John Crawley – författare

An epidemic is sweeping America and scientists are not sure what is causing it. Thousands are dying. Journalist, Scott Keen, is put on the story and discovers the dark side of American food production and politics.

Your final act in life is to ask your estranged brother – your only next of kin – to do one last thing for you — let you die in peace. But he refuses. He can’t fulfill your requests because God and the Catholic Church are standing in the way. He is a priest and his faith and duty to his calling won’t allow it. And you do not share his theology. And he doesn’t approve your lifestyle. After all, you are lesbian and he is God’s pious servant. You haven’t talked in twenty years. And here it is on your deathbed he holds all the power over you. The fight over Death with Dignity comes front and center on the stage of The End.

Im going to piss you off, hopefully, in a good way so you can use the energy creatively and help me fight the fire that has been growing ever so steadily in our nation. The title of this book, The Fire Watchers is a metaphor referencing the lack of continuum of care for our mentally ill and substance-addled folks, often one and the same person. Much of my focus is on the veterans returning from harms way in various parts of the world. They have a high rate of mental illnessPTSD (Post- [delayed, sometimes for months or years] traumatic stress disorder} and other maladies like major depression, bi-polar affective disorder, and TBI (traumatic brain injuries). There are many effective treatments for these issues that are not being used as frequently or as effectively as they should. Why not? I will document and discuss major reasons why much of our treatment services delivery system is flawed and, in many places, broken. We need a major effort in this country to repair whats broken. I will take us through, step by step, ways in which we can all work together to provide an efficient, less costly, and model system that rivals any in the world.

1975: A young Irish-American man joins an elite US Marine unit to get the most intensive military training possible — then joins the Irish Republican Army, during the days of some of the bloodiest fighting ever in the Irish-British conflict . . .   The Irish "Troubles" were at a murderous fever pitch when John Crawley volunteered for the IRA. Bloody Friday, Bloody Sunday, the bombing of the British Houses of Parliament, and other deadly incidents had recently unfolded or were about to ... Civilian casualties were common as British soldiers, Republican militants (who wanted the UK out of Northern Ireland) and Unionist police and militants (who wanted to remain in the UK), engaged in gun battles and car bombing throughout Northern Ireland. The death toll numbered over 1,000.   The IRA split over how to react between the old-line IRA, and the new Provisional IRA — the Provos, mostly impassioned young men who were not hesitant to resort to violence.   In a powerful, brutally honest, no-holds-barred recounting of his experience, John Crawley details, first, the grueling challenges of his Marine Corps training, then how he put his hard-earned munitions and demolitions skills to use back in Ireland in service of the Provos. It is a story that will see him running guns with notorious American mobster — and secret IRA fundraiser — Whitey Bulger; running, under cover of night, from safe house to safe house in the Irish countryside, one step ahead of British troops; being captured, imprisoned, and being part of a mass escape attempt; fending off a recruitment offer from the CIA; and being one of the masterminds behind a campaign to take out London's electrical system.   Along the way, Crawley is blisteringly candid about the memorable people he worked with, including behind-the-scenes portrayals of revered IRA leader Martin McGuinness, and of the psychopathic Whitey Bulger, as well as others in the Boston IRA support network. There are vivid portraits of colleagues and enemies, and Crawley is unflinching in his commentary on IRA leadership and their tactics, both military and political.   Through it all comes the steadfast voice of a man on a mission, providing an evocative, detailed, and passionate recounting of where that mission led him and why — as well as why, to this day, he remains ready to serve.

In recent years mediation has become an increasingly popular approach and powerful technique and has been used successfully in such areas as commercial disputes and customer complaints-handling. Here, for the first time, is an accessible and practical book on mediation at work and in the workplace itself. Packed with real-life examples and cases, it focuses on mediation's positive way of looking at conflict, how it injects a new dimension into people's "conflict zone", and outlines the qualities needed to be a mediating manager. Mediating managers become beacons of positive energy perceived as people capable of holding things together when others are "losing it". They are able to do this because they are enablers, not judge and jury, catalysts not fixers, encouragers not enforcers. Mapping out the overall steps of the mediation process, what mediating managers' core tasks are at each stage, the opportunities offered to those involved, and illustrating different key moments of effectively resolved workplace disputes, the book demonstrates how transferable mediation skills are and how they can be used in a wide range of workplace settings.