Old enemies and new heroes emerge in Locked On, the collaborative espionage thriller by Tom Clancy and Mark Greany. Get ready, this is pure adventure:Old enemies and new heroes emerge in Locked On, the collaborative espionage thriller by Tom Clancy and Mark Greany. Get ready, this is pure adventure: mystery, suspense, and adrenaline-pumping action . . . with all the attention to detail you would expect from a novel bearing the Clancy name.
Father and son, Jack Ryan Sr. and Jack Ryan Jr., pursue their separate dreams while running a parallel track that puts them on a collision course with an old nemesis with a old grudge. The bad guy has it in for Ryan -- and the world. That is, unless father and son can take him down! Locked On also features the salty John Clark, who is on the run from his own government. What?!
I really enjoyed mining that that vein in the overall plot.
Locked On is the second in The Campus series:
Dead or Alive (2010)
Locked On (2011)
Threat Vector (2012)
Command Authority (2013)
Kudos to Tom Clancy and the Clancy estate for collaborating with other writers to continue the Jack Ryan Universe. Clancy passed away in 2013, but the excitement continues thanks to the suspense, action, and thrills, here by Clancy and Mark Greaney (author of The Gray Man series).
My recommendation:Locked On is "FIVE STARS" precisely because I want to write "it is typical Clancy" in all the best ways: plot, characters, research, detail, suspense, mystery, description, and more. That said, I gave Locked On FOUR STARS in that while it was momentarily pleasurable, it was just that, "momentary." Months later, I did not remember it. That probably speaks more to my mental state than the Clancy/Greaney one-two punch. But then, the memory lodge is also what separates lasting literature from that which provides a satisfying temporary diversion. For me, Locked On, as splendid as it is, falls into that second category -- but I still highly recommend it....more
Two leaders, who could not be more dissimilar, worked pragmatically and collaboratively to advance civil rights. This is the underlying theme of JudgmTwo leaders, who could not be more dissimilar, worked pragmatically and collaboratively to advance civil rights. This is the underlying theme of Judgment Days: Lyndon Baines Johnson, Martin Luther King Jr., and the Laws That Changed America.Judgment Days scans the years 1963 to 1968 (the Johnson presidency through the assassination of Dr. King).
Early Praise: Judgment Days is an outstanding piece of research providing a chronological account of the unique working relationship between President Lyndon Johnson and civil rights icon, Martin Luther King Jr. Masterfully, Kotz details the parallel rise and fade of both leaders and the challenges they faced in their struggle for this common cause and with each other.
Out of the sorrow of John F. Kennedy's assassination and the passion, determination, and skill of President Lyndon Baines Johnson and the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. had emerged the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Out of courage an horror on the Edmund Pettus Bridge and in fiery protest throughout the nation, the two men again ignited the nation's passion for justice in passing the 1965 Civil Rights Act. And out of the ashes of burning cities following Dr. King's assassination and Johnson's decision not to seek reelection had come one final declaration for justice written powerfully into the fabric of American law. (p. 421)
Here is what you can expect when you read Judgment Days: Engaging narrative. Surprising facts. Clarifying history. A holistic picture of the tragedies and triumphs of the Civil Rights Movement on the 60's.
Themes I saw in Judgment Days:
1. The political pas de deux (dance by two persons): Popular conceptions of key figures in the fight for Civil Rights are often generalized misconceptions. I think this is the case with LBJ and MLK. Johnson's caricature is often shaded, a politician who uses civil rights to his own end; a second-string player to JFK in this drama for human freedom. Actually, JFK's political acumen did not match his vision. It took Johnson, the undisputed master of political process to secure not one, but four major pieces of Civil Rights legislation: The Civil Rights Act of 1957, The Civil Rights Acts of 1964, The Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968. For his part, Martin Luther King is paraded as angelic, the unflappable unifier of his people, a people on a quest for the Dream. And while King was a leader worthy of his accolades, he was a man of clay feet. He navigated bitter battles within his own movement and was at times at a loss as to his next step. Kotz show us both men, the wonder and warts.
2. Seeing the middle way: Kotz paints both LBJ and MLK as leaders who pursued "a middle way." Example: King championing a moratorium on civil rights demonstrations for three days prior to the 1964 election (pp. 184f).
King believed that his success as a leader depended on his maintaining credibility with a large, diverse constituency. He would sit quietly through long arguments, and then seek a middle way (p. 186). . . . In their goals, both Johnson and King were seeking radical change in the equities of social justice in America [they both spoke for it, but disagreed about the role of nonviolent demonstration]. In action, however, they both revealed a belief that change is achieved most effectively pragmatic, conciliatory leaders (p. 186).
3. It's Complicated!: Kotz expertly chronicles "the dilemma" both Johnson and King faced. For example, in 1965, Johnson was pushing legislation associated with his Great Society, while navigating an escalating situation in Vietnam, while working toward voting rights and supporting King, while attempting to avoid a clash with Alabama leadership and the broader "state rights" movement by stepping up federal efforts to protect marchers.
If he were to join King's court petition, it would look as if he were "advocating the god-damn march. If every time [King] wants to march, I go in and tell the judge, 'I want you to enjoin the local officials,' it may look like I'm stirring up those marches. . . . But if you don't you get a lot of killings, and they say, "What did you do?" He paused: "And you didn't do anything." "You've got a hell of a dilemma," sympathized Senator Hill. "Yes, I do," replied Johnson.
King had his own dilemma. Having missed the Selma march (1, preaching at Ebenezer Baptist; 2, concerns over death threats; 3, he didn't expect much to come of march; 4, he was frustrated by the organizers poor planning) he now had hundreds of leaders flooding into Selma to show solidarity for a second march.
On the one hand, canceling the march would embarrass King and the SCLC before both local and national civil rights forces. The momentum building in Selma wold also be lost. On the other hand, SCLC mantra had always been that local and state segregation statues were invalid, but that federal laws must be followed. And King had never defied a federal court order (p. 292).
And now there was a federal court order as Judge Johnson ordered King to cancel the second march until the judicial proceedings (initiated by SCLC and NAACP) concluded.
4. Leaders in a pickle: King felt the squeeze. Kotz writes, "Martin Luther King, like Lyndon Baines Johnson, walked the treacherous path between a white majority whose consent he had to gain and impatient activists unwilling to follow any leader they judged to be too timid" (p. 320). Johnson too was pressed, enduring constant pressure from Southern Democrats always ready to filibuster against civil rights legislation, the blasé of an American public slow to see or own the everyday difficulties of being black in America, the pressure of African American leaders impatient with the speed of change, and the economic frustration of not being able to afford both guns (increase in defense funding for Vietnam) and butter (increase in domestic spending).
5. The rise and decline of leadership momentum: LBJ knew his political landslide came with a price. Winning the presidential election in 1964 meant losing the South to the Republicans for the foreseeable future (he was spot on). He also knew that he had to act quickly to secure civil rights legislation as each victory would draw heavily on his tremendous store of political capital.
Perhaps, had he been willing to "lose" the war in Vietnam he could have continued to see Great Society come to fruition. As it was, the writing was on the wall as he approached the election of 1968. He might win, but it would be hollow as his grip on Congress had loosened significantly.
For his part, King's negative reaction to Vietnam and Johnson, while understandable and shared by millions, was actually out of step with African Americans at the time. "A Gallup Poll on September 6, 1967, showed that 67% of nonwhite Americans supported Johnson, compared to only 38% of white Americans" (p. 394). King's efforts to focus on "justice" both at home and abroad gave him a weaker voice with his constituents, especially in the Southern Leadership Christian Conference (SCLC).
Kotz' summary is worth repeating:
King's popularity, like Johnson', was sinking. As 1967 drew to a close, Lyndon Johnson and Martin Luther King, now avowed political enemies, faced identical dilemmas: how to end an escalating war, with mounting casualties, which was siphoning funds from the dream they still shared of a more just society -- and how to deal with increasing hostility from each other as well as from their own hard-won constituencies (p. 378).
