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- We Can All Do Better Reviewed By John Cowans of Bookpleasures.com
We Can All Do Better Reviewed By John Cowans of Bookpleasures.com
- By John Cowans
- Published July 20, 2012
- GENERAL NON-FICTION REVIEWS
John Cowans
Reviewer John Cowans: John lives in
retirement in Chester, NS ,where he has been an Instructor with
Seniors College Association of Nova Scotia.
He is currently working on a personal memoir, Other People’s Children, and his first poetry collection, Hope.
View all articles by John Cowans
Follow Here To Purchase We Can All Do Better
Author: Bill Bradley
Publisher: Vanguard Press
ISBN: 978-59315-729-6
On January 23, 1965, a ‘Profile’ of Bill
Bradley, the author of this thoughtful book, We Can All Do Better,
was published in The New Yorker, written by John McPhee, called ‘A
Sense of Where You Are’.
The title of this excellent piece was
chosen by famed New Yorker editor William Shawn and it was a quote
from Bradley that Shawn thought was appropriate as a title for
McPhee’s article. How right he was, or rather, how right Bradley
was. Although Bradley was talking about a basketball player’s
intuition on the court ( he was an All-American Basketball player
when he was at Princeton), ‘A Sense of Where You Are‘ could well
have stood as a title for this, his latest book, written 47 years
later, about the current political and social scene in
America,.
Older readers, perhaps a little misty-eyed, will
remember best the young Bill Bradley, Rhodes Scholar, Olympic Gold
medalist, called the greatest college basketball player of all time,
professional with the New York Knicks from 1967-1977 during which
time they won 2 NBA championships, and election in 1982 to the
Basketball Hall of Fame. Younger readers, zealous hearts still
aflame, will know Bill Bradley as a member of the US Senate
representing the state of New Jersey from 1979 to 1997, as a
candidate for the Democratic nomination for President of the United
States, and as author of six books on American politics, culture, and
economy.
Bradley’s view of America appears at first to be one
of disillusionment. He writes,“ ... the land is engulfed by
arrogance, hypocrisy, and self-righteousness,” but anyone knowing
anything at all about Bill Bradley will be assured that he is not one
to walk away from any challenge. Those many years ago, he said to
John McPhee, “ ... the only way to solve a problem is to go through
it rather than around it.” The man who sharpened his basketball
skills through phenomenal feats of discipline and dedication, for
example, by throwing thousands of practice shots at hundreds of
baskets, working at a problem until he mastered it, has not changed
over the years. Because Bill Bradley has always believed in the basic
goodness of the American people, his message to them is that you
can’t wait for someone else to fix a problem, you have to get in
there and do it yourself. His challenge is in the title of this
unflinching analysis- We Can All Do Better. The emphasis being on the
‘we’ and the ‘all’.
As the American people, Democrats and
Republicans alike, head for the polls this Fall, they would all do
well to read, and take to heart, this stirring call to positive
action which points towards a better life for everyone regardless of
political stripe.
Follow Here To Purchase We Can All Do Better