Category Archives: America

America, Politics

End Birthright Citizenship

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For a long time I’ve been an opponent of birthright citizenship. In most countries of the world, a newborn’s citizenship is based on that of the child’s parents, not where they happen to be living when they are born. In the entire world, only about 33 countries have birthright citizenship. Some have it conditionally, but most of the world’s almost 200 countries don’t have it at all.

So why does the USA have it? Because of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. This was the amendment the made it clear that freed slaves were citizens. But the wording applies to anyone born within our borders. Is that what we meant to do, or is it the result of a poorly worded amendment? I don’t know.

But this can only be changed by a Constitutional amendment that supersedes any other related provisions of the Constitution, as previously amended, the establishes:

Citizenship of anyone born in the USA is based on the citizenship of the child’s parents.

It wouldn’t be quite that simple, but that’s the basis of the amendment. I believe President Trump is wrong to think this can be done by an executive order. Even an act of Congress would not be enough.

Could such an amendment pass and become part of the constitution? Maybe. I’m not as sure of this one as I am about the last one I posted on.

America, Politics

Re-Configure the Supreme Court

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When the Constitution was written, the framers wanted a way to distribute power away from any one person or group, and to have a means of checks and balances so that no part of the government could become a bludgeon someone would wield.  So one thing they wanted to do was make the courts as independent of the Executive and Legislative branch as possible.

Hence, the Constitution provides that judges are nominated by the president (executive branch), approved by Congress (legislative branch), and serve for life (or, as the Constitution says, under good behavior). Removal of a judge could be only by impeachment by Congress for violation of the Constitution. The thought was that so long as judges didn’t have to worry about fixed terms and being subject to reappointment, they would be independent of both the executive and legislative branches. One other thought that went into that was that once a judge retired, rather than serve into their dotage, they would have no means of support, what with pensions being unknown.

But times have changed. The lifespan of judicial nominees is much longer than it was in 1787. Rather than the likelihood of serving ten or a dozen years, the norm is now 20 or 30. Judged now get good pensions, so if they decide to retire, their support is firm and generous. And Supreme Court justices are in great demand as speakers and command hefty speaker fees. So at least two of the thoughts about what would make judges independent have disappeared. Maybe it’s time to remake the court.

The financial need for lifetime appointments has disappeared. Now, the only reason for lifetime appointments is keeping S.C. justices independent is to not subject them to limited terms and reappointment. My thoughts are: change lifetime appointments to fixed terms, and do not allow for reappointment. That keeps them independent, and the lack of support being a reason for lifetime appointments is gone. So appoint justices for fixed terms, require them to retire, and keep the court rotating.

How would this work? Change the Constitution to fix the number of associate justices at eight (thus getting rid of the idea of court packing that rears up every decade or so). Have the justices serve for sixteen years, then retire. The rotation should occur in odd numbered years, so that the selection process doesn’t happen in an election year. Make the chief justice still a lifetime appointment.

Thus, in each presidential term, two justices would be appointed. The entire supreme court, not including the chief justice, would turn over every sixteen years. There would have to be a transition period from lifetime to fixed terms, but this could be done based on longest serving associate justice to newest. The transition would start beginning with the odd numbered year after a ratification of an amendment to make this happen.

What about a vacancy due to a death or early retirement? You either make the new appointee be a justice only until that term is over, or you leave the seat vacant, or perhaps you make the new appointment for the remainder of the term plus 16 years. Each of those keeps the judges independent, as they would not be subject to reappointment.

All of this would have to happen by an amendment to the Constitution. Could such an amendment be passed? I believe it could. Most Americans would welcome a more frequent turnover of justices, independence of justices is preserved, the specter of court packing is forever gone, and you get a balance of appointees among all the presidents.

Any thoughts?

America, book reviews, History, memories

Book Review: The Yellowstone Story

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Volume 1 went from boring to overbearing, but managed to get the story across.

