We started our journey on Sunday, June 13, and headed for Globe, a mining town so named because of a globe-shaped piece of almost pure silver found in the area in 1870. Several miles later, we were treated to a 30-minute drive through picturesque, 2,000-feet-deep Salt River Canyon. Here the colorful sedimentary rock layers are visible from the road for miles.

Then it was on to Show Low, elevation 6,500 feet, where Tucson Desert Rats like we’ve just become can escape the summer heat. Here you can bask under 100-foot-tall pine trees or fish for feisty trout in the pristine streams in the area, but this was not our destination for the day.

Our goal was the southern entrance—Rainbow Forest—of Petrified Forest National Park. And words can not describe the thrill of seeing so many brilliantly colored, petrified logs strewn over this first stop of what is a 93,533 acre park.

About 225 million years ago, these logs we could touch and see close up were giant trees clinging to an eroding riverbank before falling into a fast-moving stream that carried them to wet, swampy lowlands. They were finally submerged in water and buried under volcanic ash sediments rich in silica before time and Nature’s handiwork did its magic. Silica replaced the wood until the logs were virtually turned into stone, with iron oxide and other minerals staining the silica to produce rainbow colors.

We spent two hours exploring Agate Bridge, Giant Logs, Jasper Forest, and the Tepees, just four stops in the Park before seamlessly entering the Painted Desert, an area of badlands saturated with hauntingly seductive hues of pink, purple, red, beige and white. Here the soft, top layer of desert earth is thoroughly eroded from mineralized water flows and mineral deposits which create a surreal landscape.

Then it was a short drive on historic highway 66 to Winslow, Arizona – the city and corner made famous by the Eagles song, “Take It Easy.”

Here we spent the night at a Mary Colter designed Hotel, La Posada, and we enjoyed a delightful Rick-Bayless-like dinner experience in the Turquoise Room. The hotel was constructed in 1929 in the style of an 1869 Spanish hacienda and built to entice railroad travelers to discover the virtues of rural northern Arizona. It features stone floors, glass murals, spacious-well-designed outdoor gardens and feel-good, primitive Mexican art painted freehand directly on the stucco walls. We stayed in the Frank Sinatra room, although we limited our conversation as the walls were pretty darn thin. I won’t repeat what Helen said she heard from the young married couple renting the room next to ours.

Our breakfast at the Turquoise Room was one of the best we’ve ever had, although a bit pricey. And it served us well on our short drive to Meteor Crater. It wasn’t a stop we planned for, but we were told too many times not to miss it, so we decided to squeeze it in. And it made the highlight list on this mini vacation.

Over 50,000 years ago, a meteor estimated to be 150 feet across and weighing several hundred thousand tons slammed into this area less than thirty miles from Winslow with such force—26,000 miles per hour—it created a crater 700 feet deep and 4,000 feet across. While time and matter has filled in half of the original crater, it’s still an impressive awe-inspiring hole. And the large-screen theater presentation of “Collision and Impacts” is an eye opener to how vulnerable our earth is to meteors and asteroids—the most likely cause for the extinction of the dinosaurs.

With this awe experience to occupy us, we drove to Canyon de Chelly (da Shay) National Monument. We had been there before, taken onto the Canyon floor in open-air trucks by Navaho guides, but we wanted to explore this unique, mystical area on our own. Located on a Navaho Reservation 3 miles east of Chinle, it covers 83,849 acres. And while the 26-mile-long Canyon with its well-weathered red sandstone 1,000-foot walls and ominous Spider Rock is unlike any we’ve ever seen. The fact that you can explore and see up close the abandoned homes and pictographs on the Canyon walls of Indian civilizations as far back as 2500 B.C. make this a special place. We stayed at the Thunderbird Lodge, although I’d opt for more modern accommodations on our next visit.

During our stay, we had the pleasure of seeing two large jack rabbits with their Bugs Bunny ears and long back legs. And, we had to wait several delightful minutes stopped on a major two-lane highway as we watched three dogs herd a flock of 30 sheep across the road. This happened as we exited Chinle early in the morning. One dog led the flock and two dogs held up the rear with no human help. It was quite a sight.

Our next stop was Bluff, Utah with some of the most unusual buttes and mesas along the way. Bluff lies in the shadow of the Navaho Twins, two massive sandstone turrets towering over the valley of the San Juan River. And if you should want to play Blind Man’s Bluff, this is not the area to do it. The impressive display of large rocks of all shapes and sizes everywhere would make for a very unstable environment if you were unable to see.

