As we prepare to release my first novel, The Lazarus Covenant, in several weeks, my thoughts have returned to the days and weeks I first began work on it.  I recently found some notes that I typed up as I drove through Bosnia's hinterlands.  I found that it was a good construct to help me get my thoughts together and ensure good flow as I continued to write.  The Lazarus Covenant isn't a simple story, so keeping the details straight was crucial throughout.  After you read the summary/outline for the Prologue below, you can go to my website to read an entire excerpt and even see some photos of the setting described.  The outline doesn't exactly follow the final version of the prologue, but ultimately, that's what writing is all about--maintaining the flow (and keeping up the momentum!).

Prologue Sequence and Summary:

Quote from Rebecca West:

"Indeed, it is true that in these acts of revenge on others, men take it upon themselves to begin the process of repealing those general laws of humanity which are there to give a hope of salvation to all who are in distress, instead of leaving those laws in existence, remembering that there may come a time when they, too, will be in danger and will need their protection." 

             --Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War: 431-404 BC, II 81-85.

SCENE AND SETTING

TIME:  1630-1930, June 28, 1971 (St Vitus Day)

PLACE: Dulici and Brinica Dam, Bosnia-Herzegovina province of Yugoslavia

SEASON:  Summer

TEMPERATURE:  Hot, Humid

OBJECTS IN THE SETTING:  Ceramic Dam, Burnt Car in middle of the road, approaching the Dam. Bull-Dozer, Sentries, Fire

LANDSCAPE DETAIL:  Dramatic Hills, high ground overlooking Zvornik, red lake created by dam from Bauxite and Aluminum plant in Zvornik.

LIGHTING:  Darkening conditions as afternoon turns to evening.

WEATHER:  Clear...rain clouds approaching and then evening downpour.

ARRIVAL:  1730

WARDROBE AND MAKEUP:  Mustached and blue-uniformed Yugoslav Special Policemen

SENSE PERCEPTION:

-Sight:  Heavily wooded in parts.  Dam hidden from the road (2 Km's away)

PROLOGUE SEQUENCE AND DESCRIPTION:

28 June 1971, Brnisi, Bosnia-Herzegovina (night time):

Maja and Milan Mescic (Mom and Dad) are introduced. Father is a Serb professor.  During dinner, Maja tells her boys to be home and to stay close to home... They manage to sneak out their father's rifle and Makarov pistol. both Celo and Marko  are hunting atop some ancient Roman ruins, are tracking a boar and hear shots being fired...the same shots Maja had heard across the creek in the Direction of Brinisi Dam the previous day. ...   At the urging of Cello (and despite Marko's reluctance), the boys decide to go there since the boar tracks go in that direction.

SCENE CONTINUED

Executions of Bosnian Dissidents at Brinica Dam by Tito's Special Police:

-Taste:  Both boys are thirsty...stopping at a remote stream they see the trucks and a Police Van.  Prisoners are off-loaded from the trucks. 

-Touch/feeling:  Sweat in eyes from humidity of the day.  Oppressive heat. 

-Smell:  Decomposing bodies in the heat.  Human excrement and urine from bodies.  Smells like a farm.

CORPSES:  150-- 15 delivered to site and executed at a time.

EVIDENCE:  Shell-casings, bone fragments, clothing, unearthed dirt

STRUGGLE:  Prisoners do not resist, because they are tied up and their mouths bound with cloth.  Sentries killed by boys, and Chief Executioner hit when they are discovered.

DEATH INSTRUMENTS:  Machine Guns and pistols used by executioners (Makarov, AKM, AK-47s, MG-3).

WOUNDS:  Mostly fatal. 