It was probably in 2008, during our last trip to Yellowstone National Park, that I dropped in a bookstore outside the park and bought two books, The Yellowstone Story, Volumes 1 and 2. I read the first chapter of Volume 1 right away, got busy with other things, and set it aside. When we got home I picked it up again, read the next four chapters, and laid it aside, wondering if I’d wasted my money.

You see, the first five chapters were, to the best of my recollection, boring. They were about the years before the creation of the park, and were essentially: This party came to Yellowstone from this direction, saw this and that, and left by that direction. Chapter after chapter. No wonder I put it down.

But several months ago, I was in The Dungeon, looking for things to get rid of, and my eyes landed on a short stack of books that had been damaged by water maybe fifteen years ago. I figured I would read these (if the water hadn’t rendered them unreadable), then sell or donate them. One was The Potter’s Wheel—it was very readable. Another was Christ and the Inheritance of the Saints—it was more badly damaged and deteriorated by age, and unreadable. Two others were the two volumes of The Yellowstone Story.

Volume 1 is lightly damaged, whereas Vol 2 severely damaged. Remembering how boring Vol 1 was at the start, I still decided to read it so that I could discard it. So after finishing What If Jesus Was Serious, I opened Vol 1 to chapter 6, about 1/3 into the 326 page book, and began reading. It was the story of the formation of the park. And the story was quite interesting—for a while.

As the story of the early years of the park unfolded, the book bombards the reader with names of people and places. I found keeping them straight was impossible. Buckskin Jim, Yellowstone John. Bill the Hunter. Whatever they were, they all ran together very quickly.

If you could get through the names, the story was good enough. This was the USA’s first national park, and no one really knew how it should be run. Local folks from nearby Montana and Wyoming began poaching game and stealing timber. The railroads fought over which one could run a spur into the park. Visitors had poor accommodations and brought bad reports home. But somehow, the park survived the encroachments and ineffective leaders.

Volume 1 ended with the ending of civilian leadership, around 1885, thirteen years after the park was formed. Volume 2 must start with the first government leaders. I finished Vol 1 yesterday, but will hold off on Vol 2 (if it is sufficiently readable) a couple of weeks while family things are front and center. Vol 1 was extremely well researched, with numerous endnotes making reference to park records, letters, newspapers, Congressional and Territorial records. I started reading them but quickly gave up as being too time consuming. The book is truly written on a scholarly level. It is far from the typical souvenir book you buy at tourist sites.

So how do I rate this book, will I ever read it again, and what do I do with it? Despite the boredom of the early chapters and name bombardment from cover to cover, I give it 4-stars. I don’t think I will ever read it again, unless I read some in the early chapters to see if my seventeen-year-old judgement is the same. I’ll hang on to it until I get past however much of Vol 2 I can read, then I will dispose of them in whatever way seems best.

America, Danny Tompkins Short Stories, Documenting America, Genealogy, goals, miscellaneous, Short Stories, The Forest Throne, Uncategorized

November Progress, December Goals

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Ah, the first of the month comes on a regular blogging day. Perfect time to address progress and set some goals. First, the November progress.

  • As always, blog twice a week, on Mondays and Fridays. I missed one day, Friday of Thanksgiving week. Otherwise, I had a meaningful blog post on each scheduled day. 
  • Attend three writers group meetings. I managed to do this. Thought I was going to miss one, but was able to make all three.
  • Finish editing Documenting America: Run-Up To Revolution, and schedule all chapters to publish to Kindle Vella. Yes! I got this done. All are published to Kindle Vella, no one is spending any money to read them. Alas.
  • Finish the first draft of A Walk Through Holy Week, Part 1. This will be a stretch, but I should get close. No, did not quite get this done. As of yesterday’s writing, I still have a little over two chapters to go. I lost more than a week over Thanksgiving. Before that, I had a hard time with some of the writing, often missing my daily goal, occasionally having to spend the day in study and write nothing. But that’s okay; it was still progress in small steps.
  • Get a little more done on the ideas for The Artwork of God. I’m still in the research stage on this project. Ideas continue to come, so I guess I met this goal. I didn’t put much on paper, however, just brainstorming it. Found a couple of good quotes to go in it. So the goal was met, but just barely.
  • Begin writing down some plot ideas for the next volume in The Forest Throne series. My granddaughter and I sat and talked about this one day while she was here. I told her my ideas and she gave me feedback as well as some of her ideas. Since the book will be about the girl in the Wagner family, I will really need her help.

