How Free People Move Mountains: What People Are Saying
Published
by Collins Books, of Harper Collins, September 2008

Publisher’s Weekly, June 2008
“[A]
passionate appeal … framed as a dialogue [about] a citizenry more
unfulfilled, depressed and alienated from government and community than
at any time in history…Their conclusion is neither trite nor simplistic;
it comes with the obligation to live a moral life, respect others (not
simply those who share our beliefs) and sacrifice for the common good.”
How
Free
People Move Mountains asks an important question of our
day, how do we rededicate ourselves to an America of real patriotism
that heals and builds our nation rather than allowing lesser ideals to
divide us. Roth-Douquet and Schaeffer have written a book very close
to my heart that asks each of us what we need to do to revitalize
the collective American purpose in our lives.
Max Cleland, Former United States Senator
I
often ask passionate political ideologues, “Can you think of a reason
someone might vote for the candidate whom you oppose that doesn’t
reflect badly on the person’s intellect or character?” Most people
can’t and end up thinking that half of Americans are either
unintelligent or have deficient characters. HOW FREE PEOPLE MOVE
MOUNTAINS models for us one of the most important lessons of all, how to
disagree without being disagreeable, and how to search out common ground
and locate smaller truths even when we disagree with another’s larger
truths and beliefs.
Rabbi
Joseph Telushkin,
author of
A Code of Jewish Ethics, and Jewish
Literacy
Schaeffer, an unorthodox religious conservative, and Roth-Douquet, a
secular liberal with an ear for the lessons to be learned from
Schaeffer's divine, discover common ground based not on consensus but on
actual democracy. The real thing, they remind us, is contentious,
thrilling, even revelatory. How Free People Move Mountains isn't a
political tract, it's a generous, funny model for the kind of
conversation we need now. Read Schaeffer's and Roth-Douquet's, and then
start your own!
Jeff
Sharlet,
Contributing Editor,
Rolling Stone,
author of
The Family:
The Secret
Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power
Frank
Schaeffer and Kathy Roth Douquet are prophets. We need writers who
regard conversation with others as essential. This book is a
conversation that must be conducted by millions of others. It is
scintillating, insightful, candid, and open. It's not only fun to read,
but groundbreaking in that it teaches all of us how to coexist
together. The divides within America require finding new common ground.
This book is the roadmap to a better place.
Richard
Cizik
Vice President for Governmental Affairs of the National Association of
Evangelicals
This
is a very important book. If a need for common ground in our fractured
country ever existed, it is now. Frank Schaeffer and Kathy Roth-Douquet
show us how opposing views, through honest and open dialogue, can be
reconciled to provide solutions for what ails us. A must read.
John
W. Whitehead
President of the Rutherford Institute and author of The Change
Manifesto
**************************************************************************************
AWOL: What People Are Saying
Published by Collins Books, of Harper Collins, May 2006;
paperback April 2007. Download a sample chapter!
Publishers Weekly:
"In this impassioned, convincing manifesto, Schaffer (Keeping Faith )
and Roth-Douquet, a former Clinton White House and Department of
Defense staffer, call for class integration of the military. Their
arguments are personal: Roth-Douquet is a military wife and Schaffer's
son is a marine, and the authors fall within the demographic they
critique. Alternately narrating, they relate their experiences with the
military and detail the liabilities of the present all-volunteer
"corporate" force: the hindered policy-making ability of a civilian
leadership without significant ties to the military, the weakening of
the armed forces themselves, and "the sense of lost community and the
threat to democracy that results when a society accepts a situation
that is inherently unfair."
"In World War I, the United States imposed a military draft for a reason that
seems strange today: to prevent too many of the nation's most privileged
citizens from rushing toward the sound of the guns. A draft would spread
sacrifice beyond the elite, went the argument, and ensure that the country
didn't lose too many future leaders. Contrast this with the run-up to the Iraq
War in 2003, when the New York Civil Liberties Union challenged a federal law
allowing military recruiters to contact graduating seniors at public high
schools. "Students," the organization's executive director said, "have a right
to not be bothered by aggressive military recruiters." How did we change from a nation where military service was a duty of
citizenship -- akin to paying taxes or serving on a jury -- to one where simply
being asked to consider time in uniform is an infringement of civil rights? In their compelling and inspiring cri de coeur , Kathy Roth-Douquet
and Frank Schaeffer trace this societal shift..." more...
Reviewed by Nathanial Fick, author of One Bullet Away, Sunday, June 18, 2006.
I
Senator John McCain: "Frank Schaeffer and Kathy Roth-Douquet have done our country a great service with the publication of their book, AWOL.
The authors, who watched with anxious hearts a son and a husband leave
for war, discovered in that difficult experience a more genuine and
wiser patriotism than they had known before. And now they call on
their fellow citizens, for whom national service and sacrifice is an
abstraction, to recognize that love of country is a more personal and
consequential attachment than is popularly understood among many of the
most fortunate Americans. I commend their wisdom and patriotism
to all Americans as I honor their loved ones whose military service has
entailed danger and sacrifice and has been a burden on the heart
fearfully but proudly borne by their families."
Tom Brokaw: " AWOL
is a powerful and timely account of those missing in action - the
privileged class of America staying out of uniform and out of harm's
way."
General Tommy Franks:
"Compelling - sure to spark dialogue on issues of patriotism and
service to our country. Written with warmth and genuine respect for
those who serve. I am impressed by the research - this book is based on
fact, not fiction. As America looks for balance in a dangerous and
complex world, AWOL is a great place to start."
Mike O'Hanlon, Brookings Institution:
"For such a provocative and hard-hitting book, AWOL is also rather fair
and balanced — and generally quite persuasive. Best of all,
Roth-Douquet and Schaeffer are constructive and forward-looking, with
an excellent concluding debate between the authors about the pros and
cons of mandatory national service versus other options for bringing
the "upper classes" back into the nation's armed forces."
Other Reviews and Commentary

