In
the fictional town of Harrington, the local newspaper, Press-Pilot, hadn’t had much luck in stopping an unwanted building
project. Now people involved in the project were being murdered. Reporter Julie DuBois and her editor, Sam Perkins, were
discussing democracy and why sometimes it didn’t always seem to be working. Their conversation turned to Thomas Paine, author of Common Sense.
The Man Who Wrote Letters is available at Amazon books.
* * *
...“I
could be wrong, but I don’t think he was writing for a publisher. He may have
had a backer or two, but he was pretty much putting his own message out there
and hoping it would stick. He was a snake oil salesman, selling a revolution to
anyone who would buy in—and maybe a little democracy on the side.”
“Democracy,
snake oil?”
“It
was at the time. Nobody knew if it would work, but a small group were willing
to take a chance. They also knew if they were going to succeed, they’d have to
get the masses involved. Democracy was a pretty hard sell for those who’d never
experienced it.”
“It’s
a pretty hard sell sometimes when you’ve seen it in action all your life.”
Julie was out of her comfort zone and knew it. She recognized the names and
understood the principles, but these weren’t concepts she’d thought much about.
She knew that was the rap on her generation....