Now, what about goals for December? It’s the time I’ll have to try to get much done to meet my goals for the year. I haven’t looked at those for a long time. But, without looking back, here’s what I hope to accomplish this month.

  • Blog twice a week, on Monday and Friday.
  • Attend three writers meetings. I’m not sure the third one will be held, as it will be getting close to Christmas.
  • Finish the first draft and much of the editing of A Walk Through Holy Week, Part 1: To Jerusalem. As I said above, I’m down to the last couple of chapters. If I can maintain my writing schedule, I should finish the writing by December 10. That gives me two weeks to edit, enough time to go through the whole thing.
  • Type up some of the ideas for book 3 in The Forest Throne series. I don’t intend to begin actually writing this for perhaps a year, but I want to lock in the ideas generated so far.
  • Work some on Nature: The Artwork of God. This may be the next book I write (still trying to decide), so I need to expand the notes I’ve already taken.
  • Finish the new Danny Tompkins short story and decide what to do with it.
  • Read for research for the next book in the Documenting America series. Actually, until I do my research, I don’t know if this will be the next one or not.
  • Oh, one more: Finish and submit my article on a genealogical brick wall to the NWA Genealogical Society. The contest deadline is Dec 31. The article has been done for almost two months. Time to dust it off and do a final edit.
America, family, home improvements, letters, Stars and Stripes

Special Projects Interrupt Writing

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The newspapers have taken over my work table, as well as my writing time.

It has now been close to two weeks since I have done any significant writing. Why? Not writer’s block, but three special projects, things I’m doing that are capturing my time and will soon (hopefully) be done, allowing me to go back to putting words on paper.

I wonder if Dad modeled for any of these Bill Mauldin cartoons.

The first is going through my dad’s Stars and Stripes newspapers from World War 2. I’ve posted before about this collection. Dad, a typesetter before the war, was able to get a transfer from the invasion forces to the G.I. newspaper. In Africa, Italy, and southern France, Dad set type in war areas for more than two years. He sent copies of the papers home and his parents kept them. He took them when he came home and kept them till his death in 1997. He had told me they would be mine.

Publication locations of the “Stars and Stripes”, and the editions, changed during the war as US troops advanced.

I kept them for years, hoping to go through them, to learn more about the war and Dad’s part in it. Alas, too many years have passed without doing that. I’ve decided to donate the collection to the University of Rhode Island. They will preserve them, make them available to researchers. I was to do that in August when we were to drive back there but, alas, had to cancel that trip for health reasons. I decided I would inventory the collection (though URI told me I didn’t have to). At least that would give me a better idea of Dad’s movements through the European Theatre of Operations.

Starting with about 30 issues a day, I slowly did more and more. I’m now down to around 100 to 150 newspapers, having inventoried over 900. This has been hard work, but it’s almost done. The good news is I’ve found a fair number of duplicates, maybe 50 to 80 issues that I will be able to keep and distribute some day to Dad’s grandchildren. That is a manageable number to keep. I anticipate finishing this project before the end of September.

The next project is digitizing my letter collection. I’ve been at this for a year, and can see the end of it—sort of. I keep finding more letters to digitize. Two weeks ago I pulled a notebook off a shelf, a notebook I thought included some magazine essays (not mine) I had printed. Not so. They were copies of e-mails from the late 1990s, emails I had printed and saved then deleted the electronic copies. What was I thinking, right?