"Reading AWOL has made me worried. This passionate collaboration between a
Marine wife and a Marine father sharpened the sense I’ve been getting of a
growing divide between civilian and military values." more... by Ann Marlowe
The Today Show. To see the TODAY SHOW interview with the authors of AWOL click here.
Yogi Berra did it.
So did Dr. Seuss, Humphrey Bogart, and John F. Kennedy. They all served in the
armed forces. Today it’s much less common for the rich or famous to serve, but
that wasn't always the case. During W.W. II, Jimmy Stewart and Clark Bable both
volunteered. In the 50's, Elvis Presley was drafted and spent two years in the
army. And after September 11, Pat Tillman left the NFL to become an army ranger.
In their new book, “AWOL: The Unexcused Absence of America’s Upper Classes from
Military Service — and How It Hurts Our Country,” Kathy Roth-Douquet and Frank
Schaeffer, would like to see more class integration of the military. more...
A new book by Kathy Roth-Douqet and Frank Schaeffer, "AWOL: The Unexpected
Absence of America's Upper Classes from Military Service - And How It Hurts Our
Country," deals with the small number of children of elites going into the
military.
They say, for example, that 400 of the 750 members of the
Princeton class of 1956 joined the military, compared to only nine members of
the class of 2004. Speaking on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos,"
Rep. John Murtha pointed out that only 1 percent of the people in the United
States are involved in the war and many of them go back over and over again.
Is that the reason for the lack of protest? Is it because so few
Americans are personally impacted that the outcry isn't louder? more...
Dotty Lynch is CBSNews.com's Political Points columnist.
Joe Galloway, nationally syndicated columnist, lauds AWOL in a column
that appeared nationwide titled, "Nation's elite are AWOL from military
duty." Read column here.
"Roth-Douquet
and Schaeffer are eloquent witnesses to the military-elite gap. …AWOL
richly documents the rapid reduction in elite participation in the military
-- universal during World War II and still strong in the period prior to
Vietnam -- and its devolution since then from the student-deferral era that
exempted so many young men from that trip to Saigon, to today's virtually
military-free elite culture. And its authors warn of the consequences for
the dialogue of the deaf so often conducted between civilian and military
leadership classes: "There is a mutually reinforcing relationship between
the 'leave-it-to-us-professionals' attitude of some of our military leaders
and the 'leave-me-alone' or 'not-with-my-child' attitude of many in the
upper classes."
AWOL
offers some prescriptions for closing the civilian-military gap. …What this
book most endorses is a much-needed debate over a subject that increasingly
demands attention: how policymakers with no personal or familial experience
with military service can knowledgeably set national security polices, and
how a military estranged from civilian leaders and drawn from a narrow
segment of the population can really represent the nation. Given our
overstretched military, and the sacrifices they are making in Iraq and
Afghanistan, this is a debate that can no longer be deferred."
Leatherneck Magazine
AWOL” is unique in its scope, intent and implications. ...The authors make
an unlikely pair to engage this ticklish subject. Neither served in uniform
nor came from what might be termed a disadvantaged background. ...So what
changed their views, and why did they embark on this timely debate?
Schaeffer took a lesson from his leatherneck son concerning patriotism,
Roth-Douquet married a Marine officer and became transformed into a devoted
military wife and a spokesperson for our armed forces and their
dependents....
“AWOL” makes the case that our country
has traditionally been served by our best and brightest. Not so many years
ago it was common for our leaders, in both the private and public sectors,
to have proudly worn the uniform of our country. Back then, it was assumed
that most fit-for-duty Americans would eagerly devote a portion of their
youth to the service of flag and country.
This book is clearly written and
meticulously researched. It details the growing and dangerous disconnection
between our military culture and the general public. Most alarming of all is
the perceived chasm that continues to widen between our country’s elected
leadership and the military forces they send to battle.
Front Page Magazine:
The most prominent implication of Roth-Douquet and
Schaeffer’s is that the abandonment of the military by our
cultural leaders demonstrates a loss of faith in democracy itself.
That is a problem that extends well beyond discussions of
national security, military service demographis and how we recruit.
That America's cultural elite have gone AWOL from military
service is a problem that should be the topic of conversation by major
political parties and media commentators of all stripes. With the
increasing rise in influence of these same cultural elites while the
demands on our military are higher than at any point since the Vietnam
War, this book and the discussion it hopefully engenders arrives none
too soon. By Patrick Pool. Read more...

Washington Law and Politics: "AWOL is a
reaffirmation...its clarity and passion offer us proof that this is an issue
that needs to be faced." Author Philip Gold, Spring 2006
Ken
Allard "The
authors – Kathy Roth-Douquet and Frank Schaeffer – have the goods,
documenting the maddening outlines of “the disconnect” between the
all-volunteer military and the larger society it was meant to serve....
Roth-Douquet, a lawyer, Democratic activist and (contrary to prevailing
expectations) Marine Corps wife, has a soccer mom’s ear for social
nuance..." Ken Allard, MSNBC commentator and author of the upcoming
Warheads
Delaware News Journal
The book's title sums up the problem. The authors make some
telling points. They quote one professor: "Military service isn't for
our kind of peoploe." Good point. Why get off the career track
for a year of two to do something for your country? Besides, none
of your friends are doing it."
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