La Chispa

The Revolution Begins

La Chispa
By Perry McFarlin

          The new healthcare legislation cost William Snider his job and home.  As his middle class life falls apart, anger against the government brews.  In an attempt to calm her husband’s growing storm, Sarah plans a family trip to Washington D.C.  Nearly broke they walk along the National Mall with their children.  Through a series of believable events; they experience the “true underbelly” of today’s government.  However, in another believable plot point, the author, Perry McFarlin, shows how podcasters and flash mobs could today change the course of history at such an epic moment.  This moment becomes the spark that the author uses for his title, La Chispa. 

          The first portion of the story closely follows the Snider family and is largely shown to us through events in the plot.  This is the best-written, most compelling part of the story.  Within this first section there are a number of excellent lines, such as “putting plume to parchment,” and a home with “all the luxuries that credit cards could fill it with,” that show the talent of the author.    

          With many stories in this genre, I have trouble believing how the crisis could start, but McFarlin does that well.  However, as the story continues, the reader is introduced to a host of new characters from police officers to gang members and the President.  Each has a role to play in events that spark the coming revolution.  This may reflect how events often happen in reality, many people playing their small role in the grand scheme of history, but as the Snider family fell into the background and new characters moved to the forefront I wondered where the story was going.  I began to doubt that McFarlin would tie up the loose ends by the Epilogue.  To his credit, he does manage to tie up most of the loose ends.

           Perry McFarlin has both talent and potential, but he will need to tighten up his plots and follow that old writers adage, show don’t tell, if he intends to reach a wider audience.  Nevertheless, within the militia-TEOWAWKI genre, La Chispa is a good read.  I suspect that we will be seeing more and better stories from him in the near future.     

Molon Labe

Come and Take Them

Molon Labe
By Boston T. Party

In 480 B.C. the Emperor Xerxes, leader of the 100,000 man invading Persian Army, stood at the pass of Thermopylae and demanded that the vastly outnumbered Greek defenders surrender their weapons.  The reply of the Spartan king, Leonidas, has echoed down the ages, “Molon Labe,” or in English, “Come and take them.”  Thus, right from the title, the tone of this most unusual novel is set.

Starting in 1995, the novel Molon Labe explores the idea of libertarians moving to Wyoming.  As their numbers grow, they begin to win elections and gradually take political power.  The novel moves forward, each chapter is a year, as the libertarian plan to reform the state unfolds.  Meanwhile the federal government becomes more oppressive and opposed to the “nuts” in Wyoming.

 As often happens in the genre, lackluster writing weakens a great plot.  The author Kenneth W. Royce writes under the pen-name of Boston T. Party.  Among his most well know books are Boston's Gun Bible and You & the Police.  Molan Labe is his first fiction work and is really a policy outline for the Free State Wyoming Project.  In the novel, he mixes interesting plot development with lecture and plan of action.  This is interspersed with legal notions, opinion and some conspiracy theory.  As I read, I learned a lot more about Wyoming and email encryption.      

If you don’t agree with the philosophy behind the book, I suspect you’ll hate it.  However, if your economics are laissez-faire, you support gun rights and your politics are libertarian, you’ll be willing to overlook the literary and style issues and enjoy a very thought provoking plot.  I give the plot five stars for originality and the literary quality two stars for an overall rating of three. 

Waiting for Superman

Waiting for Choices

Waiting for Superman
Director: Davis Guggenheim
Producer: Lesley Chilcott
With: Michelle Rhee and Geoffrey Canada
Rated: PG

          Waiting for Superman is a “must see” for every parent struggling to find the right school for their child.  It won’t provide many answers, but it will put you face-to-face with the problem. 

          I watched the film with several fellow teachers.  Reactions ranged from shrugs to walking out in disgust.  One New York City teacher demonstrating at a showing of the film, called it “complete nonsense.”  That is perhaps the heart of the issue; too many in the education establishment refuse to face the problems. 

            The director, Davis Guggenheim, acknowledges that he first saw the problem, and came up with the idea for the documentary, as he passed several public schools on the way to drop off his own children at private school.  While many on the right have praised this film, Guggenheim is not a conservative.  Considered liberal or progressive, he produced both Al Gore’s global warming film, An Inconvenient Truth and a short film for Barack Obama.  However, as director of Waiting for Superman we see more of the parent struggling for answers to complex questions.

          In a review titled, An Even More Inconvenient Truth, William McGurn of the Wall Street Journal calls the film, “a stunning liberal exposé of a system that consigns American children who most need a decent education to our most destructive public schools.”  Guggenheim has grudgingly arrived at conclusions about public schools that conservatives have been voicing for years; however, these conclusions have much more power coming from a liberal.   

          At least one of my fellow teachers considers the documentary an attack on teachers.  It is not, but it does indict the current structure that is failing our children.  The film acknowledges that there are outstanding teachers, excellent schools and superior districts, but the system as a whole is floundering.  Good teacher are not rewarded, bad teachers are rarely fired and parents have few, if any, choices. 

