the watchmen waketh
Ben Everidge for Thomas
Hoya …
In a speech that he was to give at the Dallas Trade Mart luncheon on that fateful day in November 1963, President John F. Kennedy had a percipient warning that he wanted to share with his audience that is as relevant today. America must keep watch on the dangers that exist in the world today. We must be mindful of the challenges we face. We must be the watchmen of Democracy and security; otherwise, like a thief in the night, it might be stolen from us.
In the King James version of the Bible, the watchmen waketh message comes from Psalm 127: "Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain." Years later, JFK’s chief White House Photographer, Cecil Stoughton, made me aware of the president’s wise message.
In a book I published in early collaboration with Thomas, Hoya: The Watchmen Waketh, I tell the story of the fictional 47th President of the United States and the struggle to provide security to Americans both physically and financially in the face of a severe breach of trust at the hands of an unknown vigilante group in the aftermath of a devastating nuclear explosion detected in Pakistan.
A particular working group of allied intelligence agencies spots the explosion. The Allies believe that a rogue group of violent Jihadists is responsible. The Jihadists are convinced that the United States did the dirty deed and is accountable for the deadly blast that will contaminate a large part of their country for centuries to come. As a result, Jihadist terrorists have been irrevocably incited to retaliate against the United States and her allies following that mysterious nuclear detonation in the Middle East.
Who did pull the trigger on a weapon of war John F. Kennedy once foreshadowed as the "nuclear sword of Damocles?"
Zack Greyson is the 47th President, and the political world of 2028 is a platter of prickly political potential. An uphill campaign by an Independent for President. The words and the traditions that make a race for 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue possible. The focus is on what it means that The Watchmen Waketh. A train racing toward Washington, D.C., with a smuggled nuclear weapon onboard, undetected perhaps? Crippling counter strikes at U.S landmarks—the rise of the New Mesopotamian Empire. Political trench warfare was waged in American communities across the nation.
“Who did pull the trigger on a weapon of war John F. Kennedy once foreshadowed as the “nuclear sword of Damocles”
Known to the Secret Service by his code name, “Hoya,” Greyson, until his surprising election in November 2028, was the Governor of Florida, an Independent who runs an unheard-of outsider race for 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. He graduated from the U.S Naval Academy in Annapolis, was a Navy fighter pilot, and earned a doctorate from Georgetown University. Greyson was a soccer star at the Academy, and he eventually went on to play professionally for the EPL’s Chelsea FC. He was also a member of his country’s World Cup and Olympic soccer teams. Zack’s family is of Welsh ancestry from Anglesey. He was born in Colorado.
Greyson’s intense endeavor to answer the Damocles question is peppered with complex Washington nuances and extraordinary political lessons. His trials make for an engaging global political thriller in an era of unnerving partisan theater and exacting extremes.
Hoya, with Thomas' help, is a real-world primer into American lawmaking and governance at its best and worst. It is replete with American foreign and defense policy initiatives and several innovative program concepts that might resolve a few of today’s more puzzling problems, thanks to the timely observations of an empathetic politico who has been there. Hoya centers around several key principles that are repeated throughout the story.
The story unfolds during the last 100 days of the 2028 presidential campaign and runs through the first 100 days of the new Administration.
What it means to be a Jeffersonian in political philosophy and how an Independent can run for and win the White House and then govern effectively from the middle of the fence.
John F. Kennedy’s undelivered “Watchman Waketh” speech from Dallas, Texas.
Is America at war with Islam, or should it be?
Pro-intelligence and pro-defense programs.
Properly engaged government and collaborative foreign policy initiatives.
Innovative legislating and responsible policy-making, including several key initiatives that Thomas and I are attempting to encourage on Capitol Hill for the benefit of the nation, too. This is the real world of today, not the fictional account found in Hoya.
Hoya delves into several relevant topics to understanding American Government, U.S. Foreign & Defense Policy, International Relations, and Comparative Government. Topics examined include:
Campaigning for president of the United States.
America’s founding fathers and documents.
American security concerns, challenges, real-world and intelligence gathering.
U.S. elections and campaign financing.
The role of political parties in the presidential election cycle.
Foreign policy doctrines of past U.S. Presidents.
Presidential debates and media coverage of the race for the White House.
The federal budget and appropriations process.
Congress and the legislative process.
The concept of proportional response.
Declarations of War and the War Powers Resolution.
Diplomacy and international relations.
A lesson plan has been developed with the book that can be used for classroom instruction at the college/university level.
In addition to the real-world political primer, the original legislative proposals offered in Hoya include:
The Three Trinity Foreign Policy Doctrine.
The Medical Innovation Zone Act.
The New Alliance for Progress (Modeled on the Kennedy Program).
The EB-5 Visa Waiver Deauthorization Act.
A Balanced Budget Initiative.
Public-private partnerships funded by promising philanthropic initiatives such as Ben Franklin’s favored Program Related Investments.
Besides entertaining, this Thomas project is an engagingly detailed political tale rooted in what might best be described as fictional reality. While Zack Greyson is not Tom Clancy’s famed Jack Ryan or Robert Ludlum’s vexing Jason Bourne, the age of Obama and Trump, he might be that more middle-of-the-road president we next want to meet.
I hope you enjoy the novel. It’s very political! Please let me know your thoughts on the book in the email above.
(Editors note: Thomas recommends the John F. Kennedy Library & Presidential Museum in Boston, Massachusetts, and Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello in Charlottesville, Virginia, as charities worth considering for support. We are not compensated for this suggestion. A link can be found on our Philanthropy page. Click here, please,
