Q: What prompted you to write the e-book?
Wr: I had been blogging heavily, daily, since June; challenging illogical ideas and citing the plain falsehoods that persisted across the net. I relentlessly read papers in Los Angeles, Seattle, Denver, Kansas City, Dallas, Houston, St. Louis, Chicago, Jackson, MS, Miami, Atlanta, Charlotte, Philadelphia, Washington, DC, New York, Boston, day and night. My style is to open the conversation, especially if we have differences. But I'll chide you if I think I have better evidence; I'll point out what's missing or overlooked in your assertions. I also listen. I wondered why the bitter conflicts contrasted with the pure joy of Obama supporters, and I found the answers, I think, in history. The book shares the historical insights that developed from the open conversation.
Q: Have other writer hit on these themes?
Wr: Yes. The Wall Street Journal had a op-ed article after the election that captured the book's concept from a different direction. An AP reporter, writing about racial incidents following Barack's victory, quotes an official at the Southern Poverty Law Center who hits the mark. The author Wila Cather noted the book's main concept-in the book, I call it legacy--decades ago. She cited, "the immemorial human attitudes which we recognize by instinct as universal and true." But surprisingly, few media people searched deep enough or thought hard enough to uncover the American legacy of change.They also ignored the tons of historic examples and parallels about the resistance to change. I simply use Charleston examples, because of Barack's remark.
Q: What should a reader take away from the e-book?
Wr: Wonder and ponder! Its multi-media book; a table top book on the desk top. The pictures are mostly without captions so the reader can ponder his or her own story line, make their own observations, draw their own insights, discuss their points of view. The text has story after story to give a sense of place to the actions we witnessed on Barack's way to victory. And the text is also good history, of incidents unknown and not woven into our story. The text reaches out to include our differences. In this way, it mirrors the values of Barack's campaign and style of governing.
Q: What's an intriguing example you cite from history?
Wr: The story of another "president," Robert Purvis, the president of the underground railroad. He helped more than 9,000 slaves gain freedom. Harriet Tubman, who is better known, and who spent much of the civil war in Hilton Head, SC as a nurse, scout, and spy. She leads approximately 500 slaves to freedom.
Purvis was born in Charleston. His mother was Moroccan, freed, and half-Jewish. His father was an older Englishman who made money as a cotton factor. His parents married in Charleston, moved to Philadelphia, where Purvis became a legendary figure in the abolitionist movement and became known as the president of the underground railroad.
Q: How can people download the e-book?
Wr: The download requires an direct access code.
Q:Is it appropriate to pass the link on?
Wr: Yes. Please! Send it to all your friends! Give it as gifts.
Free e-book, "From the Front Porches of Charleston:" The Election of Barack Obama,
http:www.lulu.com/content/5282127