Turning Points in the American Civil Rights Movement:
1. Republicans lose the mantle,"The Party of Lincoln." African Americans abandoned the party of Lincoln for the Democrats due to Republican foot-dragging regarding civil rights. We see this shift in the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) fighting for a place at the 1964 Democratic Convention (see chapter 8). At the same time Barry Goldwater courted Southern Democrats to the GOP with a speech proclaiming, "that extremism in defense of liberty is no vice" (pp. 192-3). A shift was taking place that Johnson saw coming.
2. Watts riots in Los Angeles: Both Johnson and King were caught off guard by the rioting in Watts, which occurred five days after LBJ signed the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Each was basking in the success (and understandably so) of the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Kotz tagged it hubris on the part of both leaders. "With Watts, King came to a fuller awareness that the two great civil rights laws of 1964 and 1965 basically addressed the evils of southern segregation but had barely touched the ghetto's problems of poverty, joblessness, isolation, family disintegration and hopelessness" (p. 343).
With Watts, Martin Luther King began moving toward a far more radical critique of what ailed American society (p. 343).
3. Vietnam becomes LBJ's downfall:
Appreciation for LBJ:
1. LBJ paid the price of progress: LBJ weathered the segregationists split in the 1964 as Southern states rallied against civil rights, even while knowing that the 1964 election and his reforms "were setting in a motion a historic realignment--that the Democrats were about to lose the South, on his watch " (p. 196).
2. LBJ urged Hoover to infiltrate the Klan in '64: This made possible the quick arrest of four men charged with murdering Viola Liuzzo on her way back from the Selma to Montgomery march. The white mother of five had gone to help and was driving back Ben Mouton, a 19-year-old black volunteer.
3. LBJ masterfully navigated a thorny group of constituents to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968. One reason his aids pressured him to run in '68, was that he was "the only guy who could get anything done! No one else knows how to get anything through Congress" (p. 408). LBJ was also responsible for delivering the 1957 Civil Rights Act, the first civil rights legislation since Reconstruction, almost a century earlier.
4. LBJ read the times: He knew that, despite winning the '64 election by a landslide he would lose both the South and his grip on Congress "by expending his political capital gained in the landslide 1964 presidential election" (p. 330). Facing what would most likely amount to a hallow victory at best in the '68 presidential election, John refused to run.
5. LBJ changed! "As a young Texas congressman, Johnson had opposed even the most modest civil rights efforts. Now he was working with the nation's preeminent African America leaders to venture beyond even their efforts to level the racial playing field, economically as well as legally" (p. 335). See also Johnson's comments regarding past mistakes (p. 330).
6. LBJ integrated the federal government: LBJ appointed Thurgood Marshall as the first African American Justice of the Supreme Court, tasked Robert Wise to head the new Department of Housing and Urban Development, he appointed Constance Baker Motley as a U.S. district court judge, Andrew Brimmer, a Ph.D. economist as the first African American to serve on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. He appointed and mentored younger black leaders on his staff: Roger Wilkins (33), Clifford Alexander (33), and Major Hugh Robinson. See the story of Brimmer and Senator Russell long on page 357.
Appreciation for MLK:
1. King was thrust into the good fight: He was 26 when he began his work of civil rights. He had just received his doctorate from Boston University and begun his pastoral work when he was selected to the lead the bus boycott by black leaders in Montgomery (p. 45)
2. King endured the jealousy of younger Civil Rights leaders (SNCC) and worked to conciliate factions that favored militancy with those working through peaceful means (p. 197).
3. King navigated a thorny group of constituents to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. His death is 1968 was the impetus for Congress to pass the Fair Housing Act, which until then had twice stalled in House and Senate.
4. King's stamina (physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, relational) was amazing. King was just 36 when the Voting Rights act of 1965 passed and had been a leader in the civil rights movement since he was 26.
5. King went to difficult places to pursue justice: Seeking to address the difficulties northern blacks faced, King went to Chicago to confront leaders about joblessness, overcrowded housing, poor schools, lack of health care, [and] a powerless black population locked in their ghetto neighborhoods," King said that the venomous hatred expressed in Chicago was as bad as--or worse than--anything the movement had encountered in the South" (pp. 365-7).
