Character Witness

 


I make no secret of this.  I have a book which was just published this year that I 
hope will change the world.

Two-and-a-half years in the making, it's not just more pulp fiction to add to the
pile. I wrote this with serious intentions of making a difference __ a
huge difference __ in the way America goes about its elections.

The great thing about writing a novel is being able to speak through the characters. 
Martin Truth is my main character for An Unlikely Truth. Martin is a third-party 
congressional candidate making his fourth attempt at ousting a duplicitous, 
blowhard, right-wing incumbent in Ohio's conservative 3rd District. Like many 
__ how about most? __ politicians these days, the incumbent says one thing, then
does the exact opposite. His loyalty is to big campaign donors, corporate
sponsors, and deep-pocketed oligarchs, at the expense of his
well-meaning but gullible constituents. In baffling but predictable
lockstep, people keep voting this guy back in, even though it's
ultimately against their own interests __ sound familiar?

Martin wants to put some integrity back into politics, at least in his
district, and fights an incredibly difficult battle against near
impossible odds and the ruthless tactics and brutal smear campaign of
his opponent, driven by a naive but firm belief in the fundamental right
of voters to be properly represented.

Here is a key passage from the book . . .

"What did Martin Truth stand for?

As the Green Party candidate he obviously believed in protecting the
environment. Something had to be done to stop global warming, if it
wasn’t too late already. We had to end our addiction to fossil fuels,
especially oil. There should be huge private and public investments in
renewable alternative energy sources: wind, ocean, solar. We had to
reverse deforestation. End desertification. Halt the privatization of
water and other basic necessities. Encourage local food production,
promote organic agriculture, and reduce the use of pesticides and GMO
seeds. In general, the world needed to back off corporatizing everything
and return to local production and control. With bold and determined
political leaders on the front lines, it needed to confront and defeat
the multinational corporate juggernaut that was polluting and destroying
the Earth.

As might be expected, Martin’s progressivism extended broadly from his
commitment to environmental causes to a number of co-related social
issues. He categorically took exception to the every-man-for-himself
madness of the right wing and believed that all of us through
representative government should take a greater role in helping others,
especially those who were less able to fend for themselves. This
included the old, the infirm, victims of racism and other forms of
discrimination. And those who had lost their jobs and fallen on hard
times. The poor. The undereducated. Children. Most definitely children!
Without a doubt, Martin would be labeled as a bleeding-heart liberal by
the crass law-of-the-jungle conservatives, who he thought lacked both
compassion and common decency, people who called themselves Christians
but somehow missed the most obvious and critical aspects of Christ’s
teachings: Feed the hungry, clothe the poor, heal the sick, tend to the
needs of the less fortunate.

'For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something
to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you
clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you
came to Me … Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of
these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.'  –  Matthew 25:35/36/40

Hardly what could be called a Bible-thumper, questionably even a Christian at
all by any conventional standards, Martin had used that passage in his
campaign literature last election season. Very few voters seemed to
appreciate its relevance to the progressive ideals he espoused. If they
did, they still managed to forget about him when it came time to vote.

Martin was also deeply committed to human rights, under relentless assault
long before humankind even recognized what they were. It was ironic that
now in many countries which had long had an onerous record of human
rights abuses, there were significant improvements, while in America
itself, allegedly champion of humane and just treatment, fairness, and
respect for all, human rights was suffering dismal setbacks every day.

He was especially concerned about the intrusive levels of officially
unacknowledged surveillance, and the constant push for locking up more
and more citizens. There seemed to be a new mentality taking over which
destroyed any sense of proportion and reason with respect to
incarceration. It certainly was destroying justice and equality before
the law. The operating principle was: If we build it, they will come. Or more to the point: We’ve built a helluva lot of these prisons, now we’ve got to fill them! They were filling the prisons all right. Mostly with people of color.

Admittedly, there was a lot on his wish list, a substantial catalog of action items
which embraced the things Martin thought had to be done immediately to
reverse the downward, self-sabotaging course of the country. It was a
daunting set of tasks requiring the energy of the whole nation working
together, unified and determined in their dedication to rebuild a great
America.

Daunting or not, these were the things which drove him to seek a seat in Congress.

These were the things he thought crucial for a better world."

People love to label others. Somehow this puts them at ease. Once they've put
someone in a box, they feel they can deal with them. Or just dismiss
them and walk away. I full agree with Martin Truth. So what does this
make me? A liberal? A socialist?

I think it just makes me a decent human being.  

If I ever have to stand trial, I hope to call to the stand a character
witness who merely says that. "Like Martin Truth, John   is a decent
human being. He just wants a better world."

An Unlikely Truth has been out since mid-February. Just go here for all  
of the ways to pick up a copy. If the reviews are to be believed, it's a 
good read with a solid message.

I certainly hope your reading it will be as inspiring as it was for me to write it.

Peace.




