I had the pleasure of interviewing author Jefferson Shupe for my uniting Americans blog, Vigilant Positivity. He wrote THE BATHWATER BRIGADE about college students on opposing sides in a tense atmosphere of campus unrest surrounding the trial of a black man killed by a police officer.
He proved a very thoughtful, insightful father of four who wrote the YA book out of an urge to teach his kids how to have civil discussions with others, no matter how different their viewpoint.
Read the whole interview here. While there, please subscribe! The more Americans we have who are willing to set aside their anger at and fear of those who think and vote differently, the greater our chances or regaining democratic equilibrium in a crazy world of extremist ideas.
Here are a few excerpts:
I used to assume people that those who thought and voted differently than me were either dumb or hated me and hated the country. And I couldn't reconcile that in my head. I couldn't understand how they would be different in that way and still be good people wanting to do good things.
I try to be humble enough to know that my worldview is never complete. There's always things that I don't know and things that I think I know that I'm probably wrong about.
One of their questions was, well, how do you know when to be diplomatic about things. And my answer to that is that if you have the skill you can know when to use it. And I think we should be using this far more than we are. We’ll get a lot further.
To connect with Jefferson:
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For updates about Martha’s forthcoming books, news and giveaways, subscribe to her website: MarthaEngber.com.
SCATTERED LIGHT, a novel, sequel to WINTER LIGHT (Nov. 2025)
THE FALCON, THE WOLF AND THE HUMMINGBIRD a historical novel
BLISS ROAD, a memoir
WINTER LIGHT, a novel
THE WIND THIEF, a novel
GROWING GREAT CHARACTERS, a resource for writers
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