6. King always pressed on despite harboring doubts about his worthiness to lead. "I could hear an inner voice saying to me: 'Martin Luther, stand up for righteousness. Stand up for justice. Stand up for truth. And, lo, I will be with you even until the end of the world.' I heard Jesus saying still to fight on. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone" (p. 48).
7. King championed "nonviolent direct action resistance" and maintained it despite calls from many (especially as the movement endured delays and setbacks) to resort to violent upheaval. (p. 49)
Both MLK and LBJ saw the bigger picture and the importance of the legislative process -- not violence -- to bring about change. (p. 197)
Disdain for FBI Director Herbert Hoover: Hoover utilized wire taps throughout the fight for Civil Rights, constantly eavesdropping on MLK and doing everything within his power to paint King as a communist and degenerate. He attempted to smear those associated with the movement, including Viola Liuzzo, who was murdered by the Klan for her involvement. Kotz: "Hoover seemed determined to show that anyone involved with the civil rights movement was either politically or morally suspect" (p 326). Kotz notes, "Literally hundreds of FBI communications to the White House and to other government agencies clearly captured Hoover's animus toward King and his desire to destroy King's public standing and influence" (p. 386).
Civil Rights in America: How bad was it?
Kotz, as many before him have, helps readers understand the plight of African Americans since Reconstruction. He puts faces on "injustice," "poverty," and "murder."
1. Interesting statistics: On the third attempt at a march to Montgomery, the parade of protestors marched down Highway 80 through Lowndes County where 80% of the population was black--and "not a single African American was registered to vote" (p. 323)
2. Troubling stories: SCLC Volunteer Viola Liuzzo (mother of five) shot and killed by the Klan when on the return trip from Montgomery to Selma (p. 325).
3. The plight in the North as well as in the South.
Leadership Lessons from Judgment Days:
1. Never have an event without a process. Reflecting on Watts, Kotz notes, "that the rhetorical claims of [Johnson & King] for the poverty programs far exceeded any proven knowledge of what they might accomplish" (p. 345). Furthermore, many Johnson allies were claiming that there was too much confusion and lack of coordination in implementing the programs. Watts revealed new problems, problems that government leaders were not willing to tackle with the same alacrity due to initial challenges implementing Great Society programs.
2. Spend your leadership capital wisely. LBJ knew he was quickly using up the political capital of his 1964 landslide victory. He predicted the victory in '64 would cost the Democrats the South (which it did), and he knew his opportunity to act with the same degree of decisiveness and effectiveness would diminish quickly. Watts and the congressional willingness to respond to it legislatively was proving him correct.
3. Leaders Persevere: MLK and LBJ persevered as they faced multiple challenges internal and external.
4. Leaders "know the rules": America's founders intended the filibuster to be an "impediment" against "improper acts of legislation," as Hamilton and Jay wrote in Federalist Paper 62. Kotz notes that the filibuster helps ensure such impediment. In 1919, the Senate adopted Rule 22, providing an end to the filibuster by a two-thirds vote of the Senate. Taht was changed in 1975 to 60 votes. The filibuster is how we got New Mexico and Arizona (p. 113, 115).
Lyndon Johnson, the Enigma:
1. Johnson's response to riots surrounding the assassination of MLK: "What did you expect? I don't know why we're so surprised. When you put your foot on a man's neck and hold him down for three hundred years, and then you let him up, what's he going to do? He's going to knock your block off" (p. 418).
Helen Gahagan Douglas, a liberal California Democrat on LBJ's contradictory qualities: "Ambitious, driving, alert, careful, calculating, secretive, seemingly with inexhaustible energy, sensitive to criticism, vain, an explosive temper that could erupt over the smallest details, a natural talent for organization, a listener--not a reader, a legislative director, organizer--not a legislative designer, an activist--not a planner. LBJ perfected the plans of others. he was an operator, and I say that in the best sense, not a creator" (p. 29).
Quotes to keep:
1. Leadership (King): "A real leader does not rely on consensus. He builds consensus" (p. 409).
2. Opportunity (Johnson): "We must overcome unequal history before we overcome unequal opportunity" (p. 424).
3. Old black lady during the Montgomery bus boycott: "My feets is tired, but my soul is rested" (p. 416).
4. Seizing the moment (Johnson): When a veteran insider cautioned him about expending early goodwill on controversial civil rights legislation, Johnson retorted: "Well, what the hell's the Presidency for?" (p. 22).
