Blog Posts - Books by Eric Douglas

The real Mike Scott

April 25, 2012 By Eric Douglas

Twenty three years ago today, April 25, 1989, Michael Scott Burnsworth lost his battle with cancer. I was at Marshall, working at my work-study job when I heard. It was tough news to swallow although we all knew it was coming. Mike was a year older than I was and one of my closest friends. We’d been through a lot together. Way too many late nights running the roads, cruising in the Trans Am with the t-tops out, washing and detailing Mike’s car before going cruising at Ritter Park in Huntington or Coonskin in Charleston, chasing women and generally being delinquents.

Mike was 22 years old when he died. He was taken much too soon. A few days later, I was a pall bearer at his funeral. I’ll never forget my brother Stuart calling the radio station as we left Charleston, headed to Fairmont for the funeral and requesting Elton John’s Funeral for a Friend. Music was always a big part of our lives and it always helps.

For a long time after that I looked around for a way to deal with that loss. I promised him I would never forget him. In 2004, when I began writing my first novel, there was no question in my mind what my hero’s name would be–Mike Scott. I’ve published five more novels since then; all with Mike Scott as the central character. He even showed up in the short story Queen Conch and the free short story Land Sharks. It makes me smile to think of Mike when I write his name. The physical description for the character is how I remember Mike and how I believe he would have grown up. Would he have been a diver and traveled the world like the character in the books? No clue. But he would have had fun wherever he went. I’m sure of that. He always did. That’s what I remember most about Mike, his sense of humor and his laugh.

There is never anything good about someone dying of cancer and even less positive from someone dying just as his life was about to start. But the lesson I learned from it was to not settle for anything, not to give up and to always keep pushing. It’s sort of ironic that just yesterday I was having a bit of a crisis of confidence—nothing terribly uncommon for a writer. I was questioning if I was heading in the right direction and doing what I should be doing. I had thought about writing this blog, but then decided not to. (It was probably about the same time that the crisis of confidence began.) Last night, Mike’s brother Mark posted a comment about Mike’s passing and added a few pictures of Mike as well. And then I remembered what I’m supposed to be doing and why. I’ll take that as Mike’s way of kicking me in the butt, telling me to quit whining and get to work.

I hope I’ve made Mike proud. There’s no doubt in my mind he is watching over all of us down here who knew him; his family and his friends.

Rest in Peace, Mike..

Tomorrow is Earth Day

April 21, 2012 By Eric Douglas

Earth Day means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. I won’t even get into the political ramifications of it. Frankly, I’ve never understood how politics even comes into play when it comes to taking care of our natural resources and the world around us. I understand how people can disagree on the method, but appreciating the world around us isn’t that hard.

About 20 years ago, I was working as a reporter on the Metro Staff at Charleston Newspapers. It was an election year and Earth Day (then as now) was a few weeks before the Primary Election. A politician organized an Earth Day event where he was giving away tree seedlings. I ended up taking one and planting it. Today, it stands tall in my mom’s backyard. (It’s probably cynical to observe that the politician didn’t organize another event the next year when he was safely elected to office.) A couple weeks ago, my daughters were given two tree seedlings at the Easter Carnival at the WV State Capitol. There are plenty of trees in West Virginia, but it can’t hurt to plant a couple more.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not holding myself up as a paragon of Earth Day virtue. I’d just like to see things clean and clear for my daughters. As a diver, I’ve had the good fortune of traveling to different locations around the world to dive. It makes me sad to see trash underwater and it seems to show up everywhere. Even in Summersville Lake, where I learned to dive, people throw trash overboard from their boats. “Out of sight, out of mind” I guess.

You don’t have to be a “tree-hugger” or even (gasp) an “environmentalist” to want to protect the planet we live on. Hunters are some of the best naturalists and conservationists. They want to keep areas natural and clean so they can continue to hunt. It’s also something they do to share their love of nature with their families. It’s a huge generalization, I know, but very few avid hunters would describe themselves as “environmentalists” as if that word were distasteful. Many of the hunters I know would describe themselves as “conservative”.

Ultimately, if we want the earth to be in good shape for our children and their children, we have to take steps to care for it today. It isn’t a matter of “Left” or “Right” or Conservative or Liberal. We all share this planet and have to find ways to work together to protect it. Earth Day is a simple reminder to do that. But it shouldn’t be limited to one day a year. It takes changing a mind-set that littering is acceptable or that “some” chemicals in our water supply is OK.

In the old testament, Psalms, it says:
“You [God] made humans ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under our feet: All flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas,” Ps 8:6-8.

That doesn’t mean because it’s ours, we can simply tear it up and use it however we want. We have an obligation to care for it and protect it. It’s fitting that Earth Day this year falls on Sunday. No doubt there will be many sermons offered tomorrow on Good Stewardship of the earth. It can be as simple as picking up trash you see on the street. Or recycling. Or planting a tree. Every little bit helps, and better yet every positive effort isn’t a negative one. By changing the way we act and think, we can improve our lives and the lives of the people who inherit this world from us.