PROLOGUE SUMMARY OF EVENTS

Executions of Bosnian Dissidents at Brinica Dam by Tito's Special Police.  The Chief Executioner stands out.  Younger Marko (13) and Celo  (15)  (Both mixed Bosnian Serb-Croats fromSapna) witness the executions and recognize a neighbor of theirs that disappeared a week ago.  They dare not move for risk of being discovered.  Cello is deeply disturbed.  After what appears to be the last of a series of executions, it is turning dark.  The executioners depart.  Marko sees one of the bodies in the mass grave moving and tells his brother that they should help him.  Celo tells him it is too dangerous and points to the sentry along the gravel road and to the guard house on top of the dam site.  Marko tells his brother to cover him with thier father's rifle--while he goes down.  Marko goes down to the grave and sees the bodies, the personal effects, ID’s, photographs, etc..  All goes well until another truck arrives, shines light on the mass grave.  Marko and the wounded man are silhouetted by the headlights. When Marko slides down the dam causing rocks to fall below, they are detected by both sentries who pursue he and the wounded man.  Shots are fired in their direction.  Marko fires at and hits the guard on top and below.  The Chief Executioner is young but distinctive in his appearance of authority.  He is approaching Marko deliberately, looking straight in his direction and intimidates Marko with his steady, fearless approach--seemingly dodging Marko's shots until Marko runs out of ammunition.  The Chief Executioner sees Marko, who freezes where he lays.  As he takes final aim at Marko, he is shot from the side by Celo with the Makarov, hitting him in the shoulder, and giving the two boys and the wounded man an opportunity to escape.  The wounded men tell the boys to run, not to worry about him-that he is "already dead."

They run home, narrowly escape being captured and shot themselves.

DEPARTURE:  1930

Marko is sent out of the country with his mother who is a Croat.  Cello stays with their father (a Serb) because they will be looking for two boys, and because they don't have enough money.  They last see each other atop some ancient Roman ruins, where they are met by the mafia/underground.  Maja and Marko are taken out of the country.  

Dad is a Serb university teacher, and a leading reformist intellectual in Yugoslavia and is teaching a class in Bijeljina.  Simultaneously, the police find the rifle hidden.  They meet him at his home when he returns.  Celo escapes from his transporters and arrives just in time to see his father's execution by the young 25 year old executioner/special policeman...after he tells the Special Police that his family went to Dubrovnik several days ago. 

Appreciations:

A very young Marko and Cello witness Tito's mass executions at Brinica Dam, causing them to lose their innocence.  The Special Police find and identify Mescic's hunting rifle and see that it was recently fired. Vojo Saric is killed outside his home, and is witnessed by Celo.

Marko and Cello playing in the Roman Ruins as children.

Objective Story:  Signpost 1 -- Learning

Character and Plot Dynamics:  Driver -- Action

SUMMARY:  The distant bookend in the beginning of the story is the mass execution at Brinica Dam by Tito's Special Police that is witnessed by the two brothers Marko and Celo.  Cello's rash action at the site, after being discovered by the executioners leads to their family's split.  Both Cello and Marko see the face of the chief executioner.  The chief executioner pursues the boys...only finds their father and kills him in front of Cello after telling him "thou shalt not kill."  Celo does not forget, and always regrets not having intervened when he felt he could have. 

PLANNING:

Count the steps to the killing place.

RESEARCH/HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE:

1971:  End of "Croatian Spring"  Many students and intellectuals are jailed and Party in Croatia is purged of "rotten liberalism."  Executions are not widespread, but occur nonetheless—execution orders were not personally signed by Tito (so he could think that possibly they didn’t happen, or if discovered he wouldn’t be found responsible).  In 1967, a series of amendments to the constitution  were adopted. The most important one was the division of matters of state security between the federal government and the republics.  The army was slowly shrinking from 500,000 in 1952 to about 200,000 in 1968.  Territorieal defense forces, under republican control, also were created at this time.  These TDF forces were not incorporated into JNA command structures.  The period of 1971-1974 was one of intense constitutional reform.  Amendments in 1971 radically reduced the authority of the federal government.  Day-to-day running of the country basically fell to the republics (Burg, 204-207).  In the fall of 1968 riots broke out among the Albanian population in Kosovo and Macedonia.  The Albanians were demanding self-determination and secession from Yugoslavia.  In response, the government elevated Kosovo and Vojvodina to the status of Autonomous Provinces.  Minority language rights were also guaranteed.  Riots again broke out in Kosovo in March 1981.  There are reports that between 10 and 20,000 people took part in demonstrations and that as many as 1,000 were killed and another 1,000 injured in clashes with the police.  The federal government sent in tanks, armored personnel carriers, cut off telephone service, imposed a curfew and set up roadblocks.  Between 1980 and 1981 about 680 fires were started by arson in Kosovo.  violent demonstrations continued through 1982.  Other political happenings during this time included the Croatian Spring of 1971 (Ramet, 108-139, Jelavic, 395-397).  The Croatian Communist Party was purged and it is believed that thousands received prison sentences.  Also in 1971, “Muslim” became an ethnic choice on the national census and in the 1970’s groups of Musllims were sent to prison for expressing what were considered to be fundamentalist ideas. 

This week, my Squidoo Lens on Presidential Transitions was named “Lens of the Day.”  The official notice is attached below.  If you’re at all interested in what is involved with transitioning a presidential administration, this lens may be a good place to start!  Keep checking back…much more commentary to add in the coming days and weeks!

Photograph of a WWI cemetery produced by Rocco of the Military Cemeteries on the Asiago...

Today, I flew on a Southwest Airlines flight from Louisville to Baltimore.  I routinely fly this route, on this airline--but this time it was different.  Profoundly different.  On board, were 38 veterans of World War II who were flying in to see the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. for the day.  It's a fabulous program that is run by volunteers and donations under the "Honor Flight Tri-State" organization.

During the hour and a half flight, I listened to the awe-inspiring stories of these great Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines.  Most of them had never met each other before--all were from the State of Ohio.  But for some of them, it was a reunion.  One B-17 pilot I met had just learned that the Tuskegee Airman sitting beside him had flown security for some of his bombing missions over Germany and Italy.  Another Soldier had discovered that the Marine sitting beside him was a 3rd Grade Classmate. 

Both boarding the airplane and prior to deplaning, this esteemed group of veterans received well-deserved ovations.  Today, we are losing our World War II veterans by an estimated 1200 per day.

I wondered where we found men of such character and courage...who willingly flew their bombers under the most formidable odds during the Doolittle Raid, who scaled Riva Ridge, who landed into the Normandy surf amidst heavy machine gun fire and artillery?  Who were so willing to sacrifice themselves for our freedom so many decades ago?

My answer came in a quote worn by one of the volunteers who accompanied the veterans:

"Some of us get to stand on the curb and clap as they go by."

-Will Rogers

To learn more about the Honor Flight Program, go to www.honorflighttristate.org

 

If you would like to support our veterans, ask Your Congressman and Senator about their Support for the Veterans Mortgage Stimulus Clarification Act of 2008....

For more information, contact: Brian Lawrence, (202) 225-3527

Washington, DC — On March 10, 2008, House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Ranking Member Steve Buyer (R-Ind.), introduced a bill to include mortgages guaranteed by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in the economic stimulus package signed into law by the President on February 13, 2008.

Congressman Buyer and Congressman Michael Michaud (D-Maine) had previously sent a letter to House leadership on January 28, 2008 recommending that leadership include the VA Loan Guaranty program in the Stimulus Bill.

Noting that VA’s loan program was not included in the bill to move the economy forward, Buyer stated, “Unfortunately, in the rush to compile the economic stimulus package, the Veterans’ Loan Guaranty program was not included. As a result, veterans desiring to use the VA program do not have the same advantages as other borrowers using non-VA backed mortgages. My bill, H.R. 5561, Veterans Mortgage Stimulus Clarification Act of 2008, will remedy that inequity and give veterans access to the same increased mortgage amounts as those backed by Freddie Mac.”

