Solutions 2

About the Book

In Solutions 2, sequel to Alphabetic Solutions, Dr. Carolyn LaDelle Bennett again reflects on principles beyond “me and mine,” behavior and language (unbecoming and becoming), and violence and nonviolence as major contributors to brokenness, where seriously thought-out, constructive changes would heal our brokenness; mend fundamental relations among human beings, among people, among nations, and among varieties of being; and restore wholeness to the society—local to global. The author considers the great harm that issues from a prevailing political and social environment of counterfeit values, pretense, preaching, propaganda, a pattern of broken promises, and a cult of pandering politics “normalized” as the best we can do. The author laments the dangerous loss of trust domestically and internationally and seeks substantive solutions for the common good. The changes posited by the author focus on the basics: principles of fairness, evenhandedness, honesty, and competence in news press and governance; sharing as equals among equals and not as superiors to inferiors in condescending charity, alms, and often abuse of “obliged” and “entitled” betters to lessers; accuracy in language, civility, integrity, humility, honesty, respectfulness in discourse online and offline, inside and outside public office; impartiality in law; and nonviolence in policy, speech, and actions. Bennett shines daylight on a dark side of US politics and posits new light that transcends barriers and boorishness and builds bridges forward. Between the tough issues, she invites readers to join her in bird-watching. The book’s center section contains the author’s wildlife photography.

About the Author

Dr. Carolyn LaDelle Bennett is a lifelong nonfiction writer with interests in politics, public affairs and international relations. Her worldview is informed by her U.S. Peace Corps years teaching in West Africa and engaging with native peoples and multinational expatriates. Bennett's ethics and humanity are fundamentally informed by her formative years growing up with parents in the U.S. South and in later years traveling across the United States and to some countries of Western Europe. Having a belief in basic values of nonviolence, sovereignty of all nations and rights of all peoples to protections under law and universal conventions, she has become increasingly alarmed not by “foreign” threats but by internally-rooted threats to global society -- Americans' “proud” domestic and international code of violence manifest in endless wars and fighting words; their excused pandering, entrenched viciousness, and incompetence of public officials who have severely damaged America's world standing and virtually destroyed any vision of “The Union.” Bennett's teaching and government experience, her credentials in educational philosophy and ethics, teaching and learning theories, journalism and public affairs (Michigan State University, PhD; American University, MA) make hers “the heart of an educator” who delights in sharing ideas. Her major published include: Alphabetic SOLUTIONS (2016); Unconscionable: How the World Sees Us (2014); No Land an Island: No People Apart (2012); Same Ole or Something New (2010); Breakdown (2009); Women's Work and Words Altering World Order (2008); Missing News and Views in Paranoid Times (2006); No Room for Despair . . . Mary McLeod Bethune's Cold War, Integration-Era Commentary (2005); Talking Back to Today's News (2003); America's Human Connection (1994); An Annotated Bibliography of Mary McLeod Bethune's Chicago Defender Columns, 1948 -1955 (2001); and You Can Struggle without Hating, Fight without Violence (1988). Links: Xlibris dot com; Today's Insight News (http://todaysinsightnews.blogspot.com/), https://www.facebook.com/carolynladelle.bennett; authorswork@gmail or nolandanisland@hotmail.com