Book Review- "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson

"Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson is one of the most important environmental books of the twentieth century. Ms. Carson's findings regarding certain pesticides and their harmful effect on Raptors led to the banning of the insecticide DDT.

Silent Spring is primarily about the reckless use of herbicides and insecticides but the overall theme of the book is that humanity changes and destroys ecosystems all over the world whose complexity and importance we are just beginning to understand.

It has been more then fifty years since Silent Spring was first in print, but it still retains a powerful message that we should not ignore.

Book Review- "Bless the Beasts & Children by Glendon Swarthout

Bless the Beasts & Children is a powerful novel about a group of misfit boys who try to redeem themselves by saving a herd of Buffalo marked for death.

The story begins at an Arizona boys camp where Cotton, Goodenow, Teft, Shecker, Lally 1 and Lally 2 occupy the very bottom rung of the camp social ladder. The boys are outcasts and they are painfully aware of that fact.

After the camp goes on a trip to see a herd of Buffalo that are slated to be killed, the boys hatch a plan to try and save the doomed animals and perhaps themselves.

Bless the Beasts & Children is a modern parable of discarded children and wildlife that should be read by every American.

"The Uncommon Cold" a short story by Craig Zimmerman

"Grandpa, what was it like to be sick?" ten year old Brian asked from inside the kitchen. Grandpa Terry scratched his chin and thought back to when he was a child. "Well you felt pretty bad and sometimes you had to stay in bed a few days until you felt better"

 Brian entered the main living room. "I think I might be sick" he told his grandfather. Automatically, Terry felt the boy's forehead. He was a little warm. Terry led Brian over to the Auto-Med unit in his home and placed the swing out monitor on the boy's hand. The Auto-Med screen lit up with dozens of Brian's vital signs. 

His body temperature was 101 degrees. Terry immediately contacted  their doctor. A moment later, the Doctor Wilson's smiling face appeared on the screen. "Hello Terry and hello Brian, what seems to be the trouble today?" "Brian isn't feeling well and he has a temperature" Terry told the Doctor.

For the first time the doctor frowned. "Have the auto-med send me a blood analysis" he instructed Terry. Brian held out his arm, and the auto-med collected a tiny drop of blood. In less than ten seconds, the auto-med analyzed the fluid and sent the report to the doctor.

After reading the report, the doctor attempted to maintain his cheerfulness, but Terry could see something was wrong. " I will need you to bring Brian in to the clinic right away" the doctor told Terry.

Terry led Brian to his old truck and programmed the clinic's location into the truck's guidance system. Even though computer guided vehicles were not new. Terry still had a hard time getting used to letting the machine drive itself.

When they arrived at the clinic,  an auto-nurse led Brian to an examining room. Doctor Wilson came out of the room a few minutes later. He looked grim. Terry was alarmed. "What is it Doctor?" Doctor Wilson hesitated a moment. "Brian has a cold." he replied. Terry almost laughed. "A cold? is that all?" 

The Doctor shook his head. "The problem is Terry, that a cold today is much different then when you were a boy.Because of advances in medical science, today's children have not been exposed to any of the pathogens that you were as a child. Their immune systems are weak and incapable of fighting serious infections"

"What are you saying, Doctor?" "I am saying that without some kind of treatment, Brian may die"  Terry rubbed his eyes. "There must be something"  "Do you know where Brian's maternal grandfather is?" Terry shook his head. "He was living in Montana, up in the mountains the last I heard" 

"You must find him" Doctor Wilson said. Terry grabbed the Doctor's shoulders. "Why, what is it?"  "Brian's other grandfather may have the anti-bodies in his blood that Brian needs to fight the infection" Terry released the Doctor's shoulders. "What about me?Doesn't my blood have the anti-bodies you need? The doctor shook his head. "I'm afraid not. I checked one of your old blood samples. It does not have enough of the anti-bodies Brian needs." "I will bring him back here" Terry told the doctor.

Terry had not seen Mike Barnes in ten years. The last he heard was that Barnes lived in a secluded cabin high in the Rocky Mountains with no electricity or modern technology of any kind. Terry had a feeling it was not going to be easy to persuade Barnes to leave the mountains.

The first thing that Terry did was to contact a company that used supersonic drones to locate missing people. Terry gave the company the general location of Barnes and within a few hours, he was given some probable leads. Terry then took a bullet train from California to Montana. Once in Montana, he rented a recreational auto-drone and programmed Barnes' probable locations into the guidance computer.

The first location was a dead-end. At the second location, an old man with a long beard came out of a crude cabin with a rifle. For a moment, Terry thought it was another dead-end, but sure enough, behind the beard and dirt was Mike Barnes. As he exited the craft, Barnes pointed the rifle at him. "Get out of here" he told Terry in a low voice.

Terry held up his hands. "I'm here about your grandson Mike. He is very ill and he needs you" Barnes lowered the rifle slightly. "My grandson?" Barnes seemed to be trying to remember. Terry nodded "Your daughter Julie and my boy's son needs your help." Barnes rubbed his head. Barnes sat down on an old log and laid the rifle down. Terry sat beside him.

 "Why do you need me?' Barnes asked  Terry explained about the anti-bodies and Barnes nodded in understanding. " I was once an astro-physicist you know." A few hours later, Brian was responding well to the anti-bodies from his grandfather's blood.

Book Review- "George Washington" by Marian Leighton

George Washington is probably the most mythic of America's Founding Fathers. Over the years, President Washington has been turned into a near perfect man, but Mr. Washington was a real person with strengths and faults that most of us have.

The children's biography "George Washington" by Marian Leighton gives a good background on Washington's early years which explains how he was able to accomplish the spectacular victor against the British forces during the Revolutionary War.

Losing first his Father and later his older brother Lawrence put George into a position of responsibility very early in life. One of the most entertaining aspects of Washington's early years is his contentious relationship with his mother. After the death of her husband, Mary Washington tried to keep maintain a strict control of George's activities. In turn, young George did his very best to resist his mother's control.

Another lesson George learned early in life was to never give up. This ideal no doubt helped him greatly during the many ups and downs of the Revolutionary War.

As an American, reading "George Washington" gave me a greater appreciation of the sacrifices and character of  our first president.