5. MLK on LBJ in 1963: "LBJ is a man of great ego and great power. He is pragmatist and a man of pragmatic compassion. It just may be that he's going to go where John Kennedy couldn't" (p. 67)
6. Senator Thomas Kuchel on civil violence: "Civil wrongs do not bring civil rights" (p. 123)
7. MLK on the Klan's threats: "I don't mind bearing the cross, but I'll be damned if I am going to go looking for it" (p. 147)....more
"As long as I draw breath, I want to be part of the solution." So says newly minted octogenarian Parker J. Palmer in On the Brink of Everything: Grace"As long as I draw breath, I want to be part of the solution." So says newly minted octogenarian Parker J. Palmer in On the Brink of Everything: Grace, Gravity, and Getting Old. Palmer's passion for better days shines through this series of essays (some old, some new). He looks back. He looks ahead. He never waffles or wavers. Palmer is delightfully honest as he assesses himself and our times.
Like age, the brilliance of Palmer's book crept up on me. I grew to appreciate this book the more I got into it:
Amen to his thoughts on public discourse:
Only by discussing our differences openly, honestly, and with civility can we honor the intentions of the framers of the Constitution who gave us the first system of government that regards conflict not as the enemy of a good social order but as the engine of a better social order--if we hold out our conflicts creatively. (124)
Gratitude for his willingness to share his struggles with depression. Palmer unhesitatingly sprinkles this dark period of his history throughout On the Brink of Everything. In doing so he models the openness, transparency, and quest to which he calls us throughout his book.
Amen to his distinction between job and vocation. The misunderstanding of the latter keeps from from surviving the loss of the former upon retirement. There are good words here for those approaching the retirement hurdle. (85)
Thanks for his wisdom and insight with respect to "The Accidental Author." As one who wants to sharpen the writing craft, these were invaluable words.
Palmer may be at his most culturally prophetic when it comes to racism and the toxicity of the current presidential administration. With respect to racism, he's quick to point out that he is not working penance over a guilt trip. He does, however, acknowledge "the inner roots of a social pathology that, if it goes unconfessed and unaddressed, will make" white middle class America a part of the problem not the solution. His ongoing frustration with our 45th President -- character and policies -- is no secret. We'll leave it at that.
While I appreciated so much of what Palmer addressed regarding white privilege and the rancid lingering effects of racism, I felt the author tended to generalizations with respect to "the privileged white class," and voters who elected Trump. That said, he calls out the "good old days" for what they are:
I urge those of you who cling to your dream of the 'good old days"--good for you anyway--to take a nice long name and dream on, dream on. The rest of us will stay awake and help midwife the rebirth of America, hoping that our national nausea in this moment is just another symptom that our country is pregnant with change. (p. 137)
Thoughts to ponder:
1. Embracing human frailty: Palmer is fond of quoting Thomas Merton who wrote, "Being human is harder than being holy." I think I know where he is coming from, though I disagree. Being holy is being fully human (that's Jesus' way). Still, I appreciate how frustrating that can be. Like Palmer I often want to give people the boot, or to borrow the line he does from "painter Walter Sickert, who once told an annoying guest, 'You must come again when you have less time.'" (149)
2. The hidden wholeness: Twice Parker Palmer quotes Thomas Merton: "There is in all visible things . . . a hidden wholeness." Palmer sees this hidden wholeness in the paradox of autumn, "diminishment and beauty, darkness and light, death and life." (167). I agree with both sages, but the Scriptures points me past the picture to the source: "For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things were created through him and for him." (Colossians 1:16 ESV). Palmer's reflections lead me to believe he does not share that view.
3. Anger and forgiveness: I appreciate the line he shared from Anne Lamott: "Not forgiving is like drinking rat poison and waiting for the rat to die." (120). "Repressed anger is dangerous, a weapon we aim at ourselves that sooner or later injures others. But anger harnessed as an energy that animates social action on behalf of new life for all is redemptive." (120)
Palmer is at his most honest and (is this too strong) inept when it comes to death:
"If there's been a definitive statement on the matter, I didn't get the memo."
