The Change Manifesto: Join The Block By Block Movement To Remake America

The Change Manifesto: Join the Block by Block Movement to Remake America

From Publishers Weekly Joining a chorus of criticisms over post-9/11 changes in U.S. law, Whitehead adds this somewhat muddled laundry list of rights infringements during the past decade. Beginning with a critique of the lack of meaningful discourse in contemporary society, the author contends that a mere change in administration will do nothing to ameliorate current circumstances if the American people fail to safeguard their own rights. While he notes that this book is intended as a freedom manual, the ensuing pages form more of a collection of grievances that linger in such possible constitutional crises as the bizarre robofly, a drone allegedly used by the CIA for domestic spying purposes, and a Big Brother in the sky program of satellite surveillance by the Office of Homeland Security. Whitehead's advice for countering such measures remains in the sphere of theoretical exhortations to [take] responsibility for our own lives and stand and fight. The book does provide a useful primer on the Bill of Rights; however, readers unfamiliar with the 462 words guaranteeing American freedom are unlikely to slog through the first 200-plus pages of this book to get there. (Sept.) Copyright ? Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. "The Change Manifesto is a street-by-street, town-by-town guide to making an America that works. Our nation has the potential to be an example of freedom and justice to the world and each of us has the ability to have tremendous impact. In this stirring call to arms, John Whitehead tells the stories of the local heroes who stood up to a cynical government, and who are creating thriving communities of change. We are on the cusp of a new era of progress, but we can't sit back and hope our elected officials will carry us there. We can join the people taking action at the local level, like the residents of a town in Oregon who protested unfair bills by paying in pennies, chickens and the shirts off their back. And we can follow the examples of the national heroes who are fighting for change and demanding accountability from our elected officials at the highest levels. If we refuse to listen to the cynics, we can join these everyday Americans, young and old, and harness our greatest resource: ourselves." Review ""John Whitehead is the Tom Paine of our time, an essential force on how to get our individual liberties back at the imperative source of our freedoms - Americans in their villages, towns and cities." " - ""The Change Manifesto is a truly bipartisan, even pre-political, instruction manual about how to hold on to our diminishing freedoms. This book offers well founded hope to any reader--of the left, right or center, religious or non-religious - for a better, freer and more compassionate American future. It's Whitehead vs. the thugs and Whitehead wins! Whitehead provides the antidote to our post-9/11 paranoia. Twenty years from now if America is still a free country (as Orwell would have defined and defended that word) I predict that this book will be remembered as a landmark in defense of that freedom." " - "" - ""In vivid prose and arresting anecdotes, John Whitehead teaches that a nation's destiny is the moral, mental, and emotional universes of its citizens. Laws, court decrees, and political maneuvering are relative trifles." " - ""The Change Manifesto is right on the mark. Scattered throughout this book are jewels that you will want to memorize, maybe sing."" - About the Author John Whitehead (Virginia) founded the Rutherford Institute, a nonprofit civil libertarian and human rights organization. The Rutherford Institute's website, which hosts Whitehead's blog "On Target with John Whitehead," averages over 800,000 hits a month. The Institute has an email subscriber list of 50,000 and a mailing list of an additional 40,000. Excerpt. ? Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Excerpt from The