Happy Earth Day.

Soldiers after war

April 20, 2012 By Eric Douglas

A few weeks ago, I posted an update on my Voices of War project. You can read it here. If you don’t know about this project, it is my effort to record the voices of the men and women from West Virginia who have served their country in time of war, signing a blank check that if their life was needed in defense of freedom, they were willing to let it be cashed in. When I began this project, I explained it here.

A couple days ago, I had the pleasure of meeting and talking to two more veterans—my 18th and 19th interviews respectively. Every one of these discussions is fascinating. I see men who are normally boisterous and strong, get quiet when they talk about their experiences. Even for the ones who hold their emotions in check, you can see a slight hand shake when they talk or their eyes go unfocused, staring off into the distance when they remember the things they have seen.

I had a lot of fun talking to Jeff Ellis this week. He’s been deployed overseas twice, once to Kuwait and once to Iraq. Currently a Staff Sergeant, he plans to remain in the Army Reserves; he is working toward his 20 year retirement. He expects to be deployed to Afghanistan eventually even as the United States Army works on a drawdown of forces. In his civilian job, Jeff works to support veterans who have run afoul of the legal system. He will graduate from Marshall University with a degree in Psychology in a week or so and he plans to use that degree to help veterans as they transition back to the civilian world.

This made me think of another veteran I interviewed who had nearly completed his own 20 years of service in the army before he was deployed to a war zone. Prior to heading off to war, the enlisted soldier progressed to Sergeant and then, in the Army Reserves, went to Officer Candidate School. Went he went to war, it was as a First Lieutenant. Since then, the man’s rise through the ranks has been short-circuited and he left the Army. He was working on his college degree before he went to war, but now he has no plans to go back. Alcoholism and legal problems derailed his career. Talking to him, I couldn’t help but think about the hidden costs of these wars.

Aside from Jeff’s contributions out of uniform, though, is his other passion in life—music. Jeff is a talented singer/songwriter. The release of his first CD was actually delayed by his first deployment. He ended up promoting it when he came home from Kuwait on a two-week leave, playing nearly every day. His second CD, called “The Line”, is based heavily on his experiences overseas. While in Iraq last year, he was working at many of the Forward Operating Bases, helping to decommission them. These smaller bases rarely got the attention of the larger music acts who visited troops. Jeff got pressed into service, playing at these smaller bases. He said he played a lot of covers during those concerts, rather than his original music, no doubt to remind the soldiers of home.

Jeff was also invited to make two appearances on the Armed Forces Network, both of which were recorded. He explained that the show’s producers edited his performance into the individual songs and continued playing them over the radio. From time to time, he said, he would be sitting beside someone who would hear the song and say “Ellis. That ain’t you, is it?” mostly jokingly. Until he would say, “Yeah, that’s me.”

There are several Youtube videos of Jeff performing in Iraq. Give him a listen on the Youtube page for his recording label.

And here is one from Iraq.

CCTV on Lobster Divers in Honduras

April 16, 2012 By Eric Douglas

A few weeks ago, I posted a blog about being “made up” for international television. I had been invited to Washington DC for an interview on China Central Television (CCTV). They were doing a story on the lobster divers of Honduras for their broadcast on an English-language show Americas Now. The network broadcasts all over the world to English and Asian audiences.

The story aired last night on the network. Technically, it aired at 9:30 am Beijing time on Monday the 16th, but with the International Dateline, that made it Sunday night at 9:30 pm.

The network and the reporter, Michelle Begue, did a great job with the story. From the looks of it, they weren’t able to go out on one of the lobster boats to dive with the divers, mainly relying on stock footage and live footage and interviews with the divers who have suffered the results of diving for lobster.

As I have written about this issue and given interviews about what I’ve seen there, many people understand the issue, but others have questioned why we should care. I find it somewhat ironic that China television is telling a story about people laboring under terrible conditions when just a few weeks ago, stories broke about Chinese workers laboring under unfair conditions in China at an Apple factory building iPads and iPhones.

I see no difference in the lobster divers and men and women toiling in sweat shops. Groups have attempted to teach the divers safer diving techniques, but they get paid piecework. If you cut their diving in half, they can only make half as much money on a dive trip. They very quickly realize they can’t feed their families and their only option is to sacrifice their bodies. Apple is changing their work rules, hiring more people and still paying the men and women in the factory the same amount of money. Until that sort of thing happens for the lobster divers, there won’t be a significant change.

The story is called “Dangerous Prize” from the April 16, 2012 show. It is the first segment in the broadcast. My interview comes in around 14:09. All of the video clips and still images that show during my segment are mine.

If you want to see other stories on this subject, visit the page on my website for more links and images. You can also scan back through this blog. There are many posts from four trips to Honduras and trips to Brazil and Isla Natividad Mexico where divers harvest the sea and sacrifice their bodies..

