"What Next: A Memoir Toward World Peace" by Walter Mosley

During a phone call, Walter Mosley was enjoying the view of the Hudson River from his apartment when he heard a "concussion". It took a moment for his eyes to find the source of the sound that September 11, 2001 morning. "What Next: A Memoir Toward World Peace" by Walter Mosley is not about the 9/11 tragedy, but the tragedy inspired the book. What next? Indeed. Many US citizens pondered the same question. Mosley wrote a book about it. "What Next: A Memoir Toward World Peace" is his musings on the subject seen through a unique perspective.

When I think of Walter Mosley, I think: Detective Novels. Good ones. He created one of my favorite characters with Easy Rawlins, a war vet turned reluctant, Private Investigator. Mr. Mosley's mysteries give the reader an inside view of life in contemporary urban America, specifically Los Angeles, California. Growing up in Los Angeles, he writes what he knows. Perhaps moving to New York City and the events surrounding the WTC attacks, caused Mr. Mosley to switch his focus to the Science Fiction realm with books such as "The Wave". Maybe he just wanted to try his hand at a new genre. He also writes poetry, which I did not know, but read on the book jacket of "What's Next".

Not that "The Wave" is about boarding the next spacecraