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"The universe was made on purpose… In the fabric of space and in the nature of matter, as in a great work of art, there is, written small, the artist’s signature. Standing over humans, gods, and demons, subsuming Caretakers and Tunnel builders, there is an intelligence that antedates the universe."

                                                               Carl Sagan

The great, iconic scientist and insistent agnostic, Carl Sagan was no Christian, but compared to skeptics such as Stephen Hawking, he might easily be proclaimed a “prophet of our age.” Regardless of labels, in his ambitions he could easily have been judged by many standards as a godly person. And in spite of his doctrinal aloofness, his writings betray a fierce tolerance for religious faith in general. Sagan could not say with assurance that there was a god, nor could he say with any proof that there wasn't.

This prophet of our age saw all human activity as obviously secondary, “subsumed” by a more powerful intelligence, which was the overarching source of everything. Man's search for understanding was a snail trail on a mountain of mystery. If not a prophet, then Sagan was surely an iconoclast, and like every woman or man, there was an invisible mold on him which fired his intrigue and also formed his conclusions; the agnostic academics which prepared him to represent and speak for his generation. 

He was a pathfinder in spite of many cultural and physical roadblocks, and had the passion to live within our intellectually oppressive societal structure and engage in the investigation of the universe beyond it. Like Hawking and many scientists, his fascination began with the vast wonders of the Universe, of Nature, but his ultimate philosophical paradox was predestined- and thus inhibited by the trends of his generation.

Sagan was a truth seeker, especially of scientific truth, and suspicious of soft modern standards of scientific proof, and unlike many of his contemporaries, and often in spite of them, he was open to evidence which might prove the existence of God.

That is fortunate, since our whole system was inspired by the concept of God. As was this book. In fact the foundations of both depend on it. And as America leads the world into a brighter future, she needs to hold on to the unique foundations which so swiftly propelled her into the most envied and powerful nation on earth.

Our position in the world, in the history of man, is no accident and our God and his principles have guided us well. To throw them away for any reason would be foolish and self-defeating. But that is exactly what many academics, scientists and social engineers are trying to do as they hawk political agendas which debunk religion, Free Enterprise, Capitalism, and our Constitution.

It is an exhausting but winnable argument that could silence these relentless contrarians, but most of us are busy living our lives, enjoying American prosperity, while they devotedly gain influence and momentum. But “Right Wing” Americans must learn how to explain and defend their values, if they or their principles are to survive, or else watch them flushed down the sewer of history, just like those of other great empires of the past. And we need to start that campaign for survival with the defense of our most foundational elements, like motherhood.

It was our mothers who were entrusted by society, who raised us from birth, taught us right from wrong, and built our characters by instilling American values like personal responsibility and self-determination; about “God and apple pie.”

Thankfully, most of what mothers instilled in us has never been fully discarded. With all that he knew, Carl Sagan could not ignore religion, and still held out the possibility that there was much more to know, and he would have bet on it:

“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.”

Perhaps Sagan's god was the unknown. Many people, especially scholars, major in asking questions rather than listening to answers. But he was right, because there is an incredible God waiting to be known... Sagan thought those who called themselves atheists had prematurely shut down an ongoing search for truth... even spiritual truth. For Sagan and his tribe, the jury was still out, and atheists could no more know that their belief, that there was no god, was any more defensible than any believer's. Perhaps he was reflecting Shakespeare's Hamlet when he admonished...

“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in our philosophy.”

Or perhaps Sagan had encountered and embraced Albert Einstein's views about God. Einstein rejected most religions because of their corruptions, but like many Jews, was a great admirer of Jesus, whose teachings he thought well could have solved all social ills in the world, had they been heeded. He too saw a certain genius behind Nature, which denied random, spontaneous generation. “God does not play dice with the universe.”

Einstein was another prophet of his time who could not ignore the obvious; “... everyone who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the universe- a spirit vastly superior to that of man, and one in the face of which we with our modest powers must feel humble.” 

We will see the same kind of logic emerge from the subjects within these pages. So I ask that you receive the following words with that same kind of open mind; The curiosity and objectivity of Sagan. The depth and wisdom of Einstein.

I am not a professional writer, or a pedigreed historian, or even a political pundit. I am an artist. My profession, unlike most of my contemporaries, led me into “Realism,” and a lifetime of research and illustration of America's colorful past. My parents raised me in a rich environment for preparation for my career; my father was a historian, my mother an artist and antique dealer. So I had always been a history buff, as a child scrawling great, apocalyptic battles on manila paper and later in collecting and trading in icons of the American spirit. It is no wonder that I ended up painting many thousands of square feet of murals in schools and museums, depicting our majestic heritage.