I would like to digress a bit as Helen and I got into a pretty giddy mood while we were in Bluff. She started it by telling me that she thought it would be pretty good stuff if I would “go in the buff in Bluff.” I responded by saying that I had “a nuff of that guff in Bluff” and “could be a bit gruff if I had to go in the buff.” And for about ten minutes we entertained ourselves with the endless possibilities of rhyming “Bluff.” Oh well, I guess that’s what happy old people can do to entertain themselves from time to time.

On a more serious note, if you want to begin a journey to see and explore the crème de le crème of giant rock monoliths, bright red sandstone buttes and mesas, you must start the journey from Bluff and head south on highway 163.

You will know you are someplace special, unlike anything or anywhere you have ever been, as you drive to Mexican Hat. This is truly magical southwest landscape. Interestingly, people stop along the way, but a camera cannot capture what their eyes and senses see and feel.

As you slowly work your way to Monument Valley you are awestruck. You have seen this scenery on the big screen before and your mind’s eye will see John Wayne riding a stage coach around the rugged, red rock monoliths that jut high up into the blue, big blue sky around you.

Monument Valley Navaho Tribal Park is the ultimate icon for the great southwest, covering several thousand square miles within the Navaho Indian Reservation. The Park contains Mystery Valley, where isolated monoliths of red sandstone tower as much as 1,000 feet above the valley floor. Anywhere you stop to walk on this hallowed ground of ever moving sand dunes is a spiritual experience. Some feel the power and majesty of God or gods in their presence. I personally was energized from a healthy high.

We stopped several times, got out of the car, and inhaled the dry, clean, invigorating, high-desert air, pinching ourselves to be so fortunate to be here in this hauntingly beautiful place. On our drive out of Monument Valley, we were treated to constant, eye-popping changes in the landscape around us while we were driving to our next destination – Page, Arizona – and the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. Our plan was to stay two nights at the Lake Powell Resort’s Wahweap Lodge and Marina. But before arriving there, we passed in front of impressive Glen Canyon Dam—a dam that helps create more shoreline for its Lake Powell than the combined states of California, Oregon, and Washington.

Words cannot describe the post-card views from the Lodge of this gerrymandered, massive blue-green reservoir with an endless variety of shadowy yellow-white buttes and mesas guarding the shoreline of Lake Powell. Quite a sight!

We had confirmed reservations for a 6-hour boat ride early the next day to Rainbow Bridge and a 3-hour dinner cruise on Lake Powell. This was per the advice of our Ridge Four neighbors, Dan & Kathy Foster. But for now, it was time for a gourmet lunch and a glass or two of good wine. (No alcohol can be sold or served on an Indian Reservation, and we were wineless for 36 hours.) And, we treated ourselves to a two-hour nap before exploring the area around the Lodge.

The weather changed during the night, and on the morning of our first boat ride it was hot and muggy. However, we were able to find seats on the top deck of the boat, which also gave us a birds-eye view of key landmarks on our journey to Rainbow Bridge. An informative, professional narration of the history and geology of the area made the two-plus hour ride go by quickly. The last thirty minutes was negotiated through a scenic hard rock fjord. When we finally docked, the captain told us how to approach the massive, largest-of-its-kind-in-the-whole-wide-world sandstone bridge, which he explained was on a well-marked, one-mile trail.

As we started our hike, nothing in the surrounding landscape suggested the kind of phenomenon we were about to encounter. A quarter-mile into the zigzag walk, we saw the edge of Rainbow Bridge. And then it was gone. However, we kept moving forward. When we did seize our first full view of the natural bridge, it took my breath away.

I was not prepared for the powerful feelings, a spiritual awareness if you will, that engulfed me. While it’s probably not the best way to compare, it was a feeling similar to when our kids, Keith and Kim, were born. I was energized, alive, alert, and grateful—a very special time in my life!

We enjoyed our dinner cruise on a very elegant yacht, and our hostess made us feel like royalty. Wine was extra and not too expensive. My salmon dinner was good, although Helen’s meat entrée was over-cooked. But it was definitely a memorable, romantic evening in a drop-dead gorgeous setting.

On Thursday, June 18, the fifth day of our mini vacation, we drove from Page to Flagstaff—a very scenic drive, stopped to shop at the Phoenix Ikea, and arrived home in Tucson at 1:00 pm.

• We do not have the original writings of the New Testament. What we have are copies of these writings, made years later—in most cases, many years later. And none of these copies is completely accurate since the scribes who produced them inadvertently and/or intentionally changed them in places. All scribes did this.