Now, to reduce possessions, I’m scanning them, saving them in an organized way. The process is slowed because sometimes the scanner doesn’t produce the letters exactly as they are. So I have to check the text to make sure it’s right in my new electronic file. Then, I’m also converting it to better fonts, spacing, and layout on the page, just in case I want to assemble them into books in the future. This project isn’t that close to being done.

I’ll finish with this notebook in about a month or a little longer. Then, I’ll get to start going through copies of handwritten letters. I’m not looking forward to that, and won’t start it right away. Gotta finish and publish at least one book first.

The end is in sight of this special project, proofreading our Kuwait Letters book.

The third project is also related to letters. Lynda and I are proofreading the Kuwait Letters book that I put together over the last two years. I ordered a proof copy of it, and saw a number of places where there were typos. Our son looked at it last month and suggested I add more photos to it. Our grandson Ezra read in it while he was here in July. One letter that his mom had written when she was not quite seven years old, looked wrong. I looked at the original and, sure enough, I had skipped a line when transcribing. How often had that happened?

So Lynda and I are proofreading it. She reads from the original letter, I follow along in the book and mark whatever changes are needed. There are too many changes needed, showing that I’m not the world’s best transcriber. We are a little over halfway through the book, able to do about ten pages in an hour in the evening. Only 14 or 15 more sessions to go.

Once that’s done, I’ll pick more photos, reformat the book, and see what I have. I also added in five lately found letters, including one taking six or seven pages. The current file is 325 pages. More photos will likely expand it to 340. No, we’ve found a couple of letters that need some editing either due to repetition or the nature of the material. Maybe only 337 pages. I see that all coming together around the middle of November.

America, family, History, memories

Disaccumulation Is Hard: Finding a Home for the “Stars & Stripes”

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Dad’s headline in the VE edition, Marseilles, France.

Dateline 26 July 2022

The day is surely coming when we will sell this big house and downsize into something smaller. Dis-accumulation is in progress. The next big item to go will be my collection of Stars & Stripes newspapers from World War 2.

It’s a lot of newspapers. Maybe as many as 200-300. I haven’t yet counted them.

The collection is mainly newspapers that my dad, Norman V. Todd, set type on as a G.I. during WW2 in Africa and Europe. Dad gave them to be in 1990 and I brought them home in 1997. There they sat. Twenty-five years and I’ve done nothing with them. I had such plans to read them, research them, and come to a better understanding of that war from the perspective of the men fighting it. Alas, that never happened.

I always thought these would be good to research the “fog of war”. How much printed as the war was in progress would be found to be inaccurate or untrue under the scrutiny of history?

Seven years ago I arranged to donate them to the World War 2 museum in Natick, Massachusetts. My first trip to RI since making that arrangement is coming up next month. I e-mailed the museum to confirm they still wanted them. Not receiving an e-mail in response, I called them this morning. The phone was not in service. A quick check on-line revealed that the museum closed in 2019. Bummer.

A wartime portrait, probably 1944. HIs “Stars & Stripes” insignia shows.

I’ll make this story a short one. Where could I donate them? Or was this a sign I should keep them, do that research that eluded me? I had already checked with the big WW2 museum in New Orleans, and they said they didn’t want any S&S. I checked with the S&S seven years ago, and it seems they didn’t need them.

I thought of three possible places: the University of Rhode Island, which has a special collections center at the university library; the University of Chicago, where our son works; and the Newberry Library in Chicago, an independent research library.  This morning I reached out to all three.

The University of Rhode Island got back to me first, and said they would be happy to take the collection. They often have students researching WW2, and this seems to be of value to them.

The trunk is a family heirloom. At least it will stay in the family for another generation, maybe two.

