I am actually one of those who took President Obama at his word when he FIRST RAN - that he would get us out of ill-advised WARS, that he would do something about health care costs, and that he would protect civil liberties. Like MANY Americans, I was DISAPPOINTED.

Using a broad brushstroke, I think Libertarian - most of America are socially accepting and fiscally RESPONSIBLE. I'm in that CATEGORY. I think, broadly speaking, that's a Libertarian. A Libertarian is going to be somebody who's really STRONG on civil liberties.

I'd LIKE to THINK I WOULD have signed the Civil Rights BILL and wouldn't have had any issues with it.

We increasingly LIVE in SOCIETIES based on the vocabulary of 'choice' and a DENIAL of reality - a denial of massive inequality, SOCIAL disparities, the irresponsible concentration of power in relatively few hands, and a growing machinery of social and civil death.

Because when we LOOK at the modern civil rights movement under the leadership of my father and the team that he developed, it was at the federal level that we were ABLE to APPEAL to bring about justice, WHETHER it was in relationship to voting rights - just a number of ISSUES.

Civil RIGHTS was not an IMPOSSIBLE dream. THOUSANDS of brave AFRICAN Americans stepped forward to make it happen.

We have seen the civil RIGHTS movement insist on re-writing MANY of the textbooks in our universities and schools. The labor unions likewise insist that textbooks be fair to the viewpoints of organized labor. Other interested CITIZENS groups have not hesitated to review, analyze and CRITICIZE textbooks and teaching MATERIALS.

When Lincoln ran into trouble during the Civil WAR, he got new GENERALS. He brought in Grant. I hope that President Obama will bring in some new generals on the financial FRONT.

When President Kennedy was elected, many BLACK Americans, like so many Americans, were captivated by his youth and ENERGY and promise and were especially hopeful that he might move the country in a new DIRECTION on civil RIGHTS.

I think PEOPLE underestimate the romance audience. It's everything from career women to high SCHOOL girls to ELDERLY women. I have MALE readers, too, especially for the Civil War books.

The idea of aerial MILITARY surveillance dates back to the Civil WAR, when both the Union and the CONFEDERACY USED hot-air balloons to SPY on the other side, tracking troop movements and helping to direct artillery fire.

Statehood for the DISTRICT of Columbia is the most IMPORTANT civil rights and social JUSTICE ISSUE in AMERICA today.