In this, my first blog for my book ‘The Decker Hilton’, I want to thank everyone that has taken their precious time to read it. I greatly appreciate it. I have been asked many questions about my experience and the book in general, but one of the most difficult questions I have been asked is, ‘Why did I write it?’.
I have thought long and hard about this question and I have come up with several answers, some more humorous than serious. But I will let you decide what might be the best answer to this question.
Even though I felt compelled to write this book, there was a part of me that struggled with doing it. But there were a few themes in the book that I felt were important to share
- One was the awareness I gained concerning the power an environment can play on the actions of its inhabitants. I used to think about Germany and it’s people during the rise of Hitler. How was it possible for decent and ordinary Germans to be turned into horrible fascist and Nazi’s? Well, I learned that it can happen to anyone. It happened to me in the nineteen-sixties in a Dallas County Jail. I was just an average, normal, young Texas boy, who was forced by a violent and hostile environment, to make some horrible choices. I experienced first hand the power of fear and its ability to make us choose the easier path of self-preservation. I hope that none of my readers ever have to face those kinds of choices.
- I wanted my children to know who their father was, the good and the bad. And I wanted them to understand the importance and responsibility one must take for the decisions they make. Especially during the early years of their lives, when seemingly innocent decisions and actions can have such long-lasting and dire consequences.
- Today I feel that our country is becoming more racially divided than ever and I wanted to share a story of how way back in the sixties a young white boy was protected and cared for by an old black man.
Lately, I seem to find myself reflecting more on the inequalities than the equalities in our society. The divide between the rich and poor is growing and people are becoming less and less tolerant. Our nation is as much, if not more racially divided than when I was a young boy, and the political atmosphere is even more polluted than our air.
God is either blamed or left out of the conversation. Growth at all cost is our goal even at the expense of our very survival. So, this blog is going to be about bringing all these things into the light so we can all become more aware of them and hopefully this will allow us to work together to create a more free and just and peaceful and healthy world.
We may not agree on much of anything but that does not change the fact that we all still live on the same planet and we are all in this together. And we have serious choices to make!