The economic stimulus package authorized government-sponsored entities like Freddie Mac to guarantee loans for up to 175 percent of current limits in some high cost areas. VA-backed loan limits are normally tied to Freddie Mac limits but the language in the stimulus package did not maintain that connection.

“The beauty of the VA Loan Guaranty program is that it pays for itself so this change to the stimulus package will not increase the deficit,” Buyer said. “I urge the House leadership to get veterans back into the game as soon as possible.”

From: "Fenzel, Michael R USA LTC USA 1-503 IN BN"
To: john@johnfenzel.com
Sent: Wednesday, April 2, 2008 9:14:11 AM
Subject: A good link

Thought you'd be interested in this link. Had it handed off to me today. Hard to relive this event.

http://www.johndmchugh.com/slides/memorial/

Love you guys,
Michael

We're now hearing that the Federal Reserve is plotting the mass purchases of mortgage-backed securities as a possible solution to our deepening credit crisis. Despite Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's assurances to the contrary, taxpayer dollars are being seen as a key financial instrument to help restore confidence--but the real twist of irony in all of this is that the confidence they hope to reinstate is not with consumers or taxpayers, but rather with themselves.

As the banking system continues to be racked by forced sales, falling prices and asset depreciation that is likely to exceed $1,000 billion, banks are refusing to lend even to themselves. The general panic that has since ensued is reminiscent of the great financial crises in history--to include the Great Depression. Here in the United States nearly 100 mortgage companies have shut their windows in 2007, compared to only 17 instances in 2006. Particularly concerning is how the sub-prime crisis is apparently (and predictably) now spreading to prime mortgage assets, as witnessed last week with the Fed-assisted bailout of investment bank Bear Stearns.

Add to the subprime and credit crises, the steady devaluation of the Dollar and you begin to see an unfolding disaster of tsunami proportions. As the Fed reduces interest rates to boost liquidity, the dollar is devalued further. As a result, foreign bond holders have begun to exercise a collective vote of no confidence in the assets they hold and the policies we are now implementing to salvage the situation. Nowhere was this more evident than at last week's auction of 10-year US Treasury notes, where Asian, Mideast, and European investors simply looked away. As one observer noted:

"The share of foreign buyers ("indirect bidders") plummeted to 5.8 percent, from an average 25 percent over the last eight weeks. On the Richter Scale of unfolding dramas, this matches the death of Bear Stearns."

Former US Treasury secretary Lawrence Summers dismissed the measures Paulson and Bernanke were taking to increase banks liquidity as property defaults continue to rise. "It is like fighting a virus with antibiotics," he said.

So, as the Fed has moved to allow banks to trade their mortgage bonds for US Treasuries, their stated goal is to create an additional $200 billion in liquidity--but is that enough when the total damage is expected to be $1,000 billion? Simply stated: it's a one-fifth solution.

Are we, in effect, bailing out loan sharks?

Bailing out an automaker, airline or steel company can make eminent sense when they have been afflicted by adverse market conditions or inefficient management systems; but as taxpayers, the question we should be asking is whether it's at all justifiable to bail out lenders who knowingly implemented (or purchased) irrational loans they knew borrowers could not afford--based solely on greed. Add to this the excessive bonuses and severance pay that is being awarded to the CEOs who led their firms into bankruptcy, and you begin to see the schizophrenia of it all.

As distasteful as it may seem, nationalizing the offending banks, even for a time, may be the best worst-case solution....

Somewhat predictably, Russia has accused the US of using a plan to shoot down the satellite as a cover for testing an anti-satellite weapon.

