Norris, Jon, and Joey meet as little kids in Chaffee Creek and form an immediate friendship they thought nothing could change. Their midwestern community is safe, secure, and isolated from the outside world, giving the boys plenty of time for adventure—and misadventure—as they grow, cultivate dreams, and deal with fear and disappointment. Although the same in many ways, they are also different. Norris is privileged but ignored. Jon seeks escape from his dysfunctional family, while Joey blissfully floats through life one day at a time. Soon, the outside world intrudes. The death of Joey’s brother leads him into the quagmire of Vietnam. Jon escapes to create a world of his own, and Norris follows his rock and roll fantasy to California in the “Summer of Love.” Years pass, and the friendships wane. Invitations to a forty-five year high school reunion pull the three men back to Chaffee Creek, where they again intersect. Although Norris, Jon, and Joey have lived very different lives, they quickly discover they share more than just childhood memories. Together, although separate, they became men and now look back on how life has a way of changing the unchangeable.
When Bush came to office in 2001, the 10-year budget balance was officially projected to be at a surplus of $5.6 trillion. But after three big tax cuts, the bursting of the stock-market bubble, and the devastating effects of 9/11on the economy, the surplus has evaporated, and the deficit is expected to grow to $ 5-trillion over the next decade. The domestic deficit is only the half of it. Given our $500 billion trade deficit and our anemic savings rate, we depend on an unprecedented $2 billion of foreign capital every working day. If foreign confidence were to wane, this could lead to the dreaded hard landing. Peter G. Peterson--a lifelong Republican, chairman of the Blackstone Group, and former secretary of commerce under Nixon--shatters the myths with hard facts and a harrowing view of the twin deficit's real impact. Republicans and Democrats alike have mortgaged America's future through reckless tax cuts, out-of-control spending and Enron-style accounting in Congress. And the situation will only get worse as the Baby Boom generation begins to retire, making unprecedented demands on entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare. Despite what Bush says, we are on a path that could end in economic meltdown, and we simply cannot grow out of the deficit. In Running On Empty, Peterson sounds the warning bell and prescribes a set of detailed solutions which, if implemented early, will prevent the need for draconian measures later. He takes us behind the politicians' smoke-and-mirror games, and forcefully explains what we must do to rescue the future of our country.
Morality plays were the main form of theatre in England between about 1400 and 1600. They usually portrayed a representative Christian figure locked in spiritual conflict. They have recently been revived as early examples of living theatre.
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