This particular lesson came in the form of a bird with a broken wing. It was flapping and attempting flight. It thrashed about, sort of going in a circle with its lopsided locomotion. The bird needs to fly to survive. It needs food. It needs to escape predators. It needs both of its wings working together, in synchronization,  and cooperation…or it will die.

Now, of course, Sesame Street was more lighthearted in their predictions. They are there to teach, not terrify. Besides, this particular bird would need to lose quite a bit of weight if it were to ever take flight, but that’s not the point.

No matter the bird, no matter the wing, left or right, if one is broken the bird cannot function. In fact, one wing may not even be broken, both could be full of energy and spunk, but if they refuse to cooperate, to work together, that bird will just flounder around like a fish on land. If those wings, both right and left, don’t stop flapping pointlessly and start working together this bird, this big old badass bald eagle is going to starve, or be picked off by some predator…and die.

History is written in the tears of children
The cycles of tradition always break
Follow the footsteps of your children not your parents
The innocence of the young is joy and love
The wisdom of the aged is jealousy and regret
Do as I say, not as I do
How much elation was stolen from the world by those words
To teach right from wrong
Imagined concepts to spread segregation and fear
The children are born with the truth, we replace it with our own reconstructed version
War, Hate, Poverty, Hedonism, Racism, Sexism
Concepts of the wise?
Relearn to love
Break the cycle
Write history in the laughs of children

I have little to say about politics. If I can’t sit down and speak with a man or woman, face-to-face, I tend not to form much of an opinion about them and what they would or would not do. But, political platforms in the USA are really just a wish. A candidate is elected on their platform (a set of changes or issues they plan to address and implement if they are elected) promises and assurances that they can never make good on, and rightly so. It’s a rather tragic idea really. I mean, a political platform can only be implemented if said “elected” official were given dictator-like power…not very democratic. I only toss this out there because, since it is all promises never meant to be kept, I may have more faith in politicians I’ve never met if they ran on a platform like my tiny decade-old free verse above, instead of plans for taxes, medical issues, and opinions on social institutions and actions that only affect the individual, not the state….but hey, That’s just me!

I write this because I hate seeing women being taken advantage of. Historically speaking, empire after empire has proven just how easy it is to subjugate, suppress, and enslave women. That is nothing new. Appalling and immoral? sure, absolutely, but it’s still the case. What I see now, and have been seeing culturally over the last few years in our media, I find even more appalling because, you see, mankind is now using that very sexual repression as a tool against women.

This may come as a surprise to a lot of men, but women are people, too. What a shocking concept! Women are living, breathing humans with sexual needs and desires? Wow, I never would have guessed it!

Here’s what has me saddened – instead of women finally having those sexual shackles removed, they’re now being financially taken advantage of, a molestation of their finances just for a chance to slacken or excite those desires.  It is happening on TV, at the cinema, and in the book world. Erotica as a sub genre of romance, is fine, healthy even. Most women want their sexual excitement to be subtle and building, not the in-your-face aspect of pornography, “I’m here to fix your cable. Oh, you can’t pay, but your nymphomaniac bi-curious roommate just came home? We’ll work something out.” Please add the cheesy porn music  of your choice.

Most women don’t want that. The greedy forge of MANkind knows this. I wish that the world was run on a currency system backed on the milk of human kindness and not gold, silver, oil, or entertainment. But, we don’t live in that happy world. So, all that female sexual repression, dating back the length of human existence, is now a nice shiny new collar for women to wear.

I don’t want that for my daughters, for my wife, or for my mother.

Throughout any of this media frenzy of female sexual predation have you heard women say, of said book, show, or movie, “It is a well crafted story of the trials of a girl transforming into a woman.”?

No, you hear some variation of, “Naughty, raunchy, or sexy.”

New millennium, new versions of vices and temptations; same old greed based repression and advantage. Only this time women can choose to wear that collar of repression or not.

I suppose all I can do is pay attention to the women I care about, so they don’t feel that pressing need of transference. Love and play with my daughters, so they don’y have Daddy-issues later in life. Love and care for my wife, treat her with compassion and  trust. Love my mother for all she has done for me… and hope that the strength of a real man is enough.

Sounds kind of like fraud, right?

In any other field that’s what we’d call it. Can I get a Milli Vanilli from the congregation? Amen!

But in publishing? Oh well, that’s just the way it’s done. If some celebrity wants to write a book about weight loss, in steps a Ghost writer. If a tired industry dinosaur that has written twenty, thirty, forty, or more novels already and just doesn’t feel like it? Why retire when their publisher will bring in a Ghost writer to pen some generic story for them? People buy it because, “I just love books by So&So!” No matter if it’s the same old story rewritten, over and over, and over again.