          If the film has a bias, it is for charter schools as the solution for many, if not most, of the current school problems.  Most casual viewers would come away with a very favorable opinion of charter schools.  While admitting that most charter schools don’t outperform public schools the film focused on a few that do.

          The documentary profiles several students and their families as they desperately apply to get into nearby charter schools.  Each student must be selected in a lottery as the charter schools have many more applicants than open spots.  The last scenes of the film document the lottery selection day for each student.  As the film ended, and most families went home disappointed, I couldn’t help but think that this nation could do better, must do better, than failing local schools and a lottery to escape them.  Watch the film, get informed and become part of the solution.

Lights Out

EMP and Societal Collapse

Lights Out
By David Crawford

          When an Electro-Magnetic Pulse (EMP) attack destroys the power grid, this intriguing novel begins.  Mark Turner is at work in the San Antonio area when the Burst, as it is called in the novel, sends the nation into chaos.  Telephones and most radios go silent, late model cars die, planes fall from the sky.  Government struggles to maintain order and provide relief, but in the cities, society quickly breaks down.  The novel follows Mark, his friend Jim Davis and a growing community of family and friends as they work feverishly to protect themselves and their families while civilization unravels around them.

          Lights Out has been downloaded from the internet in PDF format over three million times.  It is now available in a 600-page paperback edition and on Amazon.com in Kindle format where it is selling well.

          The author, David Crawford, states in his bio that he resides in San Antonio and is “an avid outdoorsman who likes to hunt, fish, hike, off-road, and shoot,” and that he is a black belt in Karate.  There is definitely something of David Crawford in the character of Mark Turner.

          Most reviews that are critical of the book fault the writing and that is what compelled me to give it four stars.  However, the EMP threat is so real and compelling I can forgive some bad editing (that will hopefully be corrected in latter editions) and the expository telling, instead of showing, through much of the story.  Others, who see the novel as simply as an action novel might be quicker to fault technique.

          The novel is a warning.  In the embedded interview you will hear Crawford state that he wrote the book, “to try to get people to prepare.”  The novel does stir thinking and discussion.  Could it happen?  What would we do?  Are we ready?    

          My wife and I read Lights Out at the same time.  I thought the book compared favorably to One Second After (also reviewed on RuminationsBlog).  Lights Out had the better story, but One Second After had the better writing.  My wife felt Lights Out was the better novel on both counts.  We agree that Lights Out is a realistic, thought-provoking post-apocalyptic novel.  

          At the close of my review of One Second After I said, “The threat is real.  Read the book.”  The threat has not diminished, read both.   

The 5000 Year Leap

History as it was Once Taught in School

The 5000 Year Leap
By W. Cleon Skousen

          I’m old enough to remember being taught about the Founding Fathers and the Constitution with respect and patriotic pride.  However, as I was growing up the mood of the nation was changing.  Patriotism gave way to disdain and derision.  The Founding Fathers were dismissed as “dead white men,” and the Constitution as a dated “living document,” subject to interpretation by modern liberal scholars.  Patriotism may be enjoying a mild resurgence, but public school education about the period of our founding remains abysmal.  The 5000 Year Leap goes a long way toward filling that void.    

          The premise of the author, Cleon Skousen, is that the freedom guaranteed by  the United States Constitution, and the free market principles necessary to such a  free society, energized the citizens of our country and as the light of freedom spread to other nations it facilitated a worldwide great leap of progress.   It is difficult to dismiss world progress over the last two hundred years; causation is the issue.      

          Both sections of the book are grounded in Judeo-Christian principles.  Because modern secularism seeks to strip away this foundation, I found this emphasis refreshing.  Each section consists of succinct easy-to-read chapters.  The major points are backed by abundant quotes.    

In the first section, Skousen correctly points out that in 1607 the settlers of Jamestown had come to America “in a boat no larger and no more commodious than those of the ancient sea kings.  Their tools still consisted of shovel, axe hoe, and a stick plow which were only slightly improved over those of China, Egypt, Persia and Greece.”

          The author also explains how the Founders saw the political spectrum.  The Founders, Skousen states, tried to find that balance between tyranny and anarchy, while the major political parties of today lean every more toward the “Tyranny” end of the spectrum.   

          The second part is the heart of the book.  This section covers 28 principles the author considers critical to the creation of the Constitution. Backed by abundant quotes from the Founding Fathers the author discussed federalism, limited powers, strong local government, checks and balances, separation of powers, the role of religion and much more.    

          In the end, I came away unconvinced that the Constitution, and resulting freedom, was the sole cause of the great leap of progress.  However, to me that does not significantly diminish the greatness of the Constitution.  In a time when no one was truly free, the Founding Fathers established a free republic.  Yes, there were slaves (a legacy of British rule) and women were not entirely free, but the momentum was toward ever-greater freedom and progress.  That legacy of freedom, which the Founders passed on to their descendants, is a great gift.         

          The Because of references to Christian scripture and ideals, I cannot image this book ever finding its way into the public school system, but the respect and patriotism that it instills for our founding and for those who gave us this great republic should still be taught across this great land.  Buy and read this book and then teach the principles to your children.