So the deal is complete. Next month these newspapers will find a new home. From 1943 to 1945, they went from Africa, Italy, and France to East Providence, then to Providence. Then in 1950 to Cranston. Then in 1997 to Bentonville Arkansas. Then in 2002 to Bella Vista Arkansas. All this time they have been in a steamer trunk that my grandfather, Oscar Todd, brought with him when he emigrated to the USA in 1910. The trunk will soon be at a different home in a cousin’s family, and the newspapers will be in Kingston RI.

In some ways, this feels like a betrayal, not to keep them in the family. I’m trying to look at it as solidifying Dad’s legacy in a permanent way, but it’s hard to do, and I’ve shed more than a few tears this afternoon on the realization that this piece of Dad will soon be gone.

Ah, well, when Dad first showed me them in 1990 (I had wondered, as a kid, what those trunks in the basement held; I learned then what filled one of them), he said he hadn’t looked at them since that trunk went into the basement in 1950. If they will now be in a place where maybe someone will make good use of them, where they will be protected and preserved, I guess that’s a better outcome. And my children won’t need to make a hard decision one day.

America, family, miscellaneous

Independence Day

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Another holiday, another non-post post. I had great plans to work about an hour in the yard early this morning before the heat of the day came. But I woke up around 6:15 a.m. with leg cramps, probably from dehydration. Got up and sat in my chair for half an hour. At that point I decided to just have a simple holiday. The yardwork can wait a day or two.

I’m about to enter a very busy week and next weekend. Medical appointments, church Centennial duties, Scribblers & Scribes meeting. Preparing for kids and grandkids to come. Much writing work to do. Too hot to walk outside, so I’ll see if I can get some good minutes on the elliptical.

See you all on Friday, with a book review.

America, book reviews

Book Review: Along The Edge Of America

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An enjoyable read. Well written, easy reading, engaging subject. I must search for his other book somewhere on my shelves.

Peter Jenkins is famous for his walk across America, which he did around 1974 and turned into a bestseller book of that name. I have that book, somewhere on a shelf or in a box, and will someday read it. Meanwhile, I had another of his books conveniently at hand, Along The Edge Of America, so a couple of months ago the wife and I read it aloud. We picked this up as a used copy somewhere along the line, and it has been waiting quite a few years for us to read it.

It wasn’t what I expected. By “the edge of America” he means our southern water border, the Gulf of Mexico. After much planning, Jenkins went by boat solo from the tip of the Florida Keys to the Texas border with Mexico at the Gulf. While it was something I didn’t expect—and don’t ask me what I did expect—it did not disappoint.

Jenkins started by telling about his divorce, from the woman he met (I think in New Orleans) on his walk across America, who he married and who finished the walk with him. He made his money off the first book, bought land in the hills of Tennessee, and went there to live rather than back to his native Connecticut. He married again. But his feet became restless, and decided to do something else. Meanwhile, since his first, famous walk, he had done others and published the stories.

He decided to follow our southern coast. Buying a boat, he engaged teachers of boatsmanship (that may not be a word), navigation, survival, and whatever else he needed. He went to the coast and, after shakedown, he was off. His starting point wasn’t Key West, but  uninhabited American islands beyond Key West named the Dry Tortugas. Thence to the better known keys. Thence up the west coast of Florida, thence along the Florida panhandle, thence across the Alabama coast…well, you know your geography and get the picture.

Along the way, he met lots of interesting people. Let’s see, there were commercial fishermen in southern Florida; marijuana trans-shippers further north, old friends in New Orleans, victims of repeated hurricanes in western Louisiana, and modern pirates in Texas. He made a trip up a river into Alabama, a hundred miles inland, and met interesting people there.

While often he was solo, he had his new wife and baby come for a while, as well as his older children. When he stopped, it wasn’t for a night, but for months at a time. The book describes many interactions with local people he encountered along the way. This is as much a part of the book as his time on the water.

Jenkins talked about how he quickly picked up the knack of operating the boat, how he built relationships with people. Sampling of various native foods was part of it.

This is a good book, easily read. My wife and I read it aloud in the evenings. Seldom were we bored, and never did we want to skip a day. I give this book 5 stars.