"The most important thing we can do to prepare for death is to show up as our true selves as often as we can while we have life."
"I don't know exactly where we go when we die, but the BWCA (aka God's Country) strikes me as the ultimate tourist destination."
"I'm certain of two things: when we die, our bodies return to the earth, and earth knows how to turn death into new life. . . . It matters not to be whether I am resurrected in a loon . . . a sun-glazed pine, a wildfire . . . or the Northern Lights and stars that lie beyond them. It's all good and it's all gold. . ." (180-1)
I find it interesting that Palmer, for all his angst with a broken world and all his efforts to right it, is content to say his piece and peace out as simply as a fleeting vapor. Palmer often gives a nod to his Christian roots. He rightly (in my mind) considers the applications of the incarnation for entering into a world wrought with troubles. He considers the implications of incarnation for getting into the mess of this world, but not for getting out of it. I'm not talking about an escapism, I want no part of that. But if God is concerned for entering into the fray does that not speak to an "incarnate" existential reality beyond the fray, one in which we too may participate?
Parker's quest, which we witness for 200 pages, suggests there is more to the end of our days than an extinguished candle and a whiff of smoke. He doesn't lead me there.
I appreciate Parker J. Palmer. His book, Let Your Life Speak, is one of my all-time favorites. On the Brink of Everything may not rank with it in my opinion, but this is good; these are words of one who has lived well, served well, and thought well. Sure, I don't agree with all he has written, but Palmer is the kind of "old guy" I want speaking into my life....more
Dear Dr. Gawande, Thanks for going there, for venturing into the murky, mysterious, and sometimes frightfully morbid land of mortality. Thanks for makDear Dr. Gawande, Thanks for going there, for venturing into the murky, mysterious, and sometimes frightfully morbid land of mortality. Thanks for making me confront afresh my worldview as it relates to this temporary ride we call life. Thanks for allowing us to sit with you through difficult conversations at the home, hospital, and nursing centers. Thanks for revealing the major "fails" of the health profession while not writing it off. Thanks for careful research. And thanks for sharing your own maturation process as a physician dealing in the difficult subject of death. You "humanized" this very human experience.
THIS IS A book about the modern experience of mortality--about what it's like to be creatures who age and die, how medicine has changed the experience and how it hasn't, where our ideas about how to deal with our finitude have got the reality wrong. p. 9.
Having finally read Being Mortal (published 2014), I am not surprised it landed on the NY Times Bestseller list for more than a year or that it was selected as a "best book" by everyone from AARP to the Wall Street Journal. Being Mortal will be at or near the summit of my Top Reads of 2018.
5 Reasons To Read:
1. Age heaping no more -- "The dignity of old age was something to which everyone aspired" (p 18). No more. We no longer overstate our age due to the respect afforded elders, we understate it. Gawande explains why. 2. The creeping vine. -- "The body's decline creeps like a vine" (p 42). It is inevitable. Yet, we do all we can to ignore it to our financial and relational peril. Falling is a tell-tale danger sign. Eating alone is hazardous to one's health. Geriatric nurses and doctors can dramatically help, but they are dramatically in short supply. 3."Old age is not a battle. Old age is a massacre." Philip Roth -- Gawande, drawing on research and anecdotes from his interaction with patients, helps us see the fear of losing independence, and as he does throughout the book, provides tools to help address the challenges. 4. Ask, tell, ask -- Gawande instructs and enlightens even as he shares the story of his aging father and his struggles and insecurities as a physician addressing the difficult issue of mortality. Ask, tell, ask (p. 207) is one such "technique" that was eye-opening, one I wish I knew as we cared for my aging 98-year-old mom. 5. The spectacular failure of medicine. -- Being Mortal is not a shot over the bow of health care, but the good doctor pulls no punches as his sits bedside and lays out the hard truth with respect to the failure of his profession on several fronts relating to the aged and aging. Rather than leaving the hapless patient hopeless, Gawande helps chart a better future.
Insightful, informative, and instructive, Being Mortal is helping me grapple with my own aging and with others as the vine time creeps round them....more
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