• There are more differences among preserved manuscripts than there are words in the New Testament.
• The twenty-seven books we call the New Testament were not gathered into one canon and considered scripture, finally and ultimately, until hundreds of years after the books themselves were first produced.
• We do not know precisely how old the New Testament is. It could be 1,200 years; we just don’t know. But we do know that it’s not 2,000 years old as I was taught growing up as a Jehovah’s Witness.
• The third-century church father Origen, made the following complaint about the copies of the Gospel at his disposal: “The differences among the manuscripts have become great, either through the negligence of some copyists or through the perverse audacity of others; they either neglect to check over what they have transcribed, or, in the process of checking, they make additions or deletions as they please.”
• The story of Jesus and the woman taken in adultery in John 7:53 – 8:12 is arguably the best known story about Jesus in the Bible. It is a brilliant story, filled with pathos and a clever twist where Jesus uses his wits to get himself—not to mention the poor woman—off the hook. However, to the careful reader, the story raises many questions. To name just two:
  • If Jesus did teach a message of love, did he really think that the Law of God given by Moses was no longer in force and should be obeyed?
  • Did he think sins should not be punished at all?
• Good questions, but as it turns out, the aforementioned verses were not originally in the Gospel of John. In fact, they were not originally part of any of the Gospels. Scribes added these twelve verses later. This story and these verses are not found in the oldest and best manuscripts of the Gospel of John and the writing style is very different from what is found in the rest of John.
• The last twelve verses in the Gospel of Mark were invented by a scribe many years after it was in circulation, and absent from the two oldest and best manuscripts of Mark’s Gospel. It’s a mysterious, moving, and powerful passage and used by Pentecostal Christians to show Jesus’ followers could speak in unknown tongues. Ironically, it’s also the principal passage used by “Appalachian snake-handlers” who take poisonous snakes in their hands to prove their faith in the words of Jesus.
• Paul did not write verses 34 and 35 in 1 Corinthians 14. They were added by a scribe, possibly influenced by 1 Timothy 2, which we know was written by a follower of Paul, not by Paul. (1 Timothy was forged in Paul’s name by someone living later.)
• The anti-Jewishness of some second- and third-century Christian scribes played a role in how the texts of scripture were transmitted. One of the clearest examples is found in Luke’s account of the crucifixion, where Jesus is said to have uttered a prayer for those responsible: “And when they came to the place that is called ‘The Skull,’ they crucified him there, along with criminals, one on his right and the other on his left. And Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.’” (Luke 23:33-34) As it turns out, this prayer of Jesus cannot be found in the oldest manuscripts which date back to about 200 C.E. It’s first found in manuscripts produced during the Middle Ages.
• The Christian scribes—whether of the early centuries or of the Middle Ages—not only copied scripture, they changed scripture. Sometimes they didn’t mean to – they were simply tired, or inattentive, or on occasion, inept. At other times, though, they meant to make changes, as when they wanted the text to emphasize precisely what they personally believed about the nature of Christ, or about the role of women in the church, or about the wicked character of their Jewish opponents. (In the 1950s, Jehovah’s Witnesses rewrote the Bible, calling it The New World Translation, to make it fit their unique beliefs. So it should not come as a surprise that this type of thing happened many, many times in the long history of the Bible.)

How the Bible was finalized -- a basic history…

www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXFYgI5kld4

I did my research and talked to several friends. As it turns out, Rick and his wife, Inez, are fully committed to a very unique ministry that exposes the false teachings and hypocrisy of the Watchtower Society. It didn’t take me long to decide to appear on his show.

Fearon’s site, along with FreeMinds.org, Ex-JW.com, and BRCI.org , to name just a few, are all doing a great job sharing the truth about this dangerous cult.

I dialed into the show at 6:35 PM and listened in on an active conversation between several ex-JWs and people studying cult behavior. One of the alarming observations came from a disfellowshipped woman whose son was a known pedophile. She knew that he and society would be better off if he was in jail, but his local congregation’s elders were protecting him. They had no intention of reporting him to the local police because they believed his confession and resolve to stop his sordid behavior was enough evidence for them to forgive him of his sins.

At 7:00 PM, Rick closed the outside lines so that only the two of us could talk while assuring his phoned-in audience that there were hundreds, perhaps thousands, of listeners already listening to the call.

Rick spoke for twenty-five minutes, sharing the goals for the Six Screens Ministry and reporting new developments in the activity and loss of members for Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Promptly at 7:25 PM, Rick began the interview. For well over an hour he asked me questions about why I wrote my book, Growing Up in Mama’s Club, what my childhood was like, what I liked and disliked about Bethel, etc.

During the interview, he expressed his belief in the inevitable demise of the Watchtower Society in the very near future – which I took exception to. While I would certainly love to see such a thing happen, cult-like religions exist because they appeal to a certain type of people who cannot find what they are looking for in mainstream religion. All in all, I found Rick an enthusiastic and gracious host.

Finally Rick reopened the telephone lines to allow listeners to ask questions, which I found interesting and challenging. One caller from Kansas asked me to share some of the humorous events that occurred during my childhood. One woman, who had never been a Club member, called to tell me how entertaining my book was. She really enjoyed learning what being a Jehovah’s Witness was like. A caller from Washington expressed concern about the high incidence of child molestation among members of the Club. Another caller from Georgia asked when my sequel, Ghosts from Mama’s Club, would be published. I told him that it would be available in six months.

I enjoyed the nearly three-hour experience on the phone and look forward to hearing good results from Rick and Inez Fearon’s ministry on “Six Screens of the Watchtower” in the months ahead.

Shortly after the conference call, I checked my emails and was pleased to receive the following message from one of my good friends who encouraged me to be on Rick’s show: “I’m two hours into your call and you are doing great. You really hit the ball out of the park. You are calm, logical, and very friendly.”

“Not only are most Americans ignorant of the contents of the Bible, but they are also almost completely in the dark about what scholars have been saying about it for the past two centuries” reports Bart Ehrman, a well respected professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina. In his book, Jesus Interrupted, Ehrman shares many well-written and revealing truths supporting his assertion. A few of them are:

• The Old Testament consists of thirty-nine books written by dozens of authors over at least six hundred years. And Moses did not write the first five books. In fact, it is hard to know if he ever existed.
• The New Testament was written by sixteen or seventeen authors over a period of seventy years. Only eight of the twenty-seven books are written by the people traditionally thought to be the authors. Most of the books are written not by apostles, but by later writers claiming to be apostles

• When Paul wrote his letters (penned before the Gospels) to the churches he founded, he did not think he was writing the Bible. So, too, with the Gospels. Mark, whatever his real name was, had no idea his book (the first Gospel to be written) would be put into a collection with three other books and called Scripture; and he did not think that his book should be interpreted in light of what other Gospel writers would write some thirty years later in different countries and in a different context.
• The idea that Jesus preexisted his birth and that he was a divine being who became human is found only in the Gospel of John; the idea that he was born of a virgin is found only in Matthew and Luke.
• In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus never refers to himself as a divine being, as someone who preexisted, as someone who was in any sense equal to God. In Mark, he is not God and he does not claim to be. In fact, he confirms his fallibility in this Gospel by repeatedly predicting that the end will come right away, during his own generation, while his disciples are still alive.
• The Gospels for the most part do not provide disinterested factual information about Jesus, but contain stories that had been in oral circulation for decades before being written down. This makes it very difficult to know what Jesus actually said, did, and experienced.
• There were lots of other Gospels available to the early Christians, as well as epistles, Acts, and apocalypses. Many of these claimed to be written by apostles, who, with the exception of Paul, could most likely neither read nor write.
• The creation of the Christian canon was not the only invention of the early Church. A whole range of theological perspectives came into existence, not during the life of Jesus or even through the teachings of his original apostles but later, as the Church grew and came to be transformed into a new religion rather than a sect of Judaism.

And while the list of things we know about the Bible that ain’t so goes on and on, one of the most striking of the truths is:

• There is only one book in the New Testament, 1 Timothy—forged in Paul’s name by someone living later—that states that a woman’s place in the church is to be silent and to “exercise no authority over a man.” What’s amazing to learn is that in the books that Paul really does write, this policy is clearly at odds with what he preached and practiced.

Bart Ehrman explains his research about the Bible . . .

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBtShL6LfoU

When l was growing up, I was taught that the Bible was the inspired Word of God; that God put His thoughts into the minds of writers like the faithful prophets and apostles to make it historically inerrant. I was told that it’s God’s book with no mistakes and no contradictions – and that’s what most American Christians still believe today

As it turns out, that’s not what’s taught in mainstream Christian seminaries. Scholars have made significant progress in understanding the Bible over the last 200 years and the results of their studies are regularly and routinely taught to university graduate students and prospective pastors.

In Bart D. Ehrman’s book, Jesus, Interrupted – Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (and Why We Don’t Know About Them), the author reports that not only are most Americans ignorant about the contents of the Bible, they are completely in the dark about what scholars have been saying about it for the past two centuries. This is what motivated Ehrman to write this book.

With this bold claim driving me, I decided to check it out. Ehrman’s excellent writing skills make his book easy to read and it’s definitely an eye opener. But still, it gnawed at me as to why this information is not more widely known; it gives credence to Will Rogers’ quote, “It’s not what we don’t know that gives us trouble; it’s what we know that ain’t so.”

So I’ve decided to share with our readers some of what I’ve learned from Ehrman’s book in this and future articles.

The first thing you need to know is that I personally don’t believe this information is a threat to anyone espousing true Christianity; I think it should actually enhance their faith. The Bible makes better sense if readers acknowledge its inconsistencies, instead of staunchly insisting that there absolutely are none within its pages.

All of the books in the Bible are distinct and shouldn’t be read as if they’re all saying the same thing—even when they’re talking about the same subject.

So what are some of the things we think we know about the Bible that ain’t so?

• We don’t know for sure who wrote the four Gospels: Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John. These books were originally written anonymously and not by any of the apostles because they were all illiterate and couldn’t read or write.



• The authors of the New Testament actually have differing views about Jesus and how salvation works.
• The New Testament contains books that were forged in the names of the apostles by Christian writers who lived decades later.
• Established Christian doctrines—such as “the suffering messiah,” “the divinity of Jesus,” and “the Trinity”—were actually the inventions of still later theologians.
• There are other books that did not make it into the Bible that at one time or another were considered canonical— including other Gospels allegedly written by Jesus’ followers, Peter, Thomas, and Mary.
• The account of Creation in Genesis 1 is very different from the account in Genesis 2. Not only is the wording and writing style different (particularly when read in Hebrew), the two chapters actually use different names for God, and the content of the chapters differs greatly.

This is just a small sample of the many interesting, well-researched new facts that I’ve learned about the Bible from reading Ehrman’s book, Jesus, Interrupted. I’ll be sharing more with our readers in the near future.

[Photo credits: Dave Hiebert (feature graphic, Bible verse closeup); Piotr Bizior (Man with book)]

Check it out…

www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMDbTB6YNAg

Seven months before the book fair, I received a phone call from a lady on the Festival’s planning committee. She had read my book,Growing Up in Mama’s Club, and Esther Royer Ayers’ Rolling Down Black Stockings, a memoir about growing up as an Old Order Mennonite. She believed we both had interesting stories to tell and wondered if I would be willing to put on a one-hour presentation with Esther to share our childhood experiences. This presentation would be in addition to the time each author would be allowed to sell and sign books at their assigned booths.

When I put the phone down, my mind was racing. Why had they paired the two of us? Could Esther write? Would the chemistry work between us? What did we have in common, since I was raised as a Jehovah’s Witness and Esther as an Old Order Mennonite? I immediately ordered her book and found it to be a quick, easy read. I posted the following Amazon.com review:

How could you not fall in love Esther Royer Ayers after reading her stirring story in Rolling Down Black Stockings? I know that my wife and I did. Perhaps it’s because Esther and I had strong, dominant mothers who chose non-mainstream religious beliefs and practices over common sense to raise their children. Maybe it’s due to the ghosts that haunted both our adult lives because of how fear trumped love in our parent’s decision making skills while we were growing up. Then again, it may be that as an author, I especially enjoy writers with a gift for words, engaging their readers with eloquent prose, poignant metaphors, and down-to-earth analogies.

After I read her book, I felt that I had found a sister and called her immediately, knowing she had also just finished reading my story. We had lots to talk about and commented about the commonalities of our childhood experiences. Although we were reared in totally different religious groups, we shared the same pain and shame as children, and we reacted in similar ways when rules and regulations were forced upon us. It did not take us long to figure it out: we had both been raised in a cult and this was our common bond. Esther shares her thoughts on this matter on her own website at EstherRoyerAyers.com. – Click here to read her article.

As we began talking about what we would say and how to present our stories at the Festival, the title for our presentation, Two Remarkable Stories of Growing Up in Cults – Told with Compassion and Humor, became self-evident. We decided to have a lively interactive dialogue about growing up in different cults—exposing surprising and shocking similarities between these two very unique and secretive religious groups. Then we would open it up for questions from the audience. We also came up with the following list to help people identify if they belonged to a cult:

You Are Probably a Member of a Cult

[If your church advocates at least ten items from the following list - per Esther and Dick]

1. The Church’s leaders or leader tell you that your religion, and only your religious group, is directed (exclusively) by God.
2. You are taught that only members of your religious group have the potential to earn God’s good graces and salvation.
3. You are taught that Satan and his demons are the instigators of all false religions (any religion but yours).
4. There is an autocratic, dictatorial, tribal organizational structure in place with “Unquestionable Authority” given to the church leaders.
5. You can’t challenge church beliefs or practices. If you do, you are disciplined or excommunicated, shunned, and treated as apostate. (Blind, robot-like obedience to church authority is required.)
6. You are told to associate with only members of your religious group. Friendships with non-church members are frowned upon.
7. You are told that your church leaders receive divine inspiration from God on how to interpret the Bible, or you believe in a literal (word-for-word) translation of the Holy Bible.
8. Your loyalty to the church and God is continually tested with rules, regulations, and no-no’s that alienate you from societal norms.
9. You are constantly reminded you are never doing enough to please God. In order to win His favor and salvation, you must do more.
10. Women are treated as inferior to men – and the subjugation of women permeates all areas of your life.
11. You are told to sacrifice pleasures and opportunities in this life in order to be rewarded in your next life.
12. Public education is controlled and limited. College is a no-no. Optimum schooling is best provided only from church leaders/journals.
13. You believe the world will be destroyed in your lifetime. (JWs)
14. You are told what books and literature you can and cannot read.
15. You aren’t allowed to pledge allegiance to the flag of your country.
16. You are forbidden to celebrate holidays.
17. Parents are advised to spank or whip their children, and told this is God’s preferred form of discipline to raise them wisely.
18. You are not allowed to investigate the history of your church.
19. Your church advocates beliefs that are not scientifically possible.
20. You are forced to comply with a strict dress code.
21. Members police other members to enforce church rules.
22. You believe irrational human behavior is caused by the Devil.

