A Conspiracy...Not a 'Conspiracy Theory'

On May 2, 2011, a fifty-four year old man was murdered on suspicion of wrong-doing in full view of several high government officials who had the ability to prevent it but conspired with others to permit it. Soon after, millions more were privy to endless re-runs of these perpetrators in the very act of sanctioning and viewing this murder. Nothing has been done by any court or law enforcement agency to cite these known collaborators to date.

The murder victim may have possessed specific information about planned actions against several vital interests. This killing then caused the loss of that information and might lead to additional destruction or death that could have been otherwise prevented.

If the planned death of an individual by force of arms was not simply a TV entertainment or casual diversion for the onlookers then the next logical conclusion is... 'Conspiracy'. The homicide and then secret disposal of the corpse appear to have been preferred to any possibility the victim be given voice. It deftly aborted any future Conspiracy Theorists by broadcasting the conspiracy 'live' and thereby defusing endless speculation or bothersome probing. A brilliant, if murderous, ploy!

Planners of future diabolical actions would be wise to televise as they unfold. Apparently an, 'Is it live or is it Memorex?", syndrome has rendered everyone within spitting distance of a television receiver incapable of thought. Murder has become 'justice'; if political, 'patriotism'. If in error, 'collateral damage'.

The modern world has been sold soap with ever increasing subtlety and efficiency for nearly a hundred years. Is it to be blood for the next hundred?

The 1% Are the Good Guys

Yup! What constitutes the make-up of the so-called 99% OWs needs some serious 'splainin. To think singling out a township sized passel of money barons as pure evil lets the rest of us off the hook, is ludicrous. A Corporation is more than the CEO; a bank more than its President. Lots of somebodies do the dirty work for the dough and/or the prestige. So perhaps as few as 1% of the population should be included in the ranks of the Good Guys, the other 99% well...

As a Nation, we total roughly of 300 million souls as of the 2010 census. Quick math shows 1% to be about 3 million. For our purposes this figure will represent approximately the number who fill the ranks of the Good Guys. Check the following to see in which camp you might find yourself.

[ You may be among the 1% who are the good Good Guys if: ]


* you refuse a vote to a Congressperson who just promises more pork for your district.

* you question why we need 750 bases around the world.

*you will not engage in blood sports, fishing and hunting, for entertainment; just for food.

*you refuse a job with a 'fracking' company.

*you refuse to own shares in a company whose profits come from the oppression of workers.

*you support a charity that's not tax deductable.

*you will not purchase any sea food on the endangered species list.

*you reject contributing to the war effort by shopping.

*you refuse to sell the family farm to agribusiness or developers.

*you will expose your favorite pastor or coach upon evidence of immoral or illegal activities.

*you consider torture unAmerican.

*you think Google is God.

*you DON'T think Google is God.


[ You may NOT be among the Good Guys if:]


*you are a neo-con who wants to rule the world.

*you work for a company which manufactures land mines, hand grenades, a-bombs, etc.

*as a trucker you haul land mines, hand grenades, a-bombs, etc.

*you go to college primarily for job prospects and not to become educated.

* you manufacture drone planes when you know they are not intended for defense purposes.

* you mine uranium.

*you vote for politicians who promise you things rather than stand for things.

* you prefer companion animals to human beings.

* you consider global warming from a political rather than a humane perspective.

* you order a crop dust knowing workers are in the fields.

* you support oppressive regimes because of their oil, ideology or religion.

* you are a tease, female; or a lech, male.

* the idea of conservation annoys you; gas rationing makes you homicidal.

* you are a vulture capitalist or corporate raider.

*you have a net worth of one billion dollars and just want a teensy bit more.

Now you know what group you fall into. If you're a Good Guy, yeah! If you are unhappy with the result, what are you gonna do about it? Will you remain a camp follower or clean up your act and be part of the 1% ...the Good Guys.

The Home Run Syndrome Has Nearly Destroyed Mankind

Wot's this then! How can a baseball game ruin anything? Well...Home Run, as many remember, is classic adolescent male jargon for the end stage in the seduction process. The thing that happens (maybe) after bases 1, 2 and 3 are endured, for decorum mostly; then rushed past quickly. If that base, Home, is reached then...ta da... you 'do it' ! Therein the rub. No pun. This pathetic angst of callow youth has worldwide ramifications. Generation upon generation has suffered the Home Run Syndrome.

It probably began soon after the last ice age; certainly with the advent of agriculture. Humans began to settle in bigger clusters and larger tribes when the supply of food was more assured. Food, that ultimate, primary, energy source. (You thought it was oil, gas, or atoms didn't you?) The struggle switched from power over the elements, the beasts and the uncertainty of the hunt, to power over others. Back from a desert-mountain top-forest glade spiritual quest, or accidental experience, comes the recently idled, permanently underemployed, ex-hunter. Piously he announces he had," Seen things, heard things, Big Things, stuff the rest of you lot don't know squat about. So call me Mr. Shaman now and get busy. Quit laying about luxuriating. Get quickly to Home Base; then put on some clothes. Sweep out my cave and bring some food. I know stuff! "

The goal of cultures, religions and tribes over millennia has been to reduce us all to unwitting strivers for Home Base. Coital junkies, as it were. If we could be convinced that coition was as good as it gets, the only desirable goal; what obedient subjects we'd become. But to convince a species with acres of silky, bare skin, 24/7 access to love-making and now, lots more idle time, to forget all that preliminary stuff; go for the gold. Home Run! This became the main job of every shaman, priest and pol and tyrant. Don't linger about; just do it. Then get back to work, prayer, the regiment, the kitchen or city hall. It's gotten so bad nowadays that on a clothing optional beach or a naturist resort one can see the location of Home Base clearly, but the ever-present, judgmental voice says to stay on the bench. So we do. Thereby hangs a tail...oops, tale

The first to be disappointed and shortchanged were the women. It lasts to this day. The average maiden is tutored initially by the least able teacher of the amatory arts; a young male. Alas, poor maiden, our swain is under the spell of that old siren, Home Run. And this is the norm in the more 'enlightened' climes. In other parts of the world a likely couple is pretzled together by the families. Often see each other for the first time at the wedding rites and then...viola! Home Run. A burkha hides the damage.

There is likely more kissing, caressing and affection in one hour of femme to femme love-making than in a year of typical hetero wham-bam. Does it not follow that a less frantic, more sensual approach to amatory pleasures would occur with a suitable femme as tutor for young women...and young men? What are the chances of this happening? Little to none in the present situation.

The twentieth century, despite wars, plagues and financial depressions saw the greatest increase in global population in history. Improved medicine, industrial output and transportation, the so-called Green Revolution, all played a role. But our old standby, can't overlook it...Home Run, is a giant in the reproduction numbers game. And the big numbers represent lots of customers, a huge market, so what incentive is there for the focus to shift away an old faithful control mechanism such as that?

Home Run, as a metaphor, is an admittedly transparent ploy to redress a variety of human woes caused by oppression and usurpation of power. But if we seek to sort out effective devices for human control and discard violence, religiosity, and starvation; libido manipulation leaps forward. It's effective, it's cheap and once in place, devilish hard to combat because everybody's an expert. It becomes proprietary, automatic, personally defensible and survives nicely through generations.

Each of us could stop the nonsense dead in it's track. Could that is, by spending a little quality time 'doing it'. Throw out the old paradigm of wham-bam and try warming it up by cooling it.
Slow, slow, catchy monkey is very good amatory advice.

The SIXPACK Colony Experiment

a tale of the future

In the middle of the twenty-first century, roughly four decades after Ralph Nader's ' novel' suggestion, the super- rich decide the time has come to save the day (and what remains of civilization). The Euro has collapsed first, followed in short order by the dollar and the commissars in China are barely holding the renmimbi together. A handful of powerful, like-minded tycoons, who have survived with their fortunes largely intact, join forces and resolve to try to create something positive from the surrounding chaos. They call themselves The SixPack.

This group,although fiscally and politically very conservative, are socially quite progressive. Even, incredibly enough, radical. In fact, what they propose to do is illegal in every country; totally immoral in the eyes of every religion and could result in them being targeted for assassination if word got abroad of the undertaking.

The strongest rallying point amongst the SixPack members, all of whom are family oriented, is the carnage wreaked on the young during the long decline. Some had suffered personal loss as the shocking incidence of teen suicide was increasing, particularly among males. They began to wonder if the collapse of the internet and much of the power grid, which had enabled access to games playing, but now denied them, wasn't a factor.. The connection to suicide was baffling until one of the group came across a quote by a now obscure twentieth century writer. In 1987, Gore Vidal in an essay wrote," Since power not sex is true motor to human life, the powerless often prefer to die. That is why today's young do not eat goldfish. They kill themselves."With the illusion of power provided by video and online gaming gone, the disenfranchised young indeed felt powerless.