Why would anybody do this, you ask? Money. Pretty sad how often history gives us that answer, huh? No matter how unethical the question those 30 pieces of silver always seem to win. The young writer that wants to break into the dying industry of publishing will take their 15 grand (tempting, again trust me, I know) and hope that they will make the connections to eventually receive the credit for their own work. The publishers win because with so few people reading it is easier to convince those few readers to buy a book by So&So (who they just Love!) than a book by Joe-blow No-Name.

I mean honestly people! There are books being Ghost written by that fictitious TV show character and  ”Murder He Wrote” knock-off “Castle”! And they sell like hotcakes! Nathan Fillion seems like an alright guy for an actor, but a real Nikki Heat novel? Come on, by buying that you just helped crush the dream of an aspiring writer who could have been the next Hemingway. Nice.

What do we blame this phenomenon on? Is there anything we can point at and say it’s at fault for Ghost writing? Because we have to blame it on something. Oh, I know, let’s blame it on the rain, yeah, yeah……

How many times have you seen a person have a typo in a post on any social media sight and one of their friends or followers feels the need to point it out? I see it constantly, and I was guilty from time to time myself when I first opened my personal Facebook account. But after a while the Too & To and the Your & You’re all start to blend.

Not to mention every time I see someone correct someone else, the Typo Monsters strikes. I have even seen people mess up in their correction post. There they are pointing out another’s mistake and screwing up at the same time. Proving how swift the monster can  be. My fellow authors seem to be particularly bad about this. I screw up, I get to typing so fast about something that I don’t proofread, so what? I’m human. Then a fellow author points it out…but the punchline is I have seen typos in their posts that I ignored, and even more karmic…in their books.

The moral, friends, is this: Don’t correct someone on their social media posts. You didn’t pay for it, it cost you nothing, and it will bite you on the ass one day. If you see a typo in a news article, paper, or book then you have every right to play English teacher, but if it was free…see Nick’s number one rule for world peace and shut the fuck up.

(Warning this may be graphic! But, then again in a country that thinks “50 Shades of Grey” is a good book and “Magic Mike” a good movie, who knows?)

Why must we celebrate our country’s birth by jamming a phallic shaped mystery meat into our mouths? Sure, we bite down, we’re Americans damn it, we’re nobody’s bitch…but we do swallow, so maybe we’re just a nation of sluts, I don’t know. I love a good hot dog, don’t get me wrong. But today it’s just kind of difficult not to picture Uncle Sam with his star-spangled trousers around his knees, pushing all those wieners into the mouths of Americans at picnics and backyard BB&Qs. “That’s right, Oh yeah, take it. The whole thing, hey, hey slow down, slow down. That’s it. There’s plenty more where that came from, no, no, no, that’s just the special sauce! It adds to the flavor….”

I’ll stick my hand out to those who need it where I can, but again, I’m an outsider. I have no hope of stemming this collapse. I can only stand and watch things fall apart, keeping my feet under me as long as possible, reaching out to help where I can, but even folks like me will be swept away in the collapse eventually – until all that is left is a callous uncaring apathetic void. “Welcome to the human race.”

Dear Mr. Shamhart,

I just finished reading Raven and I liked it. I like what you’ve done with the series so far, but the reason I am writing to you is the beginning of chapter 18 where Raven talks about soldiers going through hell.

I served in the Gulf War with the 3^rd Armored Division. I did my time, served my country, got my education and got out. I still read a lot of military fiction though, but most of it is just people being shot and tanks blowing things up. That’s war; sure, I’ve been there and done that. None of it seems to get into what it’s like to be a soldier like you did, or maybe it’s just the books I have read haven’t. Those few pages in Raven did more to describe what it is like to have fought in war better than any of the other war novels I’ve read. Just a few pages! Thank you for that. You are absolutely right, soldiers will see hell and it will never leave them. I still hate it in the summer when my lawn mower overheats because it makes me gag smelling that stupid burning oil smell. It’s been over twenty years but it still reminds me of the oil fields burning.

I don’t know if you ever served, but anyone who has in the military or police, anybody who sees the shittier side of people, should be able to identify with Raven’s words. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Brandon

Why did I share this with you all? Because this is why I write. This is what separates and defines the differences between artists. I don’t care one lick for awards, rankings and bestseller type nonsense. Those are just marketing labels and handles used to sell people a product. I do not want to sell the world a product. Everyone is trying to sell you something nowadays. I just want to tell stories that readers can identify with, and if Brandon enjoyed just a few pages so much that he took the time to write me a letter, then I have done my craft an honor.  Thank you, Brandon, and thank you all.

**I contacted the writer of this letter and he was flattered that I wanted to share it with the world, but he asked that I remove his last name and military rank for his privacy.**