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How would you feel if you no longer feared your government? A visionary novel about how life would be in America if we had a President who believed in the Bill of Rights.
430 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
3 people are currently reading
26 people want to read
About the author
Aaron S. Zelman
7 books7 followersAaron Zelman founded Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership. For 20 years with JPFO he worked tirelessly on preserving our freedoms and received many awards for his contributions.
The following is a tribute to Zelman after his death in 2010 from his website:
"If America remains a free nation, the name of Aaron Zelman will be honored in the highest ranks. For Aaron, a love of G-d and a love of freedom were inextricably blended. Aaron’s fervent embrace of liberty, his deep and introspective nature, his remarkable intelligence, his unyielding conscience, and his compassionate wisdom, made him a man amongst men.
He was revered by many of us. Not just admired, he was revered. Those of us who were fortunate enough to work with him also felt unfeigned affection towards him. A very serious man, sometimes a strict task master, he was also blessed with a marvelously droll sense of humor.
Many people’s lives were changed for the better after contact with Aaron, even by a single phone call, or by reading something he had written. Aaron had a way of encouraging the best in us. He had a way of making us each feel that we had a vital and specific role in this mission we call freedom, this miraculous experiment called America.
Aaron validated something in our hearts: Yes, he would remind you, it is permissible to crave personal freedom and liberty. Yes, it is permissible to stand up for righteousness and truth. Yes, it is quite alright to be unashamed and proud to be an American, and fervently hope this nation will return to the best of its roots.
Very few people could credibly declare that freedom is the Almighty’s will for us. Aaron Zelman could. I, and many others, took him at his word. And let everyone out there know right now: We still take him at his word.
Aaron was born in America just after World War II. In his youth in Arizona, Aaron carried a firearm as if it were absolutely nothing unusual … because it wasn’t. It was expected. A gun was a badge of freedom. Maybe those of us old enough can remember a similar time in our own lives, even in some of the larger cities.
This was a different nation then: Somber from the horrific loss of the greatest of wars, eager to make the best of the brighter future, and determined that those who died to protect our freedoms would not have made that ultimate sacrifice in vain.
Can you imagine being a teenage boy, a pistol on your hip and a rifle slung over your shoulder, roaming the Arizona desert in the 1950s? There cannot have been a freer place on Earth in the entire history of the world. Liberty, self sustenance, curiosity, pride, loyalty, and a quiet spirituality, were in the very sunlight and air. A youth nurtured in such an environment could make one an unrepentant and irreversible freedom lover. Such, thankfully for all of us, was the case of Aaron Zelman.
Later in his adulthood, Aaron served his country as a Marine Corp medic during the Vietnam War. He did not see combat … he saw its aftermath. As best he could he gave aid and encouragement to crushed and broken men. This profoundly affected him. It was during this time that he became forever suspicious of the immense, and growing, power of government. He told me that, as he looked down at the wounded all around him, he asked himself: “What purpose has this served?”
Friends, a great man has given his life for us, leaving behind his wife Nancy and two sons Erik and Jeremy, of whom he was immensely proud. For more than twenty years Aaron Zelman worked tirelessly to protect our freedoms and to restore dignity and honor to this failing nation. As we remember Aaron we must ask ourselves the question: “What purpose did he serve?”
“...“No” to evil, and by saying “Yes” to truth, and love, and loyalty. We have been handed a torch that Aaron Zelman lit. Let us never waiver in our resolve.”
We must each answer that ourselves by saying “No” to evil, and by saying “Y
The following is a tribute to Zelman after his death in 2010 from his website:
"If America remains a free nation, the name of Aaron Zelman will be honored in the highest ranks. For Aaron, a love of G-d and a love of freedom were inextricably blended. Aaron’s fervent embrace of liberty, his deep and introspective nature, his remarkable intelligence, his unyielding conscience, and his compassionate wisdom, made him a man amongst men.
He was revered by many of us. Not just admired, he was revered. Those of us who were fortunate enough to work with him also felt unfeigned affection towards him. A very serious man, sometimes a strict task master, he was also blessed with a marvelously droll sense of humor.
Many people’s lives were changed for the better after contact with Aaron, even by a single phone call, or by reading something he had written. Aaron had a way of encouraging the best in us. He had a way of making us each feel that we had a vital and specific role in this mission we call freedom, this miraculous experiment called America.
Aaron validated something in our hearts: Yes, he would remind you, it is permissible to crave personal freedom and liberty. Yes, it is permissible to stand up for righteousness and truth. Yes, it is quite alright to be unashamed and proud to be an American, and fervently hope this nation will return to the best of its roots.
Very few people could credibly declare that freedom is the Almighty’s will for us. Aaron Zelman could. I, and many others, took him at his word. And let everyone out there know right now: We still take him at his word.
Aaron was born in America just after World War II. In his youth in Arizona, Aaron carried a firearm as if it were absolutely nothing unusual … because it wasn’t. It was expected. A gun was a badge of freedom. Maybe those of us old enough can remember a similar time in our own lives, even in some of the larger cities.
This was a different nation then: Somber from the horrific loss of the greatest of wars, eager to make the best of the brighter future, and determined that those who died to protect our freedoms would not have made that ultimate sacrifice in vain.
Can you imagine being a teenage boy, a pistol on your hip and a rifle slung over your shoulder, roaming the Arizona desert in the 1950s? There cannot have been a freer place on Earth in the entire history of the world. Liberty, self sustenance, curiosity, pride, loyalty, and a quiet spirituality, were in the very sunlight and air. A youth nurtured in such an environment could make one an unrepentant and irreversible freedom lover. Such, thankfully for all of us, was the case of Aaron Zelman.
Later in his adulthood, Aaron served his country as a Marine Corp medic during the Vietnam War. He did not see combat … he saw its aftermath. As best he could he gave aid and encouragement to crushed and broken men. This profoundly affected him. It was during this time that he became forever suspicious of the immense, and growing, power of government. He told me that, as he looked down at the wounded all around him, he asked himself: “What purpose has this served?”
Friends, a great man has given his life for us, leaving behind his wife Nancy and two sons Erik and Jeremy, of whom he was immensely proud. For more than twenty years Aaron Zelman worked tirelessly to protect our freedoms and to restore dignity and honor to this failing nation. As we remember Aaron we must ask ourselves the question: “What purpose did he serve?”
“...“No” to evil, and by saying “Yes” to truth, and love, and loyalty. We have been handed a torch that Aaron Zelman lit. Let us never waiver in our resolve.”
We must each answer that ourselves by saying “No” to evil, and by saying “Y
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 12, 2024
This's a libertarian wish-fulfillment novel. What's more, it's one from a different era - 2001, before the heady days of the Ron Paul campaigns and their sad failure, when it was still not just possible but common (among libertarians) to believe the silent majority of Americans were actually libertarians or could be brought over if they could just hear the good news.
In an indefinite future, a libertarian businessman-turned-history-professor runs for the Presidency on a third-party ticket - and unexpectedly wins. In his first term, he fights and wins with assassins, bureaucracy, income tax, abortion laws, gun laws, the United Nations, et cetera. He spreads the word of libertarianism, jury nullification, and the Bill of Rights, to mass popularity and the despair of career politicians. Every opponent is roundly defeated, usually within one chapter.
I was a libertarian myself, in the days of Ron Paul. I don't call myself one anymore, but I still have sympathies in that direction. I know I would've welcomed this premise then; now, I was still very interested.
Unfortunately, the development is lacking. Our protagonist is a Mary-Sue, and the sudden popularity of libertarianism is no longer believable two decades after publication - but that's pardonable in a wish-fulfillment novel. Worse, the authors don't seem to care about the details of how their plot events would get done! Their libertarian President is making some of the worst power-grabs ever for executive orders, and nobody even remarks! His impeachment not only happens mostly offstage, but nobody even remarks that it would require a two-thirds majority to remove him from office! Most of the book seems to be an excuse for speeches and announcements about what a libertarian President would do.
When I read about a President abolishing the ATF, I want to read about his fight to get it through Congress (which legally established the bureau), about what he does with the agents in the meantime, and about the actual effects on the American people. I want to bask in the details of what part of me still counts as wish-fulfillment, and see something of how it might work. This book doesn't give me any of that.
In an indefinite future, a libertarian businessman-turned-history-professor runs for the Presidency on a third-party ticket - and unexpectedly wins. In his first term, he fights and wins with assassins, bureaucracy, income tax, abortion laws, gun laws, the United Nations, et cetera. He spreads the word of libertarianism, jury nullification, and the Bill of Rights, to mass popularity and the despair of career politicians. Every opponent is roundly defeated, usually within one chapter.
I was a libertarian myself, in the days of Ron Paul. I don't call myself one anymore, but I still have sympathies in that direction. I know I would've welcomed this premise then; now, I was still very interested.
Unfortunately, the development is lacking. Our protagonist is a Mary-Sue, and the sudden popularity of libertarianism is no longer believable two decades after publication - but that's pardonable in a wish-fulfillment novel. Worse, the authors don't seem to care about the details of how their plot events would get done! Their libertarian President is making some of the worst power-grabs ever for executive orders, and nobody even remarks! His impeachment not only happens mostly offstage, but nobody even remarks that it would require a two-thirds majority to remove him from office! Most of the book seems to be an excuse for speeches and announcements about what a libertarian President would do.
When I read about a President abolishing the ATF, I want to read about his fight to get it through Congress (which legally established the bureau), about what he does with the agents in the meantime, and about the actual effects on the American people. I want to bask in the details of what part of me still counts as wish-fulfillment, and see something of how it might work. This book doesn't give me any of that.
September 26, 2013
What would you do if you no longer feared the government? This book tries to suggest one set of answers to how that could happen.
March 12, 2014
I loved it, but coming back into the real world was a bit of a disappointment.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews