Build--a-Book Report #5
It's been a short work week, what with leaving early Thursday for West Michigan and the family gatherings and funeral surrounding the death of my older brother. All return planes on Saturday were late, most likely due to the loss of a portion of St. Louis, Missouri's airfield due to a tornado Friday night. My run from one end of O'Hare Field in Chicago to the other to catch my last flight home will make a good family story for years to come. Picture a hair-raising dash, pulling a suitcase and toting a large bag...
My book news to date: I have tested and tried my America Struggling topics until they sifted down now to a tentative sixteen chapters, filling in some of them with chapter outline material. I've mentioned the full title of this book, America: A Nation Struggling for Its Soul, to a number of people and have been getting lots of positive and inquisitive interest thereby--a very good thing, so I will most likely use that as my working title when I submit the book to publishers. My job now is to come up with equally compelling chapter titles. A few I particularly like so far, (with the content thrust in parentheses) are:
o America's Soul: What and Where? (Comes from the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Bylaws, and the historical perspectives that developed from them)
o The Mammoth Loss of Religion (in Everyday Life, and its ramifications).
o Our Disappearing Freedoms (including political correctness, the ultimate discriminator)
o Justice Is Missing (in our courts and legal system)
o A Culture Without Moorings (Money is our god. We are sex-obsessed. We are isolating ourselves from family and friends with addictive TV and computer use. We lack civility and good manners.)
o Democracy Gone Amok (Our political campaigns have turned into acceptable slaughter; the amount of money spent too often determines who wins; and outside interests rule our representatives, not the people anymore.)
o Broken Family Values (Once a sacred trust, marriage is no longer considered necessary; divorce is commonplace; many families do not spend much if any time enjoying one another's company; and the role of fathers has been grossly undervalued)
o Our Neglected Children (With many, their needs have been devalued, they do not get much quality time from parents, and they do not have sufficient boundaries set and disciplinary rules established. Contrariwise, some parents are mistakenly pushing their children to get ahead and to be "above the crowd" and are mandating them to attend college, regardless of their actual skills and talents.)
What do you think of these? Do they attract strong interest? I will be covering also the present state of the education and the health care systems, church life, work life, personal life, community life, and the media and entertainment worlds. Can you think of any other influence in modern life that needs addressing? I am open to any other suggestions you readers have to send me. Your input is highly important to me because it gives me a feel for what most people are troubled by today.
Thank you and go with God's blessings,
Margaret
My book news to date: I have tested and tried my America Struggling topics until they sifted down now to a tentative sixteen chapters, filling in some of them with chapter outline material. I've mentioned the full title of this book, America: A Nation Struggling for Its Soul, to a number of people and have been getting lots of positive and inquisitive interest thereby--a very good thing, so I will most likely use that as my working title when I submit the book to publishers. My job now is to come up with equally compelling chapter titles. A few I particularly like so far, (with the content thrust in parentheses) are:
o America's Soul: What and Where? (Comes from the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Bylaws, and the historical perspectives that developed from them)
o The Mammoth Loss of Religion (in Everyday Life, and its ramifications).
o Our Disappearing Freedoms (including political correctness, the ultimate discriminator)
o Justice Is Missing (in our courts and legal system)
o A Culture Without Moorings (Money is our god. We are sex-obsessed. We are isolating ourselves from family and friends with addictive TV and computer use. We lack civility and good manners.)
o Democracy Gone Amok (Our political campaigns have turned into acceptable slaughter; the amount of money spent too often determines who wins; and outside interests rule our representatives, not the people anymore.)
o Broken Family Values (Once a sacred trust, marriage is no longer considered necessary; divorce is commonplace; many families do not spend much if any time enjoying one another's company; and the role of fathers has been grossly undervalued)
o Our Neglected Children (With many, their needs have been devalued, they do not get much quality time from parents, and they do not have sufficient boundaries set and disciplinary rules established. Contrariwise, some parents are mistakenly pushing their children to get ahead and to be "above the crowd" and are mandating them to attend college, regardless of their actual skills and talents.)
What do you think of these? Do they attract strong interest? I will be covering also the present state of the education and the health care systems, church life, work life, personal life, community life, and the media and entertainment worlds. Can you think of any other influence in modern life that needs addressing? I am open to any other suggestions you readers have to send me. Your input is highly important to me because it gives me a feel for what most people are troubled by today.
Thank you and go with God's blessings,
Margaret
