You've never seen the 70's like this before. Travel back in time, with a band of unlikely young River Rats on the upper Mississippi, to the Bicentennial summer of 1976. From tempestuous all-night beach parties and waterways filled with roaring outboards, to forgotten back-roads, muscle cars, turbulent rivalries, and naïve erotic explorations, they live life on the edge, heedless of the consequences, through the epic seasons of a year that will forever change their lives, in a pre-AIDS, pre-internet, pre-screen addicted middle America, on the final cusp of innocence.
A science fiction anthology unlike any other. With 10 stories from 11 Minnesota authors and graphic artists, "Cifiscape Vol. II" provides a vision of what the future of the Twin Cities could look like.
“We are not worth more, they are not worth less.” This is the mantra of S. Brian Willson and the theme that runs throughout his compelling psycho-historical memoir. Willson’s story begins in small-town, rural America, where he grew up as a “Commie-hating, baseball-loving Baptist,” moves through life-changing experiences in Viet Nam, Nicaragua and elsewhere, and culminates with his commitment to a localized, sustainable lifestyle. In telling his story, Willson provides numerous examples of the types of personal, risk-taking, nonviolent actions he and others have taken in attempts to educate and effect political change: tax refusal—which requires simplification of one’s lifestyle; fasting—done publicly in strategic political and/or therapeutic spiritual contexts; and obstruction tactics—strategically placing one’s body in the way of “business as usual.” It was such actions that thrust Brian Willson into the public eye in the mid-’80s, first as a participant in a high-profile, water-only “Veterans Fast for Life” against the Contra war being waged by his government in Nicaragua. Then, on a fateful day in September 1987, the world watched in horror as Willson was run over by a U.S. government munitions train during a nonviolent blocking action in which he expected to be removed from the tracks and arrested. Losing his legs only strengthened Willson’s identity with millions of unnamed victims of U.S. policy around the world. He provides details of his travels to countries in Latin America and the Middle East and bears witness to the harm done to poor people as well as to the environment by the steamroller of U.S. imperialism. These heart-rending accounts are offered side by side with inspirational stories of nonviolent struggle and the survival of resilient communities Willson’s expanding consciousness also uncovers injustices within his own country, including insights gained through his study and service within the U.S. criminal justice system and personal experiences addressing racial injustices. He discusses coming to terms with his identity as a Viet Nam veteran and the subsequent service he provides to others as director of a veterans outreach center in New England. He draws much inspiration from friends he encounters along the way as he finds himself continually drawn to the path leading to a simpler life that seeks to “do no harm.&rdquo Throughout his personal journey Willson struggles with the question, “Why was it so easy for me, a ’good’ man, to follow orders to travel 9,000 miles from home to participate in killing people who clearly were not a threat to me or any of my fellow citizens?” He eventually comes to the realization that the “American Way of Life” is AWOL from humanity, and that the only way to recover our humanity is by changing our consciousness, one individual at a time, while striving for collective cultural changes toward “less and local.” Thus, Willson offers up his personal story as a metaphorical map for anyone who feels the need to be liberated from the American Way of Life—a guidebook for anyone called by conscience to question continued obedience to vertical power structures while longing to reconnect with the human archetypes of cooperation, equity, mutual respect and empathy.
This book does not offer any miracles, although it does offer a better opportunity for someone to get results, for one who is prepared to get out of the victim role and take a positive step into seeing what they can do for themselves. By reading this book, you will realise the significance of continuous learning. And that’s how philosophy tries to discover the nature of truth and knowledge, to find what is of basic value and importance in life. This is about the relationships between humanity and nature and between the individual and the society.
After serving in the Vietnam War, S. Brian Willson became a radical, nonviolent peace protester and pacifist, and this memoir details the drastic governmental and social change he has spent his life fighting for. Chronicling his personal struggle with a government he believes to be unjust, Willson sheds light on the various incarnations of his protests of the U.S. government, including the refusal to pay taxes, public fasting, and, most famously, public obstruction. On September 1, 1987, Willson was run over by a U.S. government munitions train during a nonviolent blocking action in which he expected to be removed from the tracks. Providing a full look into the tragic event, Willson, who lost his legs in the incident, discusses how the subsequent publicity propelled his cause toward the national consciousness. Now, 23 years later, Willson tells his story of social injustice, nonviolent struggle, and the so-called American way of life.
Just Call Me Whitey is a coming of age story set in a half-forgotten America at the cusp of tectonic national—and generational—changes that still deeply resonate. It reveals a time and place when America was only first emerging from its sordid history of bigotry and hate, where a black man could not become President of the United States and was routinely denied even society’s most common conveniences such as the use of a lunch counter or a public drinking fountain. The focus is on the life of Bill Doyle as he learns to relate his own life to others without using the color bar. Time and toil have rendered an earlier version of Bill’s story, published in 2010 as Smartass, An Awakening, even more relevant today. Brian Kelly graduated from Harvard with honors in English in 1967. He is currently working on four additional novels, Our American, Mother Russia, Commie Spy and The Soviet Patriot From Brooklyn, to complete a Russian quintet which began with The Irish Smuggler, a tale of international criminal adventure, published in 2013. Our American will be published in 2016 and Mother Russia in early 2017. Kelly’s first novel, Tropic of Paradise, A Tahitian Love story, published in 2010, is another coming of age tale, but set on the ‘island of love’ in a golden hued South Pacific. Kelly currently lives and works far from Tahiti, in Bushwick, Brooklyn.
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