The first day of the Tucson Book Festival was Saturday, March 14, 2009. Activities for people of all ages began at 10:00 AM and lasted for seven hours. I was assigned to a booth, shared with two other authors, to sell and sign my books from 1:00 to 2:30 PM. We had lots of curious visitors who asked some very good questions. Overall, it was an eye opener to see that so many happy family-oriented people were in attendance. At the end of the day, I had some time to meet and talk with many of the other authors in attendance.

My big day came on Sunday. Esther and I started our one-hour presentation at 4:00 PM in Koffler Hall, followed by another half hour to sell and sign our books. As the Hall began filling up, I was excited to see so many new faces along with a few close friends. After Esther and I were introduced, the next hour just flew by. The chemistry between Esther and me, and our audience, was what writers doing a presentation can only dream about. When it was time for questions and answers, this engaged group was fully energized with many arms waving frantically to have the moderator call on them. We handled several excellent and well-thought-out questions.

After selling and signing books – and answering many questions on a one-on-one basis – I was left with an incredible adrenaline high and a special kinship with this newly-found sister of mine. I felt very grateful to those people on the Tucson Festival of Books committee who saw the wisdom in pairing Esther and me – and letting us tell our own stories of growing up in cults.

The book’s author, Van Jones, presents a well-written, substantive, and viable first-draft plan for solving what I believe are some of the biggest issues facing our country today. These include repairing the failing economy, eliminating our foreign oil dependency (a major threat to national security), and efficiently reducing our reliance on fossil fuels with clean and renewable energy.

I think the author may have tried to appeal to too many constituents because I felt the first 77 pages of the book dragged a bit and I was suspicious that this was just pie-in-the-sky stuff. When I finished reading the book in its entirety, however, I was a believer.

Am I getting soft in my old age? I don’t think so. I’m still a capitalist at heart, a business man who wants data, facts, and numbers, not wishful thinking.

Jones contends that our current economy is built on and powered almost exclusively by oil, natural gas, and coal—all fast-diminishing non-renewable resources. Our government subsidizes tens of billions of dollars a year to this pollution-based “gray economy” with little incentive for change.

Jones calls this potential new paradigm “The Green Collar Economy,” believing that it could create millions of new jobs for American workers. For this new economy to blossom and flourish, government policies must play a key role in setting standards, spurring innovation, realigning existing investments, and making new investments. It must include all segments of our society. Jones also contends that only the business community has the requisite skills, experience, and capital to make it work. Success will be tied to new “eco-entrepreneurs”—and the success and survival of their enterprises.

We can no longer afford to engage in the old politics of naming, blaming, and shaming someone else, while concealing our own faults, flaws, and hypocrisies. It is most unlikely that the present high lords for oil, coal, and armaments will reverse course or give up their power without a bitter struggle. So a new force must emerge to realign American politics, transform the political landscape, and supplant the Texas/Pentagon axis.

If it is to succeed, the critical mass of businesses in this green collar economy must produce renewable energy and reduce energy waste. This can be done with the use of wind and wave farms, solar energy, bio fuels, solar-powered hydrogen farms, improved weatherizing of homes and office buildings, just to name a few. The author also lists over 50 companies that are currently making money in these market niches.

What I liked most about Van Jones’ vision was his macro view of today’s major problems and how everything is interconnected. More importantly, he spends the bulk of his time re-framing these problems into definitive opportunities that even I could understand, refusing to get mired in details or playing the blame game. And he does not advocate that government create a new bureaucracy to exploit this monstrous, once-in-a lifetime opportunity. Instead, he reminds the reader that no major new set of modern industries—from the railroads, to nuclear power, to the Internet—has ever succeeded without government playing a powerful and supportive role.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=aj-7uRCLoX4

Take the time to read this book, all 197 pages, and you’ll come away with a totally new way of looking at “green.” It’s not about narrow-minded Ralph Nader hoopla and scare tactics, and you don’t have to believe that Global Warming is what Al Gore makes it out to be. Frankly, I’m turned off by all the misinformation about how to save the planet.