Russia's defence ministry said the US planned to test its "anti-missile defence system's capability to destroy other countries' satellites...Speculations about the danger of the satellite hide preparations for the classical testing of an anti-satellite weapon," a statement reported by Itar-Tass news agency said. "Such testing essentially means the creation of a new type of strategic weapons. ...The decision to destroy the American satellite does not look harmless as they try to claim, especially at a time when the US has been evading negotiations on the limitation of an arms race in outer space," the statement continued. Russia's defence ministry went on to say that the US had not given enough information on the reasons for the decision.

The Chinese have made similar protests.

The US says the satellite lost power and communications shortly after it was launched in December 2006 and is now uncontrollable.

On Saturday the Pentagon said that the window for the operation would begin on Wednesday, when the space shuttle Atlantis ended its current mission.

The Solution?

Not discounting national security concerns about information sharing, I wonder if we have considered inviting the Russians and the Chinese to observe or even participate in the satellite shoot-down? They would most likely refuse, but such an offer would effectively neutralize their protests, even if they continued to make them....

Steve Forbes' recent OpEd on the effects of a weak dollar also provided one of the more clear explanations for the sub-prime crisis that is now afflicting the U.S. economy:

Banks themselves engaged in a binge of creating off-balance-sheet structures, most notably with so-called SIVs (structured investment vehicles). The idea was that you could generate juicy fees packaging subprime mortgages and could finance them with commercial paper and not have to set capital aside. Voila! Returns on capital blossomed! Now many of these institutions are scrambling for infusions of capital from Asia and the Middle East, as circumstances force them to put these bizarre, loss-laden vehicles back on their balance sheets. The banks' behavior is inexcusable. But, as with bartenders who continue to ply drunken patrons with drinks, the Federal Reserve bears a heavy Responsibility for creating loads of excess capital in the first place and the Bush White House for winking and nodding while the dollar was being debased.

As we navigate through these turbulent economic waters, one thing seems clear: what banks and brokers were peddling during the real estate boom of the last several years, was essentially garbage. Forbes' assessment that these "packages" did not come with balance sheets is absolutely on target. In essence, they were money making schemes gone awry, with no responsibility whatsoever attached--only anticipated margins of profit. In short, junk. Now, as the Fed prepares to cut interest rates even further, as the administration searches for ways taxpayers can bail out failed lenders and subprime borrowers, the questions is who will ultimately pay and how? One broker I recently spoke to over dinner likened the current market to a toddler throwing a fit until he receives a cookie (read: lower interest rates)...and when the cookie has been consumed, throws another fit, and another....

This OpEd appeared in the New York Times on September 2, 2007. It better than most articles you will read on the subject of education and truancy, cuts through all the statistical chaffe. It concludes that we are in the midst of a national truancy crisis. In addition to the obvious tendency to levy blame, it also proposes a responsible way ahead....

Op-Ed Contributors
Mistaking Attendance
By HAROLD O. LEVY and KIMBERLY HENRY

Here's a math problem only truant officers will get right: How is it possible for many school districts in America to report both that average daily attendance is better than 90 percent and that almost 30 percent of students miss a month of school annually?

(a) Averages hide underlying data. While a few schools have nearly perfect attendance, most have a serious truancy problem.

(b) Elementary schools are large and have high attendance, while middle and high schools have smaller enrollments and miserable attendance. Large numbers of dropouts in the upper grades hide mass absences because enrollments there are lower.

(c) That 90 percent average daily attendance doesn’t mean the same 10 percent of children are out all the time; it could mean 30 percent are chronically absent, only on different days.

Sadly, the answer is:

(d) All of the above.

Let us explain.

The high average daily attendance statistics reported by school districts camouflage a real truancy problem. In 2005, for example, the average daily attendance rate reported at the five middle schools in the Hernando County School District in Florida was 91.9 percent. But 17.6 percent of the students met the definition of “chronic truancy” (21 or more days of unexcused absence during the school year). Average daily attendance can even obscure a problem at an individual school. In the same school year, 28.7 percent of students at Madison Middle School in Dade County, Fla., were designated chronic truants; however, the average daily attendance rate reported was 88.4 percent. Attendance statistics can be used to paint vastly different pictures.