[ This originated at the author's personal web site ... http://jdrachel.com ]

Obviously Insane?

 

A definition of insanity attributed to Albert Einstein getting a lot of attention lately is . . .

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

So every day I get up, read the news, write some comments on Facebook, OpEdNews,
Huffington Post, sign some petitions. Some days I write a blog (that takes up several hours), 
some years I write a book. That means 6 to 8 months of focused work. (My most recent novel, 
"An Unlikely Truth" took about two years to research, then six months to write and re-write.)


This pattern of activity has been going on for several years now. Day after day, I do these same 
things over and over. Each and everyday I check the news, the reports, the updates.

I keep hoping.

But nothing changes.

Well . . . technically it does. Things get worse.

But there you are. The textbook (or comic book) definition of insanity. Doing the same thing 
over and over and expecting a different result.

Sound familiar?

But I figured something out the other day. Maybe I'm not insane.

There is an important concept that applies here. That concept is critical mass.

Adapted from nuclear physics, where a certain critical concentration of fissile material is 
required to create and sustain a nuclear reaction, the sociodynamic concept of critical mass 
is parallel.

Basically, it suggests that there is some level of active participation within society, where 
change occurs and becomes self-sustaining. Estimates of what percentage of the general 
population is sufficient varies. Some say only 5%, others suggest it's more like 20%.

The important thing is that profound change, even huge paradigm shifts, don't necessitate 
100% of the population. An aggressive, focused minority can move mountains. They might 
even be able to move Congress. Wouldn't that be special!

So in terms of our current, highly frustrating political quagmire, let me suggest my own, 
slightly different definition of insanity . . .

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over but not having enough other insane people 
doing it to get a different result.

Obviously insane?

Or just hopeful?

______________________________________________________________


I am doing what I can to address the destruction of our democratic system.

Without taking back our government, nothing will change.

In my new book, An Unlikely Truth, I offer an electoral strategy which I believe can 
effectively remove the crooks and liars from office, and begin to restore representative
democracy to America.

An Unlikely Truth (Literary Vagabond Books) is now available worldwide in
every popular ebook format and as a deluxe edition paperback.

Spitball Politics

 

With my new book An Unlikely Truth coming out, I've had a few interesting days recently.

Among several interviews I did last week, I ended up on a right wing radio
talk show. We only had a few minutes but the host immediately challenged
me with . . . "Well, since money is free speech, how can you get the
money out of politics? And why would you want to?"

For one of the few times in my life, I was speechless.

Of course, you and I know the answer to that question. But it's a VERY LONG ANSWER!

It's an answer that goes to the very core of the values each of us hold about
our country, about our system of government, about what democracy means
and how it should function in a free society.

Then something occurred to me.

This guy threw me a spitball.

He fired a pitch covered in slime, lubricated with the mucous of his warped,
partisan, and corporate view of America, meant to slip and slide off any
attempt by me to give it a good smack at least into the outfield, if
not the stands.

Therefore . . . there was no point in even trying to answer it.

If you think that spitballs are not in the spirit of good sportsmanship, not
aligned with the greater good of baseball and fair play, you don't
attempt to discuss it with a pitcher who has just won his last 15 games
throwing the spitball.

You talk to people with some perspective, people who can look at our national
sport, see it as only being fair, competitive, entertaining, and a contribution to 
our culture, when we all recognize that the integrity of the sport is more 
important than winning a particular game.

As a result, it was long ago decided by fair-minded, concerned members of 
the baseball community:

Spitballs are the unsavory choice of slime balls.

And the guys who insisted on throwing them were given an ultimatum:

Stop throwing spitballs or you can't play the game.

It's the same with politics. We can't expect Congress or any of our national
leaders to do the right thing about Citizens United or the corruption
of our system with truckloads of corporate money, when these are the
very people who are benefiting from this heinous mutilation of American
democracy.

If the current crop of lackluster elected officials don't want to play the game
with honesty, distinction, respect for the American people, and
reverence for representative democracy, they shouldn't be allowed to
play the game.

Spitball politics in the form of legalized bribery by lobbyists, play-for-pay
politicians, and corruption of our political system by deep-pocketed
oligarchs, is destroying America, or at bare minimum turning it into
something we barely recognize.

No more spitball politics, I say.

If our current crop of weak-kneed elected officials don't have the courage and
integrity to adopt sportsmanlike rules by legislatively ending Citizens
United immediately, they don't belong in the game.

If a politician can't embrace and play by sportsmanlike rules, one strike and he's out!

______________________________________________________________

I am doing what I can to address the destruction of our democratic system.

Without taking back our government, nothing will change.

In my new book, An Unlikely Truth, I offer an electoral strategy which I believe 
can effectively remove the crooks and liars from office, and begin to restore 
representative democracy to America.

An Unlikely Truth (Literary Vagabond Books) will be released worldwide on March 24th.



[ This originated at the author's personal blog site . . . http://jdrachel.com ]