With the need for secrecy foremost, all six participants pledge whatever it takes of their personal fortunes, time and resources to assist the project to completion. Their combined assets are considerable: their resources worldwide in scope; their determination...total. So it begins.
Remarkably, very little altruism is involved as the leaders go about busily rearranging human history. These are hard-nosed guys making considered investments in both time and fortune and who, in most cases, won't live long enough to see the end results.That being said, what matters to them is, if they are successful, humankind is successful.

In order to have a chance for success location is paramount. The climate must be mild, the location remote from other habitation and the soil must be tilth. Selection of just the right habitat is a daunting task that would have been impossible prior to decades of diminishing social cohesion, natural resource depletion and planet-wide malaise. Of course these very circumstances are the reason this mind boggling adventure was even contemplated. Only the prospect of ever growing threats to mankind's very survival in any satisfactory form would have united these powerful individuals in this sort of endeavor.

A stroke of good fortune put them in possession of an island at a reasonable latitude and sufficient size to accommodate the plan. Their good fortune was at the cost of the former inhabitants who succumbed to a virulent strain of a smallpox type virus which was no longer a problem as the bug and the victims had perished together. The site was inspected by teams of tropical health and habitation experts for any foreseeable problems and given a clean ticket. With the results in hand the principals began construction of a comfortable and viable environment.

They began to lay down a cover story for the intended usage to satisfy workmen and suppliers who would naturally be curious. The raison d'etre put forth was that a quarantine facility was being equipped for future usage and would, quite naturally, be off limits to the public. It was necessary at every stage to have a cover story circulated casually in hopes that curiosity be thwarted as it arose.

One of the last installations, after fencing the approach to the waterfront, was the erection on the main pier and abutting the fence of a building to facilitate egress and exit from the settlement. Supplies could enter and in an emergency an occupant could be removed to receive medical treatment as it served as a clinic as well. A series of airlocks and UV installations served to prevent contamination from entering the facility from outsiders and to keep the residents from interacting with the outside world. Also in place was an elaborate network of closed circuit cameras throughout the colony that would only link to six monitors in the secure control of the principals. To avoid any taint of 'Big Brother', only the residents could activate the system if they so desired.
It was determined that once a year the system would be turned on for twenty four hours so the SixPack principals could view the colony.

The matter of recruitment was problematic. There was general agreement regarding the first applicants as to age, fifteen to twenty was the range; they would be females. It was deemed essential that the girls would be introduced first to domesticate the environment; a nesting process. Recruitment parameters were set and included firstly; orphans, of which there was no shortage worldwide since the troubles began. Excellent health was vital along with a more or less secular spiritual orientation. The organizers, at this junction, were forced to rely on trusted aides and associates to comb the world looking for recruits. Although denied a clear picture of the actual future awaiting the prospects, they could honestly promise something more rewarding and far safer than the candidates would otherwise enjoy.

When the desired number had been realized, the young women put through an extensive indoctrination at various locations, they were then transferred to the island and installed in what was to be a permanent home. The initial number decided on was sixty. Meanwhile the task force was busily occupied in securing a supply of very young, orphaned infants; a ratio of three girls to one boy was established. The infants were soon delivered over to the young women who had been anxiously awaiting their arrival. The hardest thing for these young people to accept was the ban on companion animals. It was hoped a focus away from pets and toward children and each other would be more productive.

After a suitable bonding and acclimation period the final element was introduced with the arrival from indoctrination of a cadre of twenty young males. These youth, as the females previously had done, underwent lengthy training in agriculture, construction, animal husbandry and other useful trades. This group of young males was at the heart of the experiment. The principals had decreed that most of the woes plaguing mankind from time immemorial may have been caused by universal male dominance. The ratio of male to females, including the infants, was chosen in an attempt to redress this phenomenon. Three to one, female to male, was the chosen number for the colony but, by lacking precedent, was plainly arbitrary.

