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So begins Otto Frank's first letter to a young American girl in 1957, a suburban California girl named Cara as much in the mainstream of American society as the pop songs she listens to on the radio. That girl had read Anne's diary, had been deeply moved by it, and had written to Anne's father.
He wrote back.
Cara wrote to him again. Otto wrote back. She wrote again. He wrote again. And so on and so forth...for decades. They grew close. Cara faced all the same questions we face, about school, love, marriage, child-rearing, politics, family. But she had a very, very special mentor.
This book is her story of that relationship. Yes, it's a remarkable pairing. But it's also a remarkable tour through the last half of the 20th century, through the Civil Rights movement and Vietnam, the Watergate days, too many wars in the Middle East; all reflected in a single woman's coming of age. The letters back and forth are always revealing and quite often gripping. They are about private troubles and public issues. And when Cara, as a woman, goes to visit an ailing Otto, by now an old man, it would take a reader with a hard heart indeed not to feel a lump in the throat, at least. Then, when Otto her a collection of something that takes us, the reader, completely over the edge, in the best possible way.
We recommend this book to anyone, of any age. It is just special.
Anyone who has read Hall's work, or any of the other books on the 4 FG ('Tumult in the Clouds' by Jim Goodson, 'Spits, Thunderbolts, and Warm Beer', and 'Donald's Story') might be a bit put off by the logbook-style format of Speer's book, but it does show you there were a lot more men in the Group than just the more noteworthy pilots, and Speer tells their story as much as anyone else's. 'The Debden Warbirds' is more of a historical record of the 4FG than a novel, and compliments the other works about the Group; but the best reason to buy this great book is the section on nose art in the end. Speer's inclusion of Don Allen's stunning works of art on the noses of the 4FG Mustangs (in color,no less!) is worth the price of the book alone.
Frank Speer himself was an ace with the Fourth, as well as a POW, and was awarded the DFC and Air Medal (with three OLCs). He is part of a vanishing breed of heroes that our generation just recently started to recognize and appreciate, and he is to be commended not only for his efforts in capturing the history of the Fourth Fighter Group, but also for his contributions to it.
Major Michael H. Moore, USAF
Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe
Belgium
The law, of course, is the U.S. Constitution, and Johnson's decisions, as his essays indicate, were informed and circumscribed by a profound understanding of the mechanics of the law. As Johnson told Bill Moyers in a 1980 public television interview, the transcript of which is published for the first time in this book, Johnson realized certain limitations when he opposed busing as a tool of desegregation because "when you make a child, or children, get up at five o'clock in the morning and wait for a bus to haul them 10 or 15 miles, past schools to which they were formerly eligible to go, then I think you are doing tremendous damage". Striving for judicial clarity above and beyond moral fervor, Johnson also said that he had never been inside of a prison or a mental facility because he "needed not to go there," but to make his decisions on "the basis of evidence that's presented during the adversary proceeding."
Judge Johnson's momentous injunction in Williams v. Wallace that ordered Governor George Wallace to allow a four-day civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery (from March 21 to March 25, 1965), led by Dr. King along Highway 80, was rendered in a carefully crafted opinion based on the principle that the right to protest on public property should be "commensurate with the enormity of the wrongs that are being protested and petitioned against."
As these essays make clear, Judge Johnson believed that the role of the American judiciary and of the entire legal profession should be one of activism, not on the side of morality, but to maintain the supremacy of the law. Johnson wrote that " the lawyer should remember that a disrespect or disregard for law is always the first sign of a disintegrating society."Throughout his forty-one years on the bench, Judge Johnson sought to decide the cases that came before him solely on their particular merits. His injunctive orders that sought to remedy deplorable conditions in prisons and mental health facilities were taken because, in his view, elected officials had failed to discharge their designated and constitutional responsibilities for fair and equitable governance. Judge Johnson clearly believed that all citizens, including the mentally retarded, the insane, and those convicted of felonies, still have certain basic rights to include sanitary living conditions, freedom from unwarranted punishment, and, if feasible, the right to rehabilitation. As he eloquently concluded his essay "Equal Access to Justice," the promise inscribed on the Supreme Court Building of "Equal Justice Under Law" cannot be fulfilled unless there is equal access to justice.
Towards the end of his judicial career, Judge Johnson wrote: "If we abdicate responsibility to address the difficult questions of our time, those in need of refuge from the torrents of political, economic, and religious forces will find no haven in the law and the law will no longer be supreme. . . . A judge must always be consumed by a passion for justice which propels judgment toward the just conclusion." This forceful summation of an American judge's responsibilities is elaborated in this artfully chosen collection of Johnson's insightful and thought-provoking essays. This is a valuable addition to the biographic literature on Frank Johnson that should be welcomed by all students of recent American History.
The thoughts the author has are the reason those of us who love the outdoors love them so much. The solitary, beautiful, amazing feeling of being alone - literally or figuratively - with the earth (or God - your pick) in its magnificent splendor, and of the thrill of being alive.
This year in school we had to choose a book to read and do a book report on it. I had chosen to do Anne Frank because I had already read a little about her but I had wanted to learn more information about her and life for Jewish people during WW2. By reading both of this book it had shown me how hard it was for Jewish people of all ages. They where taken out of there homes and sent to a concentration camp where most of them later died. It puts the whole world to shame because we all knew about this and nothing was getting done early. But finally we were able to help them and save them.
It takes a brave little girl like Anne to be able to write everything down in a diary that was happening in her life. And by Mr. Frank giving Anne's book to be published must had taken a lot of courage also. But in many ways we are glad that he did because Anne had showed us in many ways how tough it was to be Jewish and how hard it was to go into hiding. I would recommend this book for people off all ages because it is a wonderful book, and I know everyone will enjoy reading it.
Her little diary gave the world a personal view and meaning to the millions who suffered the same fate. It will continue to be read and lets hope they will be young readers, caught in time to perceive it while their hearts and minds are still impressionable. It simply proves that life is a wonderful mystery. Anne Frank's diary and death were destined to touch the hearts and minds of millions. Her legacy written into history as a trivial, adolescent words scribbled in her little diary to transgress time.
My own question when reading her diary was "who was Hitler?" which brought tears to my mother's eyes. She said, I was told that someday your children will ask ! that question. One great and powerful forgotten, another, a little sparrow, remembered by millions.
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But beyond its usefulness to O'Hara's poetry, the book is the story of a friendship. And an account of a special time in American arts and letters - told from one of the members at the party. LeSueur's presence in O'Hara's life might have been partly due to charm and good lucks (which he discusses), but that apparently never stopped him from being important to O'Hara. (The famous 'Lunch Poems' is dedicated to him.) We are fortunate that he was a careful observer and was blessed with a remarkable memory. Apparently he died shortly before the book was published, which is poignant, because the book is also a tribute to LeSueur's life, and a celebration.