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Green Beret Turned Peace Activist Publishes Second Anti-War Book

William T. Hathaway, award-winning author and former U.S. Special Forces soldier, has published a new anti-war novel set amidst the current war on terrorism.

St. Albert, Alberta (PRWEB) April 17, 2006 -- William T. Hathaway, award-winning author and former U.S. Special Forces soldier, has published a new anti-war novel set amidst the current war on terrorism.

SUMMER SNOW is a peace novel about an American warrior who falls in love with a Sufi Muslim and learns from her a mystical alternative to the military mentality.

The book’s wisdom figure is an aged Sufi woman, the warrior’s lover’s teacher, who has survived by outsmarting male dominated political and religious hierarchies.

“This bin Laden, this Bush, all these leading men, they have hijacked us all with their violence,” she states. ”They have turned the whole world into their suicide airplane. These men are too primitive to have such power. Too ignorant of the underlying reality. We must stop them. We must take the boys’ toys away from them...these terrible weapons.”

There is a way to do that and this is the lesson Summer Snow. The climax of this beautiful spiritual story is the triumph of Spirit over the violent pettiness of our “leaders.”

The books truth is that higher consciousness is more effective than violence. The book explored the idea that women may be more able than men to lead us to peace and Shambhala.

In writing SUMMER SNOW, Hathaway drew on his experiences during a year and a half in Central Asia. The first chapter is on the publisher’s website, http://www.avatarpublication.com/books/?id=13.

Hathaway’s first novel, A WORLD OF HURT, won a Rinehart Foundation Award. Both it and SUMMER SNOW explore the attraction that war has for men and how they can be healed of the pathology of patriarchal machismo.

“In the first book I focused on the blocked sexuality and the need for paternal approval that draw men to the military,” says Hathaway. ”I was trying to uncover the psychological roots of war, the forces that so persistently drive our species to slaughter. Our culture has degraded masculinity into a deadly toxin. It’s poisoned us all. Men have to confront this part of themselves before men and women together can heal it.

SUMMER SNOW takes a more spiritual approach than his first book. Hathaway says, “My military experience convinced me that to prevent war we need to raise human consciousness. A look at the history of revolutions shows that switching economic and political systems isn’t enough. The same aggressive personality types take over and start another army. We have to change the basic unit, the individual.

”I’ve found Eastern meditation to be the most effective way to change people. Unlike prayer, it works on the physiological level, altering the brain waves and metabolism. It refines the nervous system and expands the awareness so that the unity of all human beings becomes a living reality, not just an idealistic concept.

”After a while of meditation people stop wanting to consume things that increase aggression, such as meat, alcohol, and violent entertainment. They become more peaceful.

”I think it’s very true that peace begins within you. As Gandhi said, ‘We have to become the change we want to see in the world.’”

Hathaway is active in a group offering support and shelter to soldiers who have refused to be sent to Iraq and Afghanistan. “The real heroes in the military are the deserters, the ones with the courage to say no.” the combat-decorated Special Forces veteran states.

He wrote the introduction to AMERICA SPEAKS OUT: Collected Essays from Dissident Writers and has published numerous articles. His writing won him a Fulbright professorship at universities in Germany, where he currently lives.

William T. Hathaway
Avatar Publications

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Press Contact: Michael Sharp
Company Name: AVATAR PUBLICATIONS
Email: email protected from spam bots
Phone: 1 780 419 6794
Website: http://www.avatarpublication.com

More Information: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2006/4/prweb370196.htm

posted by Annamarie at 12:36 AM