 |
|
|
| By: Danielle Sanzone , The Record | 08/09/2004 |
|
|
|
Metroland by Shawn Stone
Troy Record, by Danielle Sanzone
Paul Connett, Work on Waste
Matt Funiciello, Nader activist,
Rockhill Bakehouse
Mimi Czajkia Graminski, Artist
Sally Cass, Nader row crew, student activist
Review by Paul Connett, Work on Waste
Thanks for sending the book -couldn't put it down. Finished it yesterday. Absolutely
brilliant!
I expect others (many others) have already suggested this but you should approach Micahel
Moore to see if he could get this made into a film. He has the loot now!!
Anyway heartiest congratulations - i had no idea you were so talented.
Madame President was
wonderful. I couldn't put it down. It's an especially good antidote to hearing the current
turn of events in the mainstream media. I enjoyed imagining another, saner world. It
taught me that another world is indeed possible.
Matt Funiciello
"Madame
President" is truly a compelling read, but only for those of conscience. It was
written, I believe, for an audience already looking for answers, and not for the casual
reader who has no interest or involvement in modern politics and social justice. If you
dare to dream, as I do, that we may someday topple the two-party system and see real human
beings elected to office who will act on the people's behalf, this book is a staggeringly
intelligent roadmap of how that might be possible. It is also just a good story about a
loving couple living their lives in a fairly open relationship and how that relationship
is constantly challenged by their commitment to the betterment of the orb we call home.
Kudos to Mark Dunlea. A very timely book!
Sally Cass, Albany New York peace and student activist
I like the flashbacks in Rachel, Wynde & Anna''s life. They really add to the
character building and adding understanding and interest in the story, plus giving it the
real human element- lots of fun, life, partying and such. I really like the Organizing 101
lessons snuck in Wynde''s early days iving with Pete. It''s really good advice.
Sidenote, it''s interesting to see the parts of your character''s lives in what I believe
is your life. Passive solar house,..building your own house……I didn''t know you
worked with CAN. But I remember snippits of hearing you living the voluntary in poverty
organizing lifestyle. Didn''t know where\when. Perhaps, round my age. But that part of the
book was really good- descriptive, real life sounding. Really gave your book the touch
––life experiences, blended with fiction, helps your story really have the
emotional depth and connection needed for the reader to connect with your plot,
characters. I can see some of the words coming out of Rachel''s mouth come out of yours.
And I empathize deeply and immediately with Wnyde''s struggle of organizing as his life vs
missing out on his life- love, pleasure, happiness mixed with organizing.
And it was good to put in the Green arguments- a green or 2 having frustrations with the
Green Party (Rachel''s criticisms in the beginning) Exploring these frustrations
more, and perhaps exploring ways to solvethem might be good.
Your 9\11 section made me cry. Yes, and then I .... because it saddened me, disturbed me,
made me think of all anxiousness, fear and shock that I felt when I heard it. Re
experience my experience. Pat yourself on your back! That''s a great thing when an author
can have their readers get really emotional.
Mark -- I just wanted to send you a quick note to let you know how much I am enjoying your
book! I have only made it to the middle of the second chapter, but I am having a
hard time putting it down. The first chapter is simply awesome. I love the
meetings and conversations with the national security guys, the democrats, republicans,
and your Nader-esque character. I especially like the way she handles the hostage
crisis -- its all about existing relationships, having integrity, and honest talk -- as an
ardent citizen participation advocate, I thought it was brilliant. It is so much fun
to think about how someone used to a whole different approach to decision-making would
handle things. Also, I really appreciate the fact that no-one is perfect. The
criticism of the Greens as a debating society was perfect. Frost (Nader's)
weaknesses are wonderfully portrayed. And none of the solutions she comes up with
are too pat or too simple. Its great!
Also -- I laughed out loud at some of your family story references -- like Wynn picking up
Nader in a pinto car, and the description of where Wynn got his name -- that gives a great
description of how Reed might have gotten his name...Anyway, your writing is great -- its
so exciting to know someone who can write fiction like that -- I can't wait to read the
rest of the book.
If You Write It
Activist Mark Dunlea put his hard-earned political knowledge into Madame President,
a novel he hopes will have a positive impact on the system
http://nys.greens.org/rachel
By Shawn Stone
‘‘Imagine if we had a Green Party President on September 11, 2001.""
