Dear Reader,
Many thanks
for giving this web site your time, and, if you've had a chance to look at the
book, Common Sense, many thanks
for giving that your time as well! I wrote it as just some suggestions to discuss
and consider on how to make our country even better.
Researching and writing this book was a passion that took much of my spare time for five years.
(Much to the consternation of my spouse!) That passion continues with trying to spread this book's
message and encouraging others to do the same.
As many people
tell me, there is perhaps too much hate, rage, and indifference in our country
for us to come together as a nation in the way the book suggests. (And I see
this all the time in my patients, when they tell me about the anger in their
lives and their families.) However, for me, it was still important to write it.
Like me, if you recommend the book to others, you may find some people respond with defeatist
pessimism or hurtful hostility, but pay them no mind. Arguing with them only feeds into their
defeatism. Just nod your head and say, "You may be right," and recommend the book to someone else.
If someone shows an interest in it, tell them what you think of it, or disagree with in it, and ask them for their thoughts and opinions too!
Also, please
forgive my anonymity. The book should be about its message, not about me.
And there's a tradition in American history of such books being anonymously
penned. When Thomas Paine published his 1776 pamphlet,
Common Sense; Addressed to the Inhabitants of America, on the Following Interesting Subjects,
he
signed it "by an Englishman."
Sincerely,
an Oregonian
physician
PS: If you google "Granny D," you'll learn the New Hampshirite died in 2010, at age 100. From age 88 to 90,
she walked across America, over 3000 miles from the Rose Bowl Parade in
Pasadena, CA to the Capitol Building in Washington, DC -- across deserts, over
mountains, through blizzards -- for campaign finance reform.
It's never too
late to be a true citizen, or, as she put it, "raise a little hell."