My business instincts, as a consequence of the 33 years I spent in manufacturing conveyor belt products, tell me that the Green Collar Economy is a real business opportunity.

In summation, The Green Collar Economy presents an excellent first draft vision of what America could and should do to revitalize its standing in the world community. And it matters not whether you believe that global warming is a serious threat to future generations or a cyclical phenomenon. If you are concerned about the current economic woes, you owe it to yourself to read this book.

The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems

At Christmas this year, my daughter gave me a book, The Green Collar Economy. She set no high and lofty expectations, but simply said, “Read it Dad. I think you’ll like it.” After twice doing as she instructed, making extensive notes, and confirming the author’s credibility, I was a believer. However, I realized that there is no certainty that any of this stuff can ever happen unless there is a groundswell of support -- from the President, members of Congress, and the majority of all the citizens of this country, not just a majority made up of affluent people.

Now, like Mama, I intend to proselytize the potential for a “new world”—not the one she hoped for—but one with a green collar economy driving it, a truly sustainable new world for generations to come. -- Dick Kelly

• Wind Power Farms
• Wave Energy Farms
• Weatherizing & Retrofitting millions of Homes & Office Buildings
• Solar-Powered Hydrogen Farms
• Refining waste oil into Bio-Diesel
• Manufacturing and Installing Solar Panels
• Manufacturing ultra efficient vehicles, such as plug-in hybrids
• Produce/Farm more local, organic food, decreasing transportation costs
• Improving the Mass Transit System
• Manufacturing & Servicing Electric Vehicles powered by a clean energy grid
• Production of more Bio-Fuels
• Production of renewable fuels from non food biomass (switch grass, etc.)

What We Must Stop Doing

• Subsidizing fossil-based fuels
• How we transport food to reduce energy costs
• Using food biomass for fuel
• Allowing Rainfall runoffs to become “storm water”
• Using fossil fuels in our fertilizers and massive Robo-tractors
• Building new coal plants that can’t safely capture & store emissions

He also shares the following 1981 quote from the father of the USA conservative movement, Barry Goldwater: “There is no position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs. There is no more powerful ally one can claim in a debate than Jesus Christ, or God, or Allah, or whatever one calls this Supreme Being. But like any powerful weapon, the use of God’s name on one’s behalf should be used sparingly. The religious factions that are growing throughout our land are not using their religious clout with wisdom. They are trying to force government leaders into following their position 100 percent. If you disagree with these religious groups on a particular moral issue, they complain, they threaten you with a loss of money or votes or both. I’m frankly sick and tired of these political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in A, B, C, and D. Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me? And I am even more angry as a legislator who must endure the threats of every religious group who think it has some God-granted right to control my vote on every roll call in the Senate. I’m warning them today: I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of conservatism.”

Today, Douglas Adams says that respected writers and politicians, particularly in the United States, are no longer willing to challenge religious ideas. They are not allowed to say those things. And yet, when you look at it rationally there is no reason why those ideas shouldn’t be as open to debate as any other. Fortunately, it was a Brit, Richard Dawkins, who had the courage to speak up, fervently believing that religious extremists are a serious threat to democracy and human betterment. His book, The God Delusion is easy to read and loaded with facts to support those assertions.

“Oh, but he’s an Atheist,” some will say. But be reminded that people like Einstein and Carl Sagan, to name just a few, did not believe in a personal god. However, that didn’t diminish the scientific data they accumulated and shared in their lifetime.

My mother, a hard-core Jehovah’s Witness, won’t read the book. Her church leaders tell her that it is “the work of the Devil.” That’s a pretty good reason why I think a thinking person would want to do otherwise.

What Richard Dawkins has to say and how he says it in The God Delusion is not only an important work of science, but a clear, articulate warning of what could happen if the current wave of passionate religious irrationality is allowed to continue unchecked. It is one of the best books I have read in the last ten years and I agree with the New York Times Book Review when it said that The God Delusion contained “Lots of good, hard-hitting stuff about the imbecilities of religious fanatics and frauds of all stripes.”

While it’s true that I made the initial suggestion and recommendations on how to accomplish this goal, I had no idea how excited and energized John would become with the process of CI. Ever since that discussion he has been a human dynamo in implementing new ideas and testing new techniques.  Now, after several months of trial and error, we are prepared to share our improvement plan with our readers.

Our first and most important move will be to add four, or possibly five, additional contributors to our writing staff. These men and women are all published authors who share a down-to-earth, common sense view of life.  Our common goal will be to share well-thought-out opinions on a broad range of interesting, relevant, and timely topics that each of us feel passionate about.