That probably got your attention, didn’’t it? It’’s the tagline for Madame
President, the debut novel by longtime local political organizer Mark Dunlea. How in
the world, you may wonder, could a Green Party candidate end up in the White House?
Using the disastrous 2000 election as a template, Dunlea cleverly works it all out to the
last vote in the electoral college. In this alternate universe, the Greens’’
party-building in the late 1990s makes it a national political factor, thanks to their
presidential candidate, Barry Frost (think Ralph Nader). The debacle in Florida happens,
and——with the Greens on hand to counter Republican shenanigans in a way the
real-life Democrats never tried——the election is decided according to the
Constitution. When the Greens are accused of being spoilers, the future Ms. President
tartly replies: ""You can’’t spoil anything that’’s already
rotten.""
The Greens horse-trade their way into the vice-presidential slot. The new administration
takes office, the Democratic president croaks and——voila——Madame
President.
Needless to say, Rachel Moreno is not a typical president. Her reactions to every problem,
foreign and domestic, are from a Green perspective. The citizens are actually consulted.
Corporations are not coddled. Wars are not declared.
Mark Dunlea is more than just a well-known local figure in progressive politics.
He’’s an institution. Over the last 30 years, from his student days at
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Albany Law through his political activities with the
Citizen’’s and Green parties, he helped found the New York Public Interest
Research Group, the local chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, organized ""the
first statewide meeting of the Green Party of New York State,"" and most
recently has been involved with the creation of the Hudson-Mohawk Independent Media
Center. He hosts a weekly show on WRPI, and, oh, still holds down his day job with the
Hunger Action Network of New York State. A detailed listing of his CV would likely take up
the entire space allotted for this article; what made him want to write a novel?
""There are a number of reasons,"" he explains. ""One was
that I wanted to help educate young people starting off on their careers as organizers.
I’’ve been doing organizing for 30 years, and wanted to share my experiences and
insights——so they don’’t have to repeat all the mistakes I
made.""
Thus, the novel charts Rachel Moreno’’s career as political activist and
environmental organizer in a way that is intended to be instructive, not instructional.
""The second reason,"" he continues, ""was to give people a
better understanding of what Green philosophy was, and a sense that they might be more
willing to read it if it was a novel, with a least some humor to it and not just a dry
treatise or that sort of thing.""
Dunlea was still only halfway through the novel in 2001 when he realized he had to deal
with the issue of violence, to answer the question of how a Green president would react to
an attack on the United States from outside. Late on the evening of Sept. 10, Dunlea
remembers discussing this touchy plot problem with a former campaign manager, and asking
him: ""How many people could we realistically kill in the United States through
a terrorist attack?""
""And six hours later,"" he recalls, ""these planes [crash]
into the World Trade Center.""
Again, truth is proved stranger than fiction.
Dunlea enjoyed the writing process, especially considering the political climate of the
last few years, as the Bush administration ignored mass protests and went to war in Iraq.
It was, he remembers, ""much more enjoyable to come home and talk about how
Rachel was responding to this, rather than deal with the reality of how Congress was not
listening to what we had to say.""
Once finished——and it took a few drafts, along with some friendly literary
advice from his editor——Dunlea self-published it under the Big Toad Books impint
in the spring of 2004. He couldn’’t find a mainstream publishing house
interested in a progressive political novel; conversely, most progressive publishers focus
on nonfiction.
The timing of the book was no accident——the book was also intended to influence
Green Party politics and policies going into this election year.
So what does Dunlea think about the Greens’’ place in the 2004 elections? The
Greens, you may have read, spurned gadfly Ralph Nader, nominated lawyer David Cobb for
president and adopted a Safe States strategy——Cobb will campaign only in
electorally ""safe states"" (safe, that is, for Democratic nominee
John Kerry), but avoid states in which the presidential race is close.
""I think it’’s a mistake, but it’’s
understandable,"" Dunlea says. ""People are very confused and very
frightened at this point.""
Fear, he contends, is why many progressives have not only deserted Nader, but also, to a
lesser extent, the Green Party; more importantly, it explains why they are saying nothing
while the Democrats actively work to keep Nader off the ballot in states across the
country.
Dunlea is not alone in this view. As lawyer and Nader supporter Carl Mayer recently told The
New York Times, ""It’’s an unprecedented assault. The bellyaching
and whining by the Democrats about how Ralph supposedly cost them the election in 2000 is
relentless.""
