse than self imposed ignorance which is exactly what occurs anytime we allow any one to prevent us from reading a book we wish to read.  Now go out and read as many banned books as you can.  Feel free to return to this blog post and leave a comment about which banned books you have read and how doing so positively affected your life. 

Pinto Bean Cakes, Pickled Beets, Stuffed Peppers

Vegetarian Stuffed Peppers, Pinto Bean Cakes, and Pickled Beets Photo by Roger Hicks

A few days ago on June 4, 2018, I put this photo of supper at my house on my Facebook Page, but not because I put photos of my food on Facebook as some people do.  I had put it on my Facebook Page as a test of the list of FB friends I have and got the exact results I was expecting.  I received a total of six likes from my FB friends list of 123 people.  I know that is a small number of FB friends compared to the lists of most other users of FB.  I have constantly pared down my FB friends list ever since the rise of the TRAITOR & International Terrorist Trump to illegal and illegitimate power.  I simply do not have any time to waste on any supporter of the worst TRAITOR in the history of the world other than to tell the truth about his crimes once, give them an opportunity to change their minds and public positions and to move on.  I actually unfriended and blocked a former customer for whom I have had several well paid auctions after I had tolerated his support of TRAITOR & International Terrorist Trump as long as I could stomach it.  I do not need money that badly and I would still not need money that badly if I was much worse off financially than I am now.  Money is not worth selling your soul to Russia, Vladimir, Putin, and the worst TRAITOR in the history of the world.  When I post a political post from the best news organizations in the world such as the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, or the Washington Post, the same three or four intelligent and committed people will post Likes or comments or share such a post.  It is appalling to me that highly intelligent, well educated people, such as I have on my FB friends list,  either still support this TRAITOR or refuse to join the effort to bring about his necessary and long overdue indictment, impeachment, conviction and imprisonment.  Thank you, John D. Shelton, Heather Ambrose, Misty Baker, Dewayne Mynhier, Rick Karl, and Robert Dupes for fighting in support of America, American Democracy, the 1,500 LOST immigrant children, and the constitutional rights of every American. 

Many Americans, apparently including most of the people on my FB friends list are sticking their heads in the sand just as millions of Germans did in the 1930's as Adolph  Hitler was rising to power and beginning to start World War II and the extermination of 6 Million Jews.  Adolph Hitler, Vladimir Putin, Kim Jung Un, and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte are the heroes of the TRAITOR & International Terrorist Trump and also the worst dictators in the world today.  When TRAITOR & International Terrorist Trump visited Duterte in Manila in November of 2017, it was an act which no legitimately elected and qualified president would have ever done. When he met twice privately with Putin, without US handlers or interpreters present, it was also an act that no legitimately elected and qualified president would have ever done.  Due the ongoing crimes of Duterte such as the outright murder of his uncharged, uncovicted, and unsentenced opponents no legitimate president would have ever allowed the wheels of Air Force One to touch down in the Philippines unless a life threatening emergency was taking place on board.  The TRAITOR & International Terrorist Trump refuses to pass sanctions against Russia because Vladimir Putin and Russia own him and the information in the Steele Dossier is highly likely to be 100% accurate. The federal indictments of him and all his co-conspirators just keep adding up.  They are already greater in number than in all previous, legitimate administrations of the past combined.  He insists on committing multiple acts of aggression against our closest allies while constantly speaking out in favor of Russia and Putin. He has imposed insane and destructive tariffs against our closest allies while refusing to impose sanctions against Russia for the hacking in support of his fictitious election. All these acts on the part of TRAITOR & International Terrorist Trump are part of a Russian plan to destabilize the United States and our closest allies in support of Russia's long term goal of world domination.   It is long past time for TRAITOR & International Terrorist Trump to be held responsible for his crimes.   It is long past time for the rest of you to remove your ostrich heads from the sand, quit emulating the citizens of Germany in the 1930's, quit supporting TREASON, International Terrorism, Fascism, and the destruction of the US reputation abroad and at home.  Stand Up, Speak Up, and Speak Out every day as the fully aware patriots in America are doing.  

 

The Second Amendment As It Is Written

On January 3, 2013, I wrote and published a post entitled One Appalachian Man's Opinion Of Gun Control which since that time has consistently been one of my most read and most commented upon posts on this blog.  Naturally, there have only been two opinions expressed about that blog post, either I am a genius or I am an idiot who wants to forever damage the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution and have the government take away every gun everybody in America owns.  Since that post was written, the four worst mass shootings in American history have taken place.  The post was actually written in response to the Newtown School Shooting on December 14, 2012, which killed 28 people if we include the shooter and his mother. It is only natural to include all the dead after a mass shooting.  But we still do not  have a consistently used and solidly defined understanding of what constitutes a mass shooting.  The verbiage varies from at least three victims shot but not necessarily killed to three or four dead shooting victims.  Since many murder suicides involve spouses or life partners and are generally limited to two dead, most murder suicides do not fall into anyone's commonly used definition of a mass shooting unless they involve several other victims besides the shooter such as children or other relatives.  Another truly bizarre quirk in our examinations of mass shootings and other forms of mass murder such as bombings, arson, and vehicular homicide is that the media and police almost never use the words "terror", "terrorism", or "act of terror" unless the event is perpetrated by a non-white, non-citizen, non-Christian who has expressed some belief in some form of government or religion which is not prevalent in American society.  It is my considered professional opinion, both as a writer and a retired mental health professional, that all mass murders are acts of terror.  No one with good sense would ever approach a survivor of such an act or a relative of one of the victims and argue the point that an event which killed four or more victims was not an act of terror.  All murders, all attacks of any form which kill or seriously injure multiple victims are terrorizing to the victims, witnesses, other intended victims, survivors, first responders, and family members of those murdered or injured.  As a society we need to broaden our definitions of terrorism and acts of terror.  If Porky Pig became enraged due to rabies or having eaten poisonous food and marched into his local mall and killed, maimed, or otherwise injured a dozen people we should and probably would call it an act of terror because Porky Pig is not like the rest of us or his human victims.  But if a Right Wing Religious lunatic who is Caucasian, a self professed "Christian", and an auxiliary deputy  in his local sheriff's department lost his mind and shot and murdered his wife and three children, it is highly unlikely that any form or media or any police spokesperson would call that an act of terror. That is a serious flaw in our reporting, policing, and analytical perspectives.  We must recognize that terror and terrorism do not need to be committed by a Muslim, an African American, an immigrant, or a Rastafarian in order to be terrorism.  Any murder, whether by gunfire, bombing, automobile, stabbing, or poisoning terrorizes both the victim and her family and friends as well as any witnesses to the act.  

I regularly refer to the website Gun Violence Archive when I am seeking information about gun violence, mass murder, or murder statistics in America.  They are the best, most impartial, and most accurate website in the nation in the field of gun violence statistics.  As I am writing this blog post on January 2, 2018, there have already been 138 gun violence incidents with 50 deaths and 83 injuries in less than two days in America.  If you do not believe or understand it, that is far too many incidents, deaths and injuries in what is supposed to be the most civilized country in the world.  In Australia, the country most people commonly think of as being a great deal like America, there have been no mass shootings since a wide ranging change in their laws following the worst mass shooting in the country in 1996 which killed 35 people and wounded 23 more.  Strong gun laws worked in Australia.  They will work in the United States and the 2nd Amendment gives the judicial and legislative branches of government full power to regulate guns and their ownership and usage in America.  

There is something deeply flawed morally, ethically, legally, and religiously in any country which will not take appropriate actions to prevent the murder of 15,000 people and the unnecessary maiming of 30,000 others a year.  The language of the 2nd Amendment is this:
"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

The National Rifle Association has managed, by spending hundreds of millions of advertising dollars and buying the support of thousands of elected officials, to perpetrate the mistaken belief that the government does not have the right to regulate gun  ownership.  The US Constitution is a living document and the US Supreme Court has the right to interpret that document to fit the needs of a changing world.  The phrase "well regulated militia" gives the courts and legislatures full rights to regulate all guns, gun ownership and use, and all auxiliary paraphernalia related to their use.  Both guns and automobiles can be and are used to commit murder, mayhem, and mass injuries and death all across America.  We regulate automobiles and their use from sea to shining sea and we regularly change the laws to meet the needs of the country as is taking place at this time in response to self-driving automobiles. Every state in the union requires registration, insurance, and a drivers license to own and operate a motor vehicle.  But anytime any courageous legislator or judge steps to the plate and makes an honest attempt to regulate guns a public outcry occurs and the National Rifle Association and its well trained members scream, yell, lobby, and threaten to riot in order to prevent life saving progress.  As a nation, we need to re-educate our populace and our legislators to the need for comprehensive federal gun control legislation.  We need to replace any elected official who will not support that effort.  We need to fund organizations which are fighting to improve gun control legislation and we need to lobby both individually and collectively until that legislation is enacted.  