What was not arbitrary, and was stressed repeatedly in the candidate selection process, was that one major requirement for both males and females is a demonstrable interest in erotic inclination toward both genders. Total rejection of such an inclination was a disqualifier. This was necessary to avoid lapsing into a male dominated erotic atmosphere. Specifically to avoid the 'third base' syndrome, or coital obsession, which had been rampant historically as a result of repressive religious and cultural taboo systems which directed erotic interest to one act above all others. Countless generations subject to this syndrome had become inept lovers and erotically uneducable because of carnality focused primarily on coitus and subsequent neglect of a multitude of erogenous possibilities. So to assist these young males in learning to sublimate the burgeoning urgencies of eros, a potential smorgasbord of opportunity and enlightenment in sensual arts was offered.

The candidates, during indoctrination, were made aware that in the colony they would be expected to, as Wiccans might say, be 'Sky Clad'. This is by no means a clothing optional situation as any garments worn would be solely for protection from the elements and would not, in any way, hide the nether areas from view. In effect, a reverse taboo attempting to offset eons of denial of the carnal, animal nature of humans. They were to understand that amorous activities were not to be hidden from others, nor from the young. In conjunction, it was affirmed that no one was to willfully, spitefully or pridefully hide from others, this region of the anatomy.That the key to reversing eons of repression and compulsive approach to amatory life was to be open, frank and honest about behaviors and appetites of humanity that heretofore had been used as a sinister lever to enact repression and control over individuals, tribes and cultures.

The SixPack principals now feel that they have removed most of the obvious barriers to the success of these brave young pioneers as they attempt to forge a new culture. Success or failure will not be known until, at the earliest, the next generation. If compulsion, along with power seeking, and possessiveness is removed from the mix, maybe, this drastic experiment will lead to a way of being not merely human, but truly humane.

'Out of Africa' is Only Half the Equation/

Is 'Out of Sinai/Levant' the Other?

Recent reports by paleogeneticists, if the evidence proves out, could upset radically just about everything we hold dear regarding human Genesis .According to "Researchers led by Paabo, Richard E. Green of the University of California, Santa Cruz, and David Reich of Harvard Medical School compared the genetic material collected from the bones of three Neanderthals with that from five modern humans.Their findings, reported in Friday's edition of the journal Science, show a relationship between Neanderthals and modern people outside Africa, Paabo said."That suggests that interbreeding occurred in the Middle East, where both modern humans and Neanderthals lived thousands of years ago, he said." Associated Press

I've stressed the key words in the above; OUTSIDE AFRICA. This finding, aside from the mystification that interbreeding suggests, puts the origin of Neanderthal, somewhere, but not in Africa.

Since it is generally agreed by anthropologists that Neanderthals occupied an area from
the Levant to Britain for two hundred thousand years perhaps the search for Genesis should be focused on them rather than on 'Cro-Magnon' where science has been stuck for ages.

If Neanderthals are in our bloodline, and if their origin is not Africa, aren't we in effect back at Anthropology square one? Who were they and what did they evolve from and how have we missed all this?

The people now considered our direct ancestors reportedly left Africa about sixty thousand years ago. Contrast this with Neanderthal who, if he had ever lived in Africa, had lived elsewhere for two hundred thousand years. Hadn't we soon begin, rather than continue to dismiss Neanderthal as a heavy-brow, lumbering troglodyte, to study him instead, as gran-dad?

This flagrant oversimplification is aimed at stressing just one point: if Neanderthal was not 'Out of Africa', and his DNA is not found there; should we not look elsewhere for at least one half of our heritage? My guess would put origins in Sinai/Levant. The Ed. in Eden, maybe?

End of Evolution: a Retrospective

November, 2099

The natural evolution of life on planet Earth began to come to an end on December 2, 1942 on a squash court in Chicago, Illinois, USA. The wizard who precipitated this event was the brilliant Italian physicist, Enrico Fermi.

One hundred years later the planet was de facto, bankrupt; thus no longer solvent. At that moment, the natural evolution of species was doomed to end and be replaced by worldwide genetic contamination as mankind could no longer afford to safely maintain or dispose of the countless machines and devices that had been produced since Professor Fermi released the genii by starting the first successful controlled nuclear chain reaction.

There had been opportunity for mankind to neuter the jinn from that day in 1942 until September 16, 1985, the day on which the USA went broke, ceased to be an Empire and could no longer afford to bear the costs and responsibility for the hideously dangerous forces it had released; assuming, which is exceedingly doubtful, it ever had intended to do so.

