Boots on
the Ground by Dusk : My Tribute to Pat Tillman,
by Mary Tillman with Narda Zacchino
This real-life account reveals Mary Tillman's struggle to learn the actual
circumstances surrounding the death of her soldier-son, Pat, in Afghanistan in
2004. Tillman, who walked away from a professional football career to enlist in
the Army after 9/11, clearly was killed by American troops during a horribly
planned and executed mission. But the events surrounding the tragic
"friendly fire" incident were never made clear by official sources,
either to the family or to the public. Three and a half years, seven
investigations, multiple inquiries, and two Congressional hearings later, all
are still waiting for an answer. Tillman's book combines a mother's
reflections on her son's too brief life as child, brother, husband, friend,
and teammate with the story of her determined and ongoing search for the simple
truth about his death.
Blue Covenant : the Global Water Crisis and the Coming
Battle for the Right to Water, by Maude Barlow
Author and activist Barlow, Head of the Council of Canadians and founder of
the Blue Planet Project, calls to the world's attention the unnerving fact
that parts of it are running out of clean, drinkable water. These now include
northern China, significant areas of Asia and Africa, the Middle East,
Australia, sections of South America and Mexico (where 12 million people have no
potable water and 25 million more have taps that work a few hours a week), and
the American Midwest. While she examines the causes of decline in this indispensable
resource, her main focus is on water privatization and the effects
of this situation on communities, including a lack of water, water shortages,
and extravagant taxes on the very substance without which life cannot exist.
While she points up the efforts that ordinary people and grassroots
organizations are making around the world to reclaim the public's right to
clean water, Blue Covenant makes clear the grave nature of the threat to
us all.
The Dumbest Generation : How the Digital Age Stupefies
Young Americans and Jeopardizes our Future (or, Don't Trust Anyone
Under 30), by Mark Bauerlein
The following quote comes from the dust jacket of Bauerlein's book:
"They are The Dumbest Generation. They enjoy all the advantages of a
prosperous, high-tech society. Digital technology has fabulously empowered them,
loosened the hold of elders. Yet adolescents use these tools to wrap themselves
in a generational cocoon filled with puerile banter and coarse images. The
founts of knowledge are everywhere, but the rising generation camps in the
desert, exchanging stories, pictures, tunes, and texts, savoring the thrill of
peer attention. If they don't change, they will be remembered as fortunate ones
who were unworthy of the privileges they inherited. They may even be the
generation that lost that great American heritage, forever." Upon reading
this, there are those who will raise howls of protest. And there are those who
will say it is the unpleasant, unvarnished truth. Either way, it is hard to see
how such an observation could fail to make us reflect on the state of things.
