Nicole Brodeur | A soldier fights for empathy | Seattle Times Newspaper

Nicole Brodeur | A soldier fights for empathy | Seattle Times Newspaper

This is an article published a couple of years ago about Ashleigh Fortier, a Captain in the Washington State National Guard who led a military police company for a year in Iraq through some amazing and horrific experiences. She spent a day with me in a classroom with 60 young women at Forest Ridge, a Bellevue high school, telling her story and doing an amazing job of teaching about the experience and trauma of war. Now she is back in Seattle and is passionate about helping civilians understand the suffering of soldiers as they return from war. Ashleigh herself suffers from PTSD and Traumatic Brain Injury, and was award the Bronze Star and Combat Action Badge. She speaks with authority and compassion. We are working together on a new project called "Veteran-Civilian Dialogue." I will be writing a lot more about this in the future!

Explore Thomas Cole | Painter of Arcadia

Explore Thomas Cole | Interactive Tour | The Course of Empire: The Arcadian or Pastoral State"

Cole was a 19th Century American landscape painter.

From the Thomas Cole Interactive Tour: "In the early nineteenth century, many in this country were searching for an art they could call their own. Painter, poet, and essayist, Thomas Cole responded to this quest by creating pristine landscape paintings unlike any yet seen in America. Critics, patrons, and fellow artists embraced his work enthusiastically, and Cole became the leader of an informal alliance of landscape artists now known as the Hudson River School. Cole, Asher B. Durand, Frederic E. Church, Sanford Gifford, Jasper Cropsey, and other painters, along with literary figures such as William Cullen Bryant and James Fenimore Cooper, established a notion of America as “Nature's Nation,” a concept that still resonates with artists, environmentalists, and landscape enthusiasts to this day."

Frank Schaeffer: McChrystal's Disdain: Symptom of a Mercenary Force With Few Ties to Civilian Leaders

Frank Schaeffer: McChrystal's Disdain: Symptom of a Mercenary Force With Few Ties to Civilian Leaders

I strongly recommend this interesting and informative article on the current state of Civilian/Military relations, class, politics, etc. The article points out that over the past 30 years, especially since the establishment of the all-volunteer military, a gulf has widened between the experience and understanding of veterans and the military on the one hand and civilians at all levels on the other. The consequences are dire for all of us, for our democracy, and for the cause of peace.

Social Innovation Perspectives: How We Killed the Killer Whales - A Failure of Capitalism

Social Innovation Perspectives: How We Killed the Killer Whales - A Failure of Capitalism

Last night at a dinner I met Monica Harrington, a smart, thoughtful, and passionate advocate for the endangered Orca whales of the San Juan Islands in Puget Sound northwest of Seattle. This post by Monica is a great summation of the challenges faced by the whales, who may be in more danger from the whale watching industry than from any other environmental factor. Hundreds of thousands of people leave Victoria and Friday Harbor to "visit" the whales, who are continually surrounded by multiple boatloads of fascinated humans, as the whales attempt to live their lives, hunting, eating, and caring for their young. In short, we are literally on the verge of "loving" whales to extinction.

Soldier's Heart : Support for Returning Veterans

Soldier's Heart : Support for Returning Veterans: "Veterans are the light at the tip of the candle, illuminating the way for the whole nation. If veterans can achieve awareness, transformation, understanding, and peace, they can share with the rest of society the realities of war. And they can teach us how to make peace with ourselves and each other, so we never have to use violence to resolve conflicts again'. -- Thich Nhat Hahn

Orrin Gorman McClellan

Orrin McClellan was born on March 22, 1985. He grew up on Whidbey Island, Washington and graduated from Bayview High School in 2003. At the age of 18 he joined the Army and spent 3 years in the service, including a deployment in Afghanistan. He returned at the age of 21 with serious and invisible wounds to his psyche and his nervous system, his joints, hearing, and his ability to trust others and experience joy without dread. Over the next three years he spiraled down into depression, terror, nightmares, and incapacity. Finally, he took his own life on May 18th, 2010. Consider this: more veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have now committed suicide than were killed in combat in those countries.

I attended his memorial service last Saturday on Whidbey Island. The church was packed with people: friends, family, veterans, military folks, and civilians like me. Orrin, I learned, was a remarkable and courageous young man with a great sense of humor and a passion for life. He was also a victim of PTSD, the consequence of his year in combat in Afghanistan. My friend Ed Tick, author of the book War and the Soul has called PTSD "Post Terror Soul Disorder." It is an apt translation.

Until all of us as a community reach out to embrace our veterans and hold their suffering as our own, we can never hope to escape the endless loop of war and violence in which they -- and we -- are ensnared.

Photographs by Orrin.

Espresso Book Machine & Third Place Press F.A.Q. | Third Place Books

Visit Third Place Press

I recently finished writing a book. Ok, maybe I'm not done yet, but I think I am. I have been through a thousand drafts of this book, and corrected ten thousand typos and factual errors and style problems, etc., etc., so I BELIEVE I am now done enough with this book -- after 30 years of thinking about it and four years of working hard to write it -- that I can now submit it to a publisher for potential publication.

A couple weeks ago I attended the Hugo House Writers' Conference and met this cool guy named Vladimir Verano. (May I pause to say what a fantastic name that is?) Vlad works for Third Place Press, a division of a bookstore in Seattle that has its own book printing machine (nicknamed Ginger). Vlad came up with the idea for a "Concept Proof" -- a printed book, perfect bound and with a color cover -- that an author like me can use to help people like publishers notice the potential of a new manuscript, how it might look on a shelf, what it feels like as a book in the hand. Here's a story on KOMO News about the process.

I decided to try Vlad's service out with my recently completed manuscript. I got a friend named Hannah Adams who is a talented graphic designer to create a cover for me, and I designed the book's interior, and then I got Vlad to print up one proof copy. I fixed a few errors of mine, and then we launched a small production run. I will use these copies to give out to potential publishers, reviewers, and blurbers, along with a few friends and family.

The result is stunning. I strongly recommend Vladimir Verano and Third Place Press to anyone who wants a beautiful result for a low cost relative to alternatives such as lulu.com and blurb.com.