At the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century there were, according to Nuclear Power Today, updated in February, 2011:
"... now over 440 commercial nuclear power reactors operating in 30 countries, 56 countries operate a total of about 250 research reactors and a further 180 nuclear reactors power some 140 ships and submarines. Over 60 further nuclear power reactors are under construction, while over 150 are firmly planned"

" The magnitude of the radiation generated in a nuclear power plant is almost beyond belief ... The original uranium fuel that is subject to the fission process becomes 1 billion times more radioactive in the reactor core. A thousand-megawatt nuclear power plant contains as much long-lived radiation as that produced by the explosion of 1,000 Hiroshima-sized bombs." Dr. Helen Caldicott

That huge number of nuclear appliances was dwarfed by the tally, courtesy of ICAN, of 23,300 nuclear warheads around the globe. Add to this the immense volume of nuclear waste which had always defied safe long term storage. This was the situation worldwide a scant three decades before the end of nature's sovereignty. In the year 2011 it was theoretically possible, with a huge expenditure of resources and treasure worldwide, to prevent the catastrophe looming just ahead. The possibility of such action was not open to discussion, let alone implementation. Nothing at all was done.

An example of the mind-set of most humans at that time is the launching of a missile towards Mars in November of 2011 containing scores of ounces of Plutonium regarded as the most lethal substance known. In what must have been the most maniacal piece of uber-hubris in decades that mission, curiously enough called 'Curiosity', was purported to seek signs of Life on that sphere but by sending forth a parcel of Death.

Mankind had prior warning of the consequences of uncontrolled nuclear fission with the experiences of Chernobyl, Ukraine in 1986 and Fukushima, Japan in 2011. Nevertheless, In the inevitable course of events, the tens of thousand of devices resultant after the early Chicago experiments were left unattended. Without the absolutely precise knowledge for their maintenance, combined with the enormous cost of this critical attention, they were gradually abandoned.

"Ionizing radiation—the kind that minerals, atom bombs and nuclear reactors emit—does one main thing to the human body: it weakens and breaks up DNA, either damaging cells enough to kill them or causing them to mutate in ways that may eventually lead to cancer.
... This ionizing radiation can damage DNA molecules directly, by breaking the bonds between atoms, or it can ionize water molecules and form free radicals, which are highly reactive and also disrupt the bonds of surrounding molecules, including DNA." POPSCI The Future Now

Google
mu·ta·tion/myo͞oˈtāSHən/

Noun:
The action or process of mutating.
The changing of the structure of a gene, resulting in a variant form that may be transmitted to subsequent generations...

Peter Dedon, a member of the Radiation Protection Committee at MIT, explains: “What happens is that the nucleus of radioactive elements undergoes decay and emits high-energy particles. If you stand in the way of those particles, they are going to interact with the cells of your body. You literally get a particle, an energy packet, moving through your cells and tissues.”

"What long-term effects can radiation have?
The effect of the radiation may not be to kill the cell, but to alter its DNA code in a way that leaves the cell alive but with an error in the DNA blueprint. The effect of this mutation will depend on the nature of the error and when it is read. Since this is a random process, such effects are now called stochastic. Two important stochastic effects of radiation are cancer, which results from mutations in nongerm cells (termed somatic cells), and heritable changes, which result from mutations in germ cells (eggs and sperm)."
... ACHRE Report

With all of civilization on the edge of abyss in the middle of the twenty-first century and trying desperately to feed and/or quell the remaining billions of frantic citizens, little effort or funding was directed toward confronting the pending nuclear dilemma. This oversight was critical because without constant attention these neglected devices ultimately began to alter life on the planet. Nature had little ability to cope with the radiation emanating from those thousands of impaired devices and storage facilities and the genetics of living organisms was affected in myriads of ways by the onslaught.

Those lethal ions spewing forth unchecked can bring illlness, death or failing both, blast apart DNA and change forever nature's prior mandate. Species are affected to varying degrees and for all time. Were any Martian organisms doomed as well by man's folly?

"Crow Jim" is Alive and Well/

and Busily Rewriting History


Among the sundry American 'expats' thronging to Paris after WWI were a great many artists and musicians. The doughboys had returned to the States full of praise and in awe of Europe and especially France. America was an unhappy place for blacks in the twenties with the rise of the KKK and the overall reaction to the returning black soldiers who represented a new kind of black man, who had seen the world and was demanding more equality at home. The draconian attempt to keep blacks under white domination was known as the 'Jim Crow Laws.'

In the twenties the French were mad for 'Le Jazz Hot!' as they called the new American music. The clubs in Paris booked all the jazz musicians they could find but were color conscious to a fault. The ones selected as authentic were invariably black. No whites need apply. It was, as white clarinetist Mezz Mezzrow complained in his novel, Really the Blues, a kind of reverse discrimination he called 'Crow Jim'. So while Buck Clayton, Peanuts Holland and Lionel Hampton found work and acclaim, talented white jazzmen often were met with rejection because of their race.

It's one thing to have had this kind of discrimination in 1920's France; quite another in twenty-first century America. But it's here and it is an affront to all the excellent white jazzmen who have contributed so much to the art form. I can recall as far back as the early 1950s among some intellectuals, jazz aficionados and hangers-on in the jazz scene, and, woefully, that included a few black musicians, the snide insinuation that white jazzmen were not as good; "they didn't have soul."

The most egregious example of 'Crow Jim' is found in what will likely become the archetypical standard reference of twentieth century jazz history; the documentary miniseries by Ken Burns, Jazz. The ten part series aired in 2000. Criticisms of this effort at documenting the history of jazz were legion and were most scathingly addressed by Jeffrey St Clair:
"The series is narrated by a troika of neo-cons: Wynton Marsalis, the favorite trumpeter of the Lincoln Center patrons; writer Albert Murray, who chastised the militant elements of the civil rights and anti-war movements with his pal Ralph Ellison; and Stanley Crouch, the Ward Connerly of music critics."

It is both correct and proper to credit black jazz musicians as sole custodians and creators of jazz at its earliest beginnings. However, from the nineteen twenties until the present, to ignore the strong contributions of countless white jazzmen, is reprehensible. I doubt that was Burns intention. I suspect he assigned Messrs Marsalis, Murray and Crouch the selection of the principals for the narrative thread and tragically, this 'Crow Jim' hagiography has, for the past decade, become the visual history of jazz. .

I would like to challenge Messrs M. M. and C. to listen again to J.J. Johnson (black), on trombone and Kai Winding (white) , trombone, on The Great Kai & J.J. (Impulse) album and tell the world which trombone playing is the more authentic and which lacks 'soul'. This is a good test for us all, to lay to rest a patronizing, discriminatory and racist appraisal of musicianship by color rather than merit.

The same attitude that prompted the French, and more recently, these chromatographers when rewriting,the history of jazz, is specious. The 'Crow Jim' syndrome can also be found at times attacking both race...and gender. A case in point is the high-handed treatment offered one of the early black writers who in addition to being deemed politically incorrect for the times, was female. Our old avian trickster friend 'Jim' stooped down on Zora Neale Hurston like a bird of prey.

Hurston, a member in good? standing in the Harlem Renaissance in the 1930s, a graduate of Barnard, an anthropologist of some renown, and a published author, was a Republican. She was an opponent of the New Deal which was supported by the majority of her colleagues including Langston Hughes. Additionally she was skeptical of organized religion and had a penchant for feminine individualism.

”She was scathing about those who sought "freedoms" for those abroad, but denied it to people in their home countries: Roosevelt "can call names across an ocean" for his Four Freedoms, but he did not have “the courage to speak even softly at home.” Wikipedia

None of this went over well with the idealogues of the Harlem Renaissance although her gifts and renown equalled or surpassed most of the others. Her first novel, Jonah's Gourd Vine published in 1934, was cited by Carl Sandburg as, "A bold and beautiful book, many a page priceless and unforgettable." "Though attacked by (Richard) Wright and virtually ignored by his literary heirs, Hurstons's ideas about language and craft undergird many of the most successful contributions to Afro-American literature that followed." Henry Lewis Gates, Jr

Lacking any support from her mostly male peers, Hurston, despite having published seven books, an autobiography and fifty shorter works, drifted into obscurity. But she continued to write and at one point worked as a maid to gather authentic material, anticipating by decades the novel, 'Help', by Kathryn Stockett, currently enjoying so much popular success.

Always outspoken she, years later when Truman dropped the A-bombs on Japan, Hurston called him "the Butcher of Asia." In 1960, Zora Neale Hurston died penniless in Florida and was buried in an unmarked grave perhaps with the local buzzards and crows for company.