My qualifications are not what you may be accustomed to, when approaching American History. True, I look for the picturesque. But my gifts of observation and analysis, required of any historical illustrator, prohibit the indulgence of a tinted lens, and greatly retard a bias. In the “school” of my artistic idols, Tom Lovell, and Winslow Homer, art was to be engaging, awesome, but always based on historical and scientific accuracy. Just like my college Life Drawing classes, where we were taught the anatomy of the body, before we put skin on it, I learned to understand the importance of investigating the core of a thing. The skeleton of principles. The organs of administration. The nerves of public consensus. The lifeblood, which in history alternates between ideals and greed- sometimes altruism, sometimes the dollar.

America's heart, the center of her soul, was truly inspired and then perpetuated by conflicted minds, who treacherously accused and fought one another. Our founders collectively reflected the conflicted soul of every person, reaching for the sublime. The Apostle Paul explained this dilemma when he complained that “The spirit was willing, but his flesh was weak.”

Sometimes our leaders have improved on the model, but they often corrupted it. These “greater minds” have primed our pump many times with noble and ignoble mediums. The same system which gave us the Bill of Rights, gave us Slavery and a war over it; Established a U. S. Treasury and then handed our banking and currency operations over to untouchable profiteers; Promised Civil Rights and then took one hundred years to enforce or protect them. Every American can agree on one thing, that our government and its fruit has never represented the better “America” so well formed in our minds.

So ultimately, to grasp and appreciate America, we must dissect the American mind... if we can. So this book is an artist's attempt, a literary illustration of America's collective brain. And that brain trust has been cherished and lived by American mothers, more than anyone.

There is my worthy yet daunting challenge, as minds are abstract things, impossible to actually investigate. And there are so many different species. Thank God there is no pattern, other than a human being, endowed with certain inalienable rights, for an “American.” Our founding fathers did not have one either. Conversely, it was their diversity, supported by common courtesy, and Christian charity which constructed the greatest nation ever devised by man. And that core of tolerance and benevolence was best demonstrated by our women.

Women were and are undoubtedly my biggest heroes, the nurturers of my intellect and my passion for art and history. My mother and grandmothers, my aunts, my school teachers... It seemed the men in my family were self-absorbed, distracted by entrepreneurial visions and their search for significance, and sometimes lured by ambitious delusions which often brought heartbreak. Meanwhile, the women were always stoically taking care of family business, life's essentials like making a home, feeding the family, and making life tolerable and even pleasurable. They did all of these things while enduring, even graciously overlooking our faults... husbands who drank too much, or gambled, or could not keep a job. Mothers saved our lives. That was what women were all about.

Then finally after millions of years of systematic suppression, doors of opportunity were opened where our women could apply their anciently-honed skills to the commercial “workplace.” It was a game-changer with innumerable unintended consequences that we are all still trying to adjust to. And yes, men are trying!

I make no apologies, I have written this book to memorialize my heroes: Women. And if you are a young woman, I am writing to you as well. You are smart. And you are capable. And you have all of these ideas, and abilities, but it sometimes seems the world is set against you. Well, I'm glad our paths have crossed, because I wrote this to encourage you. I wrote this book as a tribute to my heroes; To mothers and daughters and especially to young women at that “fork in the road”... considering their future; whether or not to marry, or pursue a career, or whether or not to have children.

I have been blessed with great, incredible women in my life and learned so much from them, and even though I am an imperfect instrument (a man!) to pass on their wisdom, I had to put it down, and repeat much of what they taught me. Their ideas will creep in here and there as I provide intimate dramatizations featuring my subjects. I believed they would inspire many women, who may not have heard or witnessed these wonderful and stellar viewpoints, taught to me by the great women in my life.

There is so much negativity and contention in the atmosphere today, it is smothering the inherent joys of Womankind... and a great deal more is at stake:

Truth be known, fair or not, our collective consciousness depends on women to invigorate and inspire the whole culture.

I grew up in the '60's as American women, including my talented mother, were unleashed on the professional world, and Americans, some skeptical and some triumphant, watched them discover their options and achieve the highest ambitions for any women in human history. They immediately became an essential asset to our economy, and they loved the freedom and mobility once denied them. But as women gradually rose through the ranks of the professional world, so did divorce rates. And abortion rates. It is no surprise then that birth and marriage rates plummeted.

