The Washington Post, Anne Gearan and Morello, May 16, 2018 – “Former secretary of state Rex Tillerson warned Wednesday that deceptive leaders and “alternative realities” are a threat to democracy, an implicit critique of his former boss, President Trump.” [1]
Tillerson appeared to say that his own integrity is intact, even as he made joking reference to what was widely seen as his humiliating treatment by Trump. Among the aphorisms he offered the graduates were these:
“Blessed is the man who can see you make a fool of yourself and doesn’t think you’ve done a permanent job. Blessed is the man who does not try to blame all of his failures on someone else. Blessed is the man that can say that the boy he was would be proud of the man he is.”
Speeches and Celebration following Arizona’s adoption of Same-sex marriage, October 17, 2014.
Couple robin (from left) and Renee Reece listen to Joe Connolly and Terry Pochert speak to a crowd of gay-marriage supporters in Phoenix on October 17, 2014, after gay marriage was legalized in Arizona.
Luther the Reformer: The Story of the Man and His Career, Second Edition – Available from Amazon.com
For nearly thirty years, James M. Kittelson’s Luther the Reformer has been the standard biography of Martin Luther. Like Roland Bainton’s biography of the generation before, Kittelson’s volume is the one known by thousands of students, pastors, and interested readers as the biography that gave them the details of this dramatic man and his history.
The accolades were well deserved. Fair, insightful, and detailed without being overwhelming, Kittelson was able to negotiate a “middle way” between the many directions of historical research and present a more complete chronological picture of Luther than many had yet portrayed.
For this revised edition, Hans H. Wiersma has made an outstanding text even better. The research is updated, and the text is revised throughout, with images, bibliographies, and timelines to enhance the experience.
Prisoner of War: The Story of White Boy Rick and the War on Drugs by Vince Wade – Available from Amazon.com
The Real Story
The astonishing but true story of White Boy Rick Wershe is an example of why the War on Drugs has been a trillion-dollar policy failure for nearly half a century.
The tale of a boy recruited by the FBI—at age 14—to be a paid informant against a politically-connected drug gang is so amazing it inspired a Hollywood film starring Matthew McConaughey as White Boy Rick’s father.
Prisoner of War answers the question: What kind of father would take FBI cash to let his youngest child be an undercover operative in the murderous drug underworld?
A Dysfunctional Family
Furthermore, Rick Wershe, Jr. was a street-savvy Detroit white kid in a dysfunctional family. His mother fled an abusive marriage, leaving her children behind. Rick raised himself. He didn’t do drugs, but he knew important people in the narcotics underworld. The FBI had him infiltrate a powerful black drug gang with City Hall connections. Rick did a good job. Too good. He became a key witness in a homicide. It involved top-level police corruption which blocked the investigation of the drug gang’s killing of a little boy. White Boy Rick’s FBI work caused shock waves that went to the very top of the Justice Department. The FBI abandoned him and local narcs snared him in a drug case that carried a life prison sentence. Rick Wershe, a kid recruit, became a Prisoner of War in the War on Drugs.
Real Interviews
Most of all, Prisoner of War is based on interviews with Rick Wershe, his family, FBI agents, police officials, plus reviews of court records, investigative files and Congressional testimony. Therefore, it explores:
The nation’s long, losing policy in the War on Drugs.
How CIA pressure in a Detroit drug case demonstrated government hypocrisy in the War on Drugs.
Blatantly false prosecution accusations and felonious police “testilying.”
How the FBI committed crimes by falsifying their files about White Boy Rick.
The racist history of the War on Drugs, dating back to the 1800s.
How black activists were the first to demand a war on drugs.
How the cocaine death of basketball star Len Bias led to mass incarceration for a generation.
Why the Justice Department sometimes refuses to prosecute the drug corruption of the politically powerful.
How sloppy reporting in herd journalism influences criminal justice.
Order a copy of Prisoner of War and explore the appalling truth from the trenches of the War on Drugs.
