Divide the Country!
My book takes stock of America's predicament--its division into warring sides, and its frustration and paranoia increasing in a political stalemate--and comes up with a fairly outrageous solution: divide the country. Elected officials may agree with such a plan, but promoting it publicly could be an election-killer. Fortunately, the split in the electorate is a fait-accompli--as evidenced by the rancor following the Trump presidency--and it succeeds where political-will fails. Americans only need to respond pro-actively to the split and restore unity to the successor nations. We cannot save a nation dominated by hostile rhetoric. We cannot employ the dictatorial measures many see as the only way to resolve the disunity--the by-product of America's success. America is the last great hope for so many people, they want to turn it to their advantage; but America does not succeed because of voting patterns; it succeeds with foundational documents that facilitate effective governing.
Freedom is a Public Utility
The most available energy source in our nation is the individual initiative of its citizens; so we should establish an environn1ent that enables lasting initiative. Offer the nation's foundational docun1ents as legitimation for it, to explain its reason for being. Convey the ethos of initiative in the nation's culture: its literature, music, media, and educational systems.
In the end, one must also admit, freedon1 is a Cvo-edged sword: dynan1isn1 and wealth but also risk, chaos, and inequality. Dictatorial societies never have the law-cnforccn1cnt problcn1s or inequality that free societies have; so trying to convince everyone to go along ,vith the utility of freedom will be an uphill battle.
The Results of Polar Bear Research
A tender, ribald story about relationships, THE RESULTS OF POLAR BEAR RESEARCH takes the reader to Lake Summit in the mountains of North Carolina, where college students spend the day water-skiing and the evening socializing. John Dawes secretly rues the day he has to graduate from college and enter the adult world. To John, adulthood is a wilderness of blowhards and judgmental hypocrites. The little insight he possesses, he gleans from nature and architecture, his favorite subjects.
Harriet Smiley whom everyone calls "Harry" seems to be a wish come true for John. She charms him with large, vulnerable dark-green eyes and a trembling voice, the very picture of innocence. Their relationship will teach him something he could never learn from a textbook: only children have real innocence. In someone his age, it's probably something else.
Keep These in the Family
Keep These in the Family!" was the great-grandfather's admonition to his descendants, long after his death, whether it concerned his tea service, way of life, friendships, or family connections--for a conservation of values. The descendants, for their part, have to find their peace amid the cross-currents of modern life.