The “Baby Boom” after WWII turned into a teen-age counter-culture which introduced the new American morality of self-indulgence; free love and long-sought independence from the Biblical foundations of our culture. Sex fairly quickly morphed from a sacred privilege of monogamy to a casual body function, between consenting adults. All moral boundaries were questioned and many were dispensed with. The Rock festival at Woodstock became the new Philadelphia, where our youth declared their new-found freedoms. By the time I was a freshman in college (1974), hundreds of young adults were "streaking," running wildly around the campus in groups, even on weeknights, naked but for their tennies, demonstrating how many different ways they could move around campus in the nude. On bicycles, the hoods of cars, grocery baskets, motor bikes... in the beds of pick up trucks.

Birth control became serious necessity in this bizarre, sexual playground. And a habit. Eventually everybody got bored with community nakedness and put their pants back on and got jobs and rejoined a somewhat sane, albeit “liberated” society. And American women understood more than ever what had to change. They had college degrees now. Plans. They had professions and ambitions, and children would only disrupt if not permanently derail them. They had every right, and they set out to do everything a man could do. But there was just one problem with this new freedom. Men could not do everything that a woman could do.

Not even a team of them.

In fact my experience was that men could not do most things that women could do, and did not want to. So now women were going to join the workforce in droves, and men would have some very threatening competition, and corporate America would thrive greatly from the sudden infusion of talent and intelligence and discipline. But who would have the babies? How would our culture survive without willing mothers? As the birth rates continued to drop, decade after decade, our social visionaries, especially from the Left, saw the obvious answer: America would open the flood gates and encourage immigration from hungry, neighboring countries. They were the ideal population, especially attractive to ruling elites.

Desperate Mexican or Central American immigrants would come in throngs for economic opportunity, with vague ideas about what their new home was, and no attachment to the old Constitutional paradigms. They would take a long time to organize politically, so there would be little problem managing them as a political block. Hispanics would be eternally grateful to whichever ruling party made their happy new citizenship possible. And they would vote for and support similar Socialist policies which they had grown dependent on in their countries of origin. 

Most importantly, being predominantly Catholic and family oriented, they would have plenty of babies. Happy baby-making would keep them at the bottom of the economic scale, their noses to the grindstone, and their earnings would fuel the healthiest tax base in the world.

This sea change in our society is in full operation now, and many “American” ideals which Right Wing Americans cherish may be overrun in another generation. Black and Caucasian women inadvertently chose personal freedom over the continuation of our cultures, as we all reveled in a society of “self-actualization.” The once naively touted Zero-Population growth resulted in hugely reduced American families; a significant redistribution of American demographics, which was for my group self-genocide. All we can do now is try to slow the tide and try with every ounce of our energy to indoctrinate these new Americans, so that all is not lost. If not our genes, perhaps we can still perpetuate the concept.

It was the concept after all which made America different, led it to supremacy, and then made it the envy of the human race; A concept birthed by philosophers like John Locke, who inspired our founders. Locke emphatically warned against a society built on atheism, as ignorance of God he believed would lead to a breakdown in society and ultimate mayhem. And although scientists have been trying to discredit the Bible and its authors, in order to take dominance over society, their most respected thinkers have reasoned and even warned against pure atheism. Sagan was only reflecting Newton and Einstein when he wisely stepped away from a godless, random universe, devoid of purpose. There is a God, and it was He who inspired America, and it has been uniquely blessed among nations. We have a grand purpose, and that in spite of our mistakes, which were manifold.

America has also enjoyed another mystery not understood by scientists... Divine Grace. Thus it has earned trust and envy like no other empire, and become not only the most prosperous, most powerful nation on earth, but the world's most benevolent giver, the most gifted innovator, and the arbiter of disputes. And that because of godly foundational precepts. A nation which only reached to God part of the way met a Divinity who reached and blessed infinitely. Now we ignore that sustenance to our peril.

This book is written to the last vestiges of our traditional American culture, who might endeavor to shape the next generations, building on our unique and exemplary past. With hopes that American women might discover in the reading the greatness of our country, the reasons for it, and the greatness of the women who birthed and raised and inspired the men who got credit for creating the greatest nation in history.

With this humble series of mini-biographies, perhaps now some American women will understand how their power and choices will define not only our character and our futures, but our very existence.



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 Hulda Hoover and little Herbert, her second born, 

someday to become President of the United States.