But is it a keeper? Alas, no. Too many books in the house already, and, my criteria for keepers nowadays is two-fold: 1) will I ever want to read this again? and 2) is it part of a larger collection I want to keep intact? The answer is no to both of these. So it has gone into the donation/sale pile. A trip to a thrift store is likely to happen this week, and this will go. Now, where did I put that other Jenkins book?

America, Health, Politics

So Tired Of Covid Protocol Arguments

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“I’m not wearing a mask. I’m a free person and you can’t make me! The government can’t make me! I won’t be a sheep like you!”

“If you don’t wear a mask you are purposely killing people. Murderer!”

These are the two ends of the covid argument, and I’m sick of it. The rhetoric is way over the top on both sides. It’s the same for the vaccines, though, if anything, it’s even worse for the vaccines. People yelling past each other on each of these issues, not only on social media, but in real life as well.

I’m trying to ignore it as much as I can. I’m a reasonably intelligent person and don’t really feel like I need the government telling me what to do. They are a good data-gathering organization and, if they will just do that and make the aggregated data available and easy to find and understand, without hiding any data that might argue against some kind of prevailing wisdom. I can then make good decisions. I did that. I received a vaccine (J&J was the one being offered at the place where I went) and, since the resurgence in covid cases I’ve gone back to wearing a mask in public.

But the question I have is do people not know how to get what they want? It’s an old business adage: “Do you want to be right, or do you want to get what you want?” The idea behind this is sometimes you might be right and lose the argument or not get what you want. A hypothetical: You’re a Republican and want to put a campaign bumper sticker on your car. But you want to get business from a certain city and the mayor is a Democrat. So, to get what you want (more business and more profit) you don’t worry about being right (displaying a Republican bumper sticker). Don’t worry about being right; instead get what you want.

On social media, George Takei posted this:

Telling me you are proudly unvaccinated is like telling me you’re a drunk driver. You’re not a patriot. You’re not a freedom fighter. You’re a menace.

Does Takei really think this will convince people who have resisted getting the vaccine to now get it? Is this how you win arguments? I don’t think so. I suppose Takei feels pretty good about himself. In a witty way he called those who refuse the vaccine idiots. But he is, in fact, hurting his own cause. No one is going to decide to get the vaccine because George Takei calls them a menace. Because Takei speaks this way he will cause some who were on the fence to do the opposite of what he wants them to do. So I say to him, “George, learn how to get what you want rather than be right.”

I want to suggest an alternate approach. It’s the approach our church took. First, a little history. When the pandemic hit in March 2020, our church ended in-person services. Services went on-line. Sometime around June 2020, they began services in-person but continued on-line and did not encourage in-person attendance. The sanctuary that seats 600 was reconfigured to seat less than 100. Masks were required. Physical distancing was required. Life groups didn’t meet in person. Hand sanitizer was everywhere. Then, in September 2020, we increased seating in the sanctuary just a little. That’s when I went back to in-person church. Then, somewhere around Jan-Feb 2021, things opened up a little more. People started coming back in larger numbers. We still physically distanced, but masks were mostly done away with.

Then, somewhere around June 2021, covid cases began spiking in northwest Arkansas. A few people went back to wearing masks. A few vulnerable people went back to on-line church. In July the church re-instituted a protocol, a recommendation, to wear masks in any part of the church where you couldn’t distance from others. But this was all made voluntary with a request/strong suggestion that you do this. And, since that was re-instituted, we have had 100 percent compliance with these voluntary standards. 100 percent compliance. Maybe some who can’t wear masks or won’t wear masks decided to stay away or attend on-line.

Our pastor wrote a blog post about this. It’s worth reading.

An Open Letter To My Church

It’s a little long, but not so much. I hope you read it. Here’s the salient point in it.