When calculated properly, the national high school graduation rate is appallingly low. According to the Urban Institute, only 68 percent of students who enter the ninth grade graduate with a high school diploma. Students generally don’t decide one day to drop out; it is a long process that often begins with the occasional unexcused, casual absence.

And America is awash in casual truancy. In New York City, the attendance tracking system routinely catches fully 30 percent of the city’s 1.1 million students in its grip each year. That means that almost a third of all students are out a month or more.

New York is not alone. Defining a “chronic truant” as a student who banks 21 or more days of unexcused absences in one year, Florida reports that 14.8 percent of high school students meet this criterion. In Denver, where chronic truancy is defined at a much lower level (10 such days per year), 23 percent of eighth graders and 35 percent of 12th graders in 2005 were classified as chronic truants. During the 2005-6 school year in the Milwaukee Public Schools, 32 percent of elementary school students, 46 percent of middle school students and 74 percent of high school students were classified as habitual truants (five or more unexcused absences in one semester).

Skipping school has been going on since biblical times. Talmudic sages originally placed the obligation to educate children on the families, particularly on fathers to educate their sons. This system did not work well because many children were orphaned, neglected, born into poverty or simply avoided instruction. The Talmud records that Joshua ben Gamla, a high priest in the Sanhedrin in 64 A.D., issued a decree requiring universal schooling for all boys starting at age 6. The age of truancy had begun.

Truancy has no single cure. Students skip school because of illness, to work, to care for younger siblings or infirm grandparents, because they have become disaffected or for more nefarious reasons — drugs and other criminal conduct. Solutions will need to take into account all these motivations. Denver has one of the more aggressive truancy programs, yet in 2004-5, only 4 percent of the most serious elementary school truants received any intervention beyond a phone call or letter. This is particularly alarming given that the most effective strategies are likely to involve prevention and early intervention rather than late targeting of only the most chronic truants. Unfortunately, almost nothing is done for early-stage, casual truants.

The federal No Child Left Behind Act, which requires consistent statewide reporting of truancy, is up for reauthorization. And in 2004 the Department of Education held the first National Truancy Prevention Conference. But the department has neither addressed states’ inconsistent data-gathering nor established a nationwide data collection system. Outside the context of drug abuse prevention, the department doesn’t even have an office that monitors truancy.

Until we stop relying on the myth that average daily attendance is meaningful, we will remain in denial. A clear national definition of a truant needs to be created, and all schools should report accurate statistics based on this definition to their state departments of education. And schools and communities must be held accountable for achieving and maintaining low truancy rates. Congress should require a true census of the truants and then finance the cure.

Harold O. Levy, a former New York City schools chancellor, is managing director at an investment firm. Kimberly Henry is an assistant professor of psychology at Colorado State University.

These four points are especially compelling for those of us who are parents and wondering what general--unobtrusive--guidance we might be able to convey to our children about their trajectories in life....

• A combination of basic knowledge and applied skills are perceived to be critical or new entrants’ success in the 21st century U.S. workforce, but when basic knowledge and applied skills rankings are combined for each educational level, the top four “most important” are almost always applied.

• Professionalism/work ethic, teamwork/collaboration and oral communications are rated as the three “most important” applied skills needed by entrants into today’s workforce.

• Knowledge of foreign languages will “increase in importance” in the next five years, more than any other basic skill, according to more than 60 percent of the employer respondents.

• Making appropriate choices concerning health and wellness is the number one emerging content area for future graduates entering the U.S. workforce as reported by three-quarters of the employer respondents.

• Creativity/innovation is projected to “increase in importance” for future workforce entrants, according to more than 70 percent of employer respondents. Currently, however, more than half of employer respondents report new workforce entrants with a high school diploma to be “deficient” in this skill set, and relatively few consider two-year and four-year-college-educated entrants to be “excellent.”