Jeffrey Kanode

American Aspirations Jeffrey Kanode

April, 1995. Sitting alone in his study nursing a vodka tonic in the early afternoon light, Joseph Ellenstein has lost his beloved wife; he has lost his words; he has lost his hope. In this same study he has written books that have won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Now Joseph sits, wordless, hopeless, drinking. The dark shadows of the Oklahoma City bombing haunt Ellenstein, and all of America. The hate and prejudice, the racism of white nationalism which caused the fire of domestic terrorism and death, have emerged from the primordial recesses of the American soul. Ellenstein watches on television the image of the fireman holding the tiny body of a child buried in the rubble, and the writer drinks. Meanwhile, Ellenstein's dear friend Bruce Jennings reaches out with an opportunity for Joseph to write again for a campaign and a cause that might just have the power and the possibility to bring wholeness and healing to a broken, bleeding nation. Colin Powell is going to run for President of the United States in 1996 and he wants Joseph Ellenstein to give him the words...