""We have such a messed-up electoral system, and the only response for maybe 95
percent of progressives is ‘‘stand down, shut up, and don’’t challenge
the two corporate parties,’’ "" he laments. ""This is such a
retreat, such a loss of democracy, and so many people of the left are participating in
it.""
The problem, Dunlea says, is that too many people believe that George W. Bush is
""a more radical and dangerous"" president than Ronald Reagan was.
And, Dunlea argues, he is not.
""It makes you wonder if people were asleep (in the ’’80s). . . .
People have this collective amnesia——as time goes on, they forget how bad things
were.""
""Reagan,"" he continues, ""was a much more radical
transformation of the political process than Bush is.""
Though no longer New York state chairman, Dunlea is still active in the Green Party,
serving on one of their national committees. He has also been busy with the
drive——which ended Tuesday, Aug. 17——to collect enough signatures to
get Green U.S. Senate candidate David McReynolds on the New York state ballot. With that
effort over, Dunlea is going to concentrate on Madame President. (He has a number
of speaking engagements lined up for the fall.)
""At this point,"" he notes with some satisfaction,
""I’’ve broken even on the book. . . . I control it, I own
it."" Because of this, he feels he can now take it to the bookstore chains and
online booksellers; they take such a big percentage of each sale, Dunlea explains, that it
wouldn’’t have made sense to work with them before making the break-even point.
As for visibility, Madame President, he recounts, has been discussed on National
Public Radio and the liberal Air America radio network; it has also received some local
and national press. It’’s available in one area bookstore so far (the Book House
of Stuyvesant Plaza), and Dunlea just put it on Amazon.com, a move he had resisted.
""It costs so much money,"" he laughs, as Amazon considers itself both
a bookstore and distributor——and, accordingly, takes two bites out of the sales
of each book.
Dunlea seems to genuinely enjoy promoting the novel; he’’s done it well enough
to break even, after all. At a recent noontime appearance at the Albany Public Library,
Dunlea answered questions, signed books and read from his work with a seasoned
campaigner’’s enthusiasm. (Every politician, whatever their party, has something
of the actor in them.)
Dunlea’’s thinking reflects a mix of realism and optimism. At one point in this
interview, he reminisced about his early-’’90s tenure as an elected member of
the Postenkill Town Board: ""I thought I was cynical about electoral politics
until I got elected to office, then I became far, far more cynical having actually
experienced it.""
The book, however, eschews cynicism in favor of hope. At the library, Dunlea read with a
convincing seriousness and passion an excerpt from President Moreno’’s Sept. 11
memorial speech, which concludes with a sentiment that runs through Dunlea’’s
political beliefs: ""There is no way to peace, peace is the way.""
Madame President: The political novel as field of dreams.
| Author offers novel
approach to Sept. 11 |
||||||||
|
| What
would our country be like if we had a female Green Party president? That is the question Mark Dunlea, 50, of Poestenkill, answers in his book "Madame President." Dunlea is an activist who works for the Hunger Action Network of New York State and is also a former Green Party candidate for state Assembly. He uses his political experiences to create a piece of fiction that makes the reader look differently at reality. The protagonist of the book is Rachel Moreno, an American single mother of Irish and Mexican descent who becomes vice president of the U.S. in the 2000 election and has to take on the job of president when her boss dies mysteriously on the eve of Sept. 11, 2001. Dunlea has Moreno take Bush's place pre- and post-9/11. Besides having Moreno face the horrible tragedy of the attacks, Dunlea also has her act as a "Forrest Gump figure," the author explained, for many of the conflicts in the 1970s, '80s and '90s. "The overall goal of the book was to educate people, especially young people, about the Green Party's philosophies," said Dunlea, who worked on "Madame President" for 2½ years. "I wrote it in 1½ years and had it edited for one year," Dunlea said, "Karl Arnold did a great job editing." Dunlea also wrote the book as a response to 9/11. "The night of Sept. 10, I was on the porch with a colleague trying to discuss a good conflict for the book," Dunlea explained. "I needed an opinion about how many Americans could die in a terrorist act and still make the novel sound realistic. Well, the next day I, unfortunately, got my answer. These days, the truth is stranger than fiction." The book came out May 1 and is Dunlea's first published work, though he has had numerous reports published. "Madame President" can be purchased on Dunlea's Web site, http://nys.greens.org/ madamepresident Dunlea said the reaction to "Madame President" has been "very positive," and he is pleased with the book. |
Return
to home page