One important goal for JustOneOpinion.com will be to share “Blue Sky Ideas,” totally outside-the-box suggestions, about how we could make our world a better place to live now and far into the future. Just imagine how we could take totally fresh approaches to utilizing energy from a wide variety of resources, improving easily accessible health care, and converting to non-polluting electric vehicles – all subjects for future articles.

We will also take a critical look at the current administration of criminal law, the lack of public transportation, economic theory and practice, and the lack of ethics in government - as well as beaurocratic “environmental protection” that ignores common sense and wastes taxpayer money.

We will track what President-elect Obama and the Democrats promised to do before the election. We will report the results of their progress by highlighting universal health care, stem cell research, the economy, a new energy policy, and middle-class tax relief.

We will include feature articles on different countries, cultures, and their key factions. We will tackle the issues of religion and science and their proper place in a modern democracy. We will promote civility at every level of political discourse while encouraging rigorous debate. We will review and recommend books, movies and other media that might make a difference in our lives. We will often take differing views as we debate the effects of “global warming” and offer suggestions as to what, if anything, needs to be done to alleviate its effects.

Our goal will not be to bring you the “TRUTH”, as my mother insisted her view of world events and her interpretation of the Bible were. Instead we want to focus JustOneOpinion’s articles in a way that will help our readers in their “search for the truth.”

Unfortunately, when it comes to religion or politics, we realize that “true believers” are often unable to participate in constructive dialogue. But for those people who consider themselves “open-minded,” our goal will be to help them discard “those things that they know that ain’t so,” as Will Roger’s called them, and to expand their body of knowledge about important issues of the day.

We hope that our approach will provide people with additional ideas, concepts, and new strategies to improve the quality of our life today and for our grandchildren’s grandchildren. To assist us in our learning curve, JOO welcomes the additional insights of four new writers. They are Craig Bieber, Chi Newman, and Bob and Claire Rogers.  Let me introduce them:

CRAIG L. BIEBER

published his first book, Saylor’s Triangle, in January 2008. His book is available at Amazon.com or from his website  SaylorsTriangle.com. Craig was born, raised, and educated in a small ranching town in western South Dakota where imagination, dreams, and literature were his windows to the world. Before he retired, Craig spent forty adventurous years in Alaska, working in the oil industry. He and his wife Claudia now spend six months a year in Anchorage and six months in Tucson, Arizona. Find out more about Craig by visiting his website. And you will not want to miss his first post on JOO entitled, “White Hats and Black Hats.” 

CHI NEWMAN

grew up in Beijing, China, amid manicured courtyards, servants, powerful friends, and lavish entertainments. She attended an exclusive convent school where she learned to speak French and English. At the age of thirteen, Chi’s world turned upside down. To escape the Communists, her parents gave her a small suitcase and put her on a plane to Nanjing. What followed was a fifty-year journey she could not possibly have imagined. Read her story in Farewell, My Beijing: The Long Journey from China to Tucson (available from Amazon.com) or at Chi-Newman.com.

Claire Rogers

writes about the environment, literacy, astronomy, history, adventure travel, sports and fitness, recreational vehicles, and personality profiles. She also writes book and product reviews. Claire recently received a commendation from the Lake County Astronomical Society for an article that appeared in the nationally distributed magazine Geico Direct. Her other publishing credits include the Desert Leaf, the Arizona Daily Star, Highways, and MotorHome and Trailer Life. She enjoys hiking, biking, adventure travel and good times with friends and family.

Robert “Bob” Rogers

(Claire’s husband), worked as a television reporter during undergraduate school before earning an MFA in visual arts at Ohio University. His photojournalism skills led to a popular daily essay in the Athens Messenger. He was published in Et Cetera literary magazine and won two first prizes for short stories in the “Tidepools” literary competition. His first book, a novel titled The Return of No. 44, will be published early in 2009. His earlier work, Tandem, An American Love Story, was represented by the Claudia Menza Agency in 1997. He is working on a second novel while teaming with his wife on a book proposal about sharing their methods for achieving an adventurous lifestyle and financial independence. Bob and Claire are world travelers, including China, Australia, Iceland, and Canada, much of the time on a tandem bicycle, 39,000 miles and counting. They have also spent four months sailing in the South Pacific plus over 60,000 miles of motor home travel in North America. You can read more about Claire and Bob in his own eloquent words at New Bohemians.net. And you will not want to miss Bob’s most recent post on JOO entitled, “The New Homeless.”

In addition to these new contributors, we are hopeful that other interested readers of http://JustOneOpinion.com will contribute their opinions or submit articles about specific topics that are important to them.