I looked around the lobby this past Sunday and everyone was wearing masks, complying with the recommendation of our board. This happened not because you were forced, but because you believed the wellbeing of your neighbor was more important than your personal comfort or freedom.

My point is that beating up people, insulting people, shaming people, to convince them to wear a mask in public, be vaccinated against covid, or practice physical distancing won’t work. It won’t. But giving them information and explaining to them what you think is right, what you hope they will do and want them to do, for their own good and for the good of the community, will result in people doing what you want—to a much larger extent than shaming/insulting/belittling.

America, Bible study, book reviews, Christianity

Book Review: The Harbinger

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While we were in Orlando in May-early June, we took a morning to go to a Books-a-Million store near where we needed to pick up some first aid supplies. Lynda cut her foot on a barnacle-encrusted rock at the beach and had stitches. I also needed to take care of something at the pharmacy. Our errand completed, we went around the corner to the book store.

This book has an important message for the USA, but they way that message is presented rates it 2-stars from me.

That’s a favorite activity of mine, to go to a book store (or a library works just as well) and browse, select, read while drinking coffee, and probably not buy. On this day I bought a writer’s magazine, and Lynda bought The Harbinger by Jonathan Cahn. Cahn is a Messianic Jew, and Lynda listens to his podcasts. I’ve listened some too, but haven’t heard them enough, or paid attention enough (I’m always multi-tasking) to get a good feel for what his message is. This book was our evening reading for much of June.

The subtitle of the book is “The Ancient Mystery That Hold The Secret of America’s Future”. The book essentially draws out parallels that Cahn sees between Isaiah 9:10-11 and the events of 9-11 and the years since then. It’s a warning—a harbinger—for America, to turn back to God.

In Isaiah, God’s protection was prophesied to be removed from Israel (the Northern Kingdom) and, because their response to God’s rebuke was incomplete, another judgment would fall on Israel. This happened to Israel, just as Isaiah prophesied.

The literary technique used by Cahn is a dialog, or actually two dialogs, between Nouriel and 1) an investigative reporter named Ana and 2) an unnamed prophet. It was this prophet who gave Nouriel a series of seals. Nouriel had to investigate what the seals meant. As he followed the clues, the prophet would suddenly appear and help him to understand what the seals meant, what Israel went through, and what the USA was going through.

I find it difficult to find any fault with what Cahn says in the book concerning the fate of the USA. He could well be right that we are on a declining leg of our up and down history, and there may not be a future up leg. Our zenith may indeed have happened and it’s all down from here. Cahn doesn’t lay out a litany of what’s wrong with America. Simply that we as a nation have turned away from God; that 9-11 was evidence that the hand of God’s protection has been removed from us; that we did not respond to that warning with repentance and turning but with defiance and bravado; that other judgments have come upon us and are still coming. I won’t say he’s incorrect about any of those. The book was copyrighted in 2011, and much has happened since then.

However, Cahn’s literary vehicle was not good. In fact, I’d call it bad. The dialogs between Nouriel and the prophet and Nouriel and the reporter were tedious and repetitive.  The seals were a contrivance to build the story on. A simple statement of the message Cahn wants to give (Wake up, America! Wasn’t 9-11 enough? Wasn’t the Panic of 2008 enough?) could have been given in 100 pages or less instead of the 253 pages in the paperback we read.

He could have avoided the silliness of the seals. He could have spared us the endless dialog, and scenes of lower Manhattan or of various places in Washington D.C., where Nouriel and the prophet met up. Rabbi Cahn, if you read this, those things detracted from your message, they didn’t add to it.

It seemed that every night as we read, and I waded through the dialog or descriptions of what was on a fictitious seal, I would say aloud, “Well, he just lost 5 stars,” or “No way I can give this 4 stars.” In fact, if I post a review on Amazon, I will likely give it 2 stars. It would be 1 star for organization and writing, but higher for message.

In my mind, this book is not a keeper. I don’t ever plan on reading it again. Lynda will likely want to keep it. So on the shelf it will go.