Digital age and West Virginia

April 11, 2012 By Eric Douglas

Last night I attended the opening of a cool new place in Charleston called DigiSo. The name is short for Digital and Social media and it is an incubator for entrepreneurs in the digital age. The facility has video editing suite, a video studio with a basic lighting package, a sound studio, lecture space and office spaces for developers to rent by the hour, by the half day or longer term.

For a small time developer working on the next big digital business out of his/her home, that is a great resource. You won’t have to buy all of this equipment and don’t have to have client meetings in your living rooms! Better still, DigiSo has organized a group of 13 “anchors” who are digital innovators from the local creative community. The anchors will be there part-time to serve as mentors for people who are starting out or working on new projects. The social aspects of working together and finding inspiration and collaboration are extremely important.

Sixteen years ago, I was working on a gubernatorial campaign for Lyle Sattes. We ran heavily on the idea that West Virginia was an ideal place for people who wanted to work in the digital age, but live in a place where they could enjoy a higher quality of life. He felt they could live in West Virginia and do jobs for companies all over the world. We even published a campaign book and at least half of it was devoted to the concept. I looked around to see if Lyle was at the opening, but he wasn’t there. It appears he was simply ahead of his time. (A bit of irony, I saw the eventual winner of that primary, Charlotte Pritt, at the opening last night. She lost in the general election to Cecil Underwood.)

I am thrilled by the prospects and my hats off to the people at West Virginia State University and the people from the WVSU Economic Development Center for realizing the potential of the “digital economy”. Just yesterday, a company announced they were going to make a $100 million investment in the old South Charleston Stamping Plant and will hire as many as 700 workers. That is fantastic news and will definitely give the local economy a shot in the arm. I see this incubator having just as much of a positive influence on the economy. It won’t happen overnight, of course, economic development and small businesses never do. But it will help to position West Virginia as a place where people can go to enjoy nature, beautiful scenery, less congestion and a greater quality of life, and still be able to compete and contribute to the global digital economy.

If you’re thinking about a creative, digital or web-based business, stop by or check it out online. The people of Charleston should be proud DigiSo is in their own back yard. I predict people will come there from all over the state to take advantage of the resources there. I know I plan to.

And I hope Lyle see this and smiles a bit, knowing he was right…if just a little early..

Easter morning Peace

April 8, 2012 By Eric Douglas

I’ve been thinking a lot about “Peace” recently since some people I know jeered and laughed at the idea of “World Peace”. A couple days ago, I was driving and heard a song by one of my favorite bands (that most people have never heard of) The Subdudes. It was the song, One Word (Peace). And from that, this blog began to form in my mind.

I understand that we may never find “World Peace”. There are too many angry people in this world. There is sin in the world. There is greed. All of that makes complete peace just about impossible. But does that impossibility make it any less important for us to keep trying? I would say the presence of those things in the world makes it doubly important that we continue to work for peace. We may never find peace, but I can guarantee that if we don’t try, we never will.

Many great modern leaders have led their movements with the example of peace: Martin Luther King, Mahatmas Gandhi, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela. They each understood that confrontation was inevitable, but that peace was the way to gain what they were looking for. Obviously, they had varying amounts of success, but they tried and never gave up.

A few weeks ago, the pastor at my church spoke about how strong Jesus was in the days leading up to his crucifixion and death. He said many people saw his actions of passiveness and acceptance as weakness. He could have called down the wrath of God on the people who hurt him, yet he accepted their torture for the greater good. He had a plan and he stuck to it. He didn’t hate the people around him.

Easter means a lot of things to a lot of different people. For Christians, it means the day Christ rose from the dead. It also happens to coincide with Passover (which probably says more about the calendar of the early Christian church than anything else). For others it means the day the Easter Bunny brings candy and presents. For a lot of people, it means both. I know many people have a problem with secular imagery on religious holidays, but I’ve never worried about that too much. If anything, kids today are smarter and savvier than we were. They know how to separate the two easily. I don’t think they forget one in exchange for the other.

I think we adults might forget the message of the day, however. Easter is the day that the Jesus paid the ultimate sacrifice for the world’s sins. Up to that point, Jews and Gentiles alike had to offer sacrifices to God for forgiveness–buying it in a sense. From Easter forward, the debt was paid. We just had to ask for forgiveness and to do our best to live like Jesus asked us to live. That meant forgiveness, love, peace and understanding. And that doesn’t mean love and understanding for the people who think like us, look like us, or act like us. It means for everyone.

I saw a joke the other day that said (in part):

Jesus: Love and forgive all of your neighbors

People: But what about the people who don’t agree with us?

Jesus: Did I stutter?

For me, Easter Sunday is ultimately about Peace. It represents the opportunity to be forgiven, to forgive, and to find peace and love.

Happy Easter. I hope you find Peace.