I propose the following changes to US gun control laws and I propose that they be enacted immediately.  However, I am not naive enough to believe this can happen today, tomorrow, or even this year.  But it must happen step by step. 

1. All guns must be required to be registered.
2. All transfers in gun ownership must require a background check conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, and that should include transfers of ownership within families in cases of estate management and gifting.  
3. Those background checks must include all sales at gun shows.  The gun show loophole must be eliminated.
4. All gun ownership should require the owner to complete and pass a basic gun safety course with testing as a requirement to pass the course. 
5. Gun ownership by convicted felons, the mentally ill, and those convicted of any crime of violence should be illegal.
6. All fully automatic guns should be illegal in the country except for use and ownership by legally constituted police agencies functioning as an arm of a federal, state, city, or county government.   
7. All appurtenances such as bump stocks and modified firing mechanisms which can be used to make a gun fully automatic should be illegal. 
8. All parts required to compose a working gun capable of firing, sometimes known as ghost guns, should be illegal for sale unless they carry a registered serial number and require the same permits, clearances and record keeping as complete guns.   
9. The creation of all firearms or any other mechanism capable of firing a bullet or missile of any kind via the use of printers should be illegal with a minimum prison sentence upon conviction.
10. No magazines holding more than five rounds should be legal.  
11. Armor piercing or "cop killer" ammunition must be illegal. 
12. Ownership of all forms of military weapons such as grenade launchers, flame throwers, and rocket launchers should be illegal.
13. All guns seized in the commission of a crime should be impounded by the police and courts and held until the complete legal process in the case has been completed up to and including the expiration of appeals timelines.  Upon conviction and expiration of the appeals process, all weapons used in the commission of a crime should be required to be destroyed the state police in the state in question. 

     I realize most of the ideas expressed in this essay are not going to be well received by supporters of unrestricted gun ownership.  That is fine with me.  We, as a nation, must become willing to listen to the uproar until such time as education and legislation have eliminated the need for these actions.  

Freedom Of Speech--Stand Up, Speak Up, Speak Out!

American Flag Photo By Newsmax.com

Yesterday, July 7, 2017, I received an unexpected phone call from an employee of a large private practice medical practice in Lexington, KY, of which I had been a patient for several years beginning in the early 1990's.  I had become a patient of that practice when a general practitioner I was seeing, greatly respected, and trusted absolutely became a member of that practice.  A few years later, that physician had left that practice and I had gone along with him, following him in at least two practice moves in Central Kentucky because of that trust, respect, and genuine affection for him.  The last time I had seen him, in another practice, about two years ago I felt that he had slipped some in his attention to detail and decided to end my association with him.  When it came time a year of so ago for my annual physical, I had randomly chosen another member of that former practice from which I received the call yesterday and went to see him for my annual physical.  During that physical, we had discussed my potential need for a shingles vaccination and the doctor remarked that "we don't do those here but I can write you a prescription for one and you can get it at a pharmacy.  Barack Obama makes me charge you over $200 for that shot."  The remark was clearly intended to criticize the Affordable Care Act and President Obama.  It also clearly labeled the physician as a Republican party member or sympathizer.  I instantly responded to him that he "still need to be voting Democratic".  He said "we can discuss that some other time" and walked out of the examining room.  To say the least, I was clearly irked by his attempts to criticize both the Affordable Care Act and the best President in recent years in this country.  

President Barack Obama Photo  By White House Archives

When I answered the phone yesterday, the employee stated that it was time for my Medicare Physical and they were calling to schedule it with the physician in question.  I hesitated at first before going on to discuss the issue with the employee.  But after a moment of thought, I told her the story of my previous encounter with the doctor and the fact that his comments had "irked me".  To which she replied "Our Medicare Physicals are performed by one of our nurse practitioners.  Would you like me to schedule you with one of them?"  My response was, "I have three perfectly good nurse practitioners in the county in which I live. I prefer to be seen by an MD. We are facing ongoing treason in this country and I will not support or condone it. I will not spend my money anywhere it is even remotely possible that even one cent of it could go to support a Republican cause."  At that point, she asked me if I would like her to remove me from the patient list of the practice.  After a second of thought, I told her to remove me. Even before the phone call, I had been contemplating the fact that I have not seen a physician in over a year and needed to schedule with someone for an annual physical.  I have no known health problems or prescriptions and had not been under any pressure to find a new doctor any time soon. But I had recently asked a Facebook Friend who works for a nursing college to help me find a politically liberal general practitioner. 

But the two conversations and my ruminations about them have led me to come to some important conclusions.  Firstly, I realized that I should never have hesitated even briefly to voice my opposition to the doctor's defamation of both President Obama and the Affordable Care Act.  I also realized that no one should ever, in these times when TRAITOR Trump, regularly attacks both free speech and a free press, hesitate to voice their freedom of speech, freedom of the press, or any other constitutional freedom. On a daily basis, every citizen in America should be speaking out in defense of the US Constitution and the freedoms it guarantees.  On a daily basis, every citizen in America should be willing to confront TRAITOR Trump, his criminal syndicate which occupies the White House, his TREASON which has placed all of American Democracy in danger, and the Right Wing Radical Repugnicans who tolerate, defend, and support him in his ongoing crime spree against the human race.  I will not, I cannot, I must not stand silently by and watch the destruction of all that is sacred in American politics and government while a gang of Russian Owned TRAITORS work to destroy it.  And neither should you.  Stand up, speak up, speak out to defend the freedoms which all of American history and the US Constitution guarantee you and every other citizen of this country. 

"When Even Angels Wept A Story Without A Hero" by Lately Thomas--Book Review

Thomas, Lately 1973 When Even Angels Wept A Story Without A Hero (New York--William Morrow & Co. 1973)

Several months ago, as the Republican primary season was beginning to heat up and Kentucky's Right Wing Radical Republican Senator Rand Paul announced his candidacy for the presidency I began to read every word I could find on the late Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy who is forever linked to his effort to destroy what he believed or claimed was a communist scourge in America.  Instead of destroying communism, McCarthy destroyed the lives of literally thousands of good, decent, patriotic Americans who were not remotely communists.  I have mentioned in this blog before that in my lifetime I have met and learned from four of the people whose lives were greatly damaged by McCarthy.  I saw a similar willingness on the part of Rand Paul to ignore individual constitutional rights on a mission of pure self interest.  What I did not see at the time I began my reading about Joseph McCarthy was that a far greater danger than Rand Paul was lurking on the American horizon, the TRAITOR Donald Trump.  However, my reading about McCarthy was made just as timely and just as important to American Democracy by the sudden ascendancy of TRAITOR Trump on the political scene.

In the same time frame, I began reading as much of the body of dystopian literature as I could consume since I saw a likelihood for politicians like Rand Paul and the TRAITOR Donald Trump to attempt to destroy freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and most other constitutional freedoms which has happened nearly on a daily basis since the TRAITOR Donald Trump managed to consort with Vladimir Putin in order to steal the American election and the White House.  I have written several blog posts here based on that foresight and the body of dystopian literature.  I have read and written about the work of George Orwell and I have also written about the history of the Holocaust and European Resistance to the Nazi's and Russians.   

As a part of this multifaceted study of literature, I read "When Even Angels Wept A Story Without  A Hero" by Lately Thomas.  The book is a bit long in the tooth having been published in 1973.  But there is not a more timely book for every American to read than this one in light of the ongoing attempts by TRAITOR Trump to destroy freedom of the press and individual constitutional freedoms in America. I actually finished the book a few weeks ago but did not have the time to write about it sooner.  In the interim, TRAITOR Trump has unceremoniously, injudiciously, and self-destructively fired FBI Director James Comey and Director Comey has now testified before the US Senate about the circumstances leading to his firing.  Comey's testimony has contributed significantly to the case against TRAITOR Trump in his association with Vladimir Putin in the hijacking of the presidential election.  More will come of all this in the next few weeks.  It is also significant that the top federal criminal prosecutor, Deputy Solicitor General  Michael Dreeben, has joined the staff of Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller in the ongoing investigation of the Russian conspiracy which has led to the seizure of the White House by TRAITOR Trump and his criminal syndicate.  There is no better time for American citizens to read and study Lately Thomas' book about Joseph McCarthy, who until this year was the greatest political criminal the USA had ever seen.

Lately Thomas takes an interesting position about Joseph McCarthy and his actions. Thomas concludes and states in his introduction to the book that Joseph McCarthy was "a pirate".

"...Joseph McCarthy was a pirate, and one does not, one cannot, pass valid moral judgments on pirates...The distinction which sets the freebooter apart from the violent revolutionary, for example, or from the man who wages a war for some purpose other than plunder, appears in McCarthy, [and in TRAITOR Trump] the essence of this distinction being that the pirate is not amenable to moral laws because he recognizes none. By the very act of becoming a pirate he has forced the moral code, which is binding on other men, to walk the plank.  A man cannot be held morally answerable to laws of which he is incognizant; hence the pirate, entertaining no scruples, whatsoever, is freed of their encumbrance...Whether we are aware of the fact or not, we do not pass moral judgments upon pirates, either the best or the worst of them...because intuitively we grasp that their ways of standards and conduct lie outside the confines of conventional morality.  Ways deplorable, doubtless, antisocial, and even horrible, yet, when regarded impersonally and from behind a buffer of distance, often fascinating.  Moral conformity is not the pirates concern.  For him, rapine is no more reprehensible than is preaching to a parson or lending money at interest to a banker.  We may, if we are strong enough, hold the pirate accountable under statute law; we may even stretch his neck; but morally he will not be answerable to us."  "When Even Angels Wept A Story Without A Hero" pp. 1-2

Contained in that quotation from Thomas' book are several truths which were valid assessments of Senator Joseph McCarthy when the book was written; and those truths are equally valid  assessments of the TRAITOR Donald Trump and the political disaster which he and his criminal syndicate are bringing about in America today.  The TRAITOR Donald Trump is just as much a pirate as Joseph McCarthy and has "forced the moral code...to walk the plank".  His past actions over the last fifty to sixty-five years show a consistent pattern of disrespect for everyone, everything, and every social restriction which society has attempted to place upon him. This recent article discusses his antisocial and violent behaviors even as a child.  It has been necessary for more than 3,500 innocent victims of TRAITOR Trump's business crimes to sue him in order to seek payment of just debts.  According to the article cited in the preceding link, these criminal behaviors are continuing today even as this career criminal and his criminal syndicate illegally occupy the White House.  In many ways, Lately Thomas' book might well have been written about the TRAITOR Donald Trump.

"When Even Angels Wept..." reads at times like a Shakespearean tragedy.  Joseph McCarthy was a poor Irish Catholic Wisconsin farm boy who grew up poor and rose to great power before his gargantuan psychological and moral flaws hamstrung him and brought him down just as permanently as that single unwashed tendon brought an end to Achilles.  McCarthy attended high school as an older student and finished in what was affirmed to be record time while supporting himself by selling eggs to grocers in Milwaukee.  He sailed through law school at Marquette University, was elected to a local judgeship, and joined the Marines when WWII broke out.  However, the record shows, as detailed by Thomas, that while in the Marines, McCarthy deftly finagled his way out of combat situations, managed to describe a common accident as a medal worthy combat wound, and set himself up to run for the US Senate from Wisconsin.  He was living the life of a pirate every day of his life and when he got to Washington that life became magnified, aggrandized, and blown out of all proportion to his actual qualifications and achievements.  Joseph McCarthy was a self-serving freebooter who went about gaining the chairmanship of a relatively minor committee in the senate.  Then he managed, by his criminal interference in the lives of the innocent, to turn that committee into the most publicly notorious arm of the federal government. In just a handful of years, McCarthy destroyed the lives of thousands of innocent victims in order to paint himself as a leader who was worthy of public office. 

However, the book reveals that McCarthy's vast, self-destructive psychological flaws led to his demise along with his alcoholism which was simultaneously destroying his health.  Joseph McCarthy died a premature death at 49 after having been brought into check by his senate colleagues who censured him due to his freebooter ways in the conduct of his investigations.  He was brought up short at the end of his chain much like an ill tempered dog.  There is a great deal to be learned by the average reader and voter by reading any available literature about the life of McCarthy and this book is a great place to start.  Read it with a jaundiced eye due to the somewhat overly positive portrayal which is provided by Lately Thomas at times.  Read it with an eye to the current ongoing political disaster in Washington.  Read it with the intent to find tools to be used in the political resistance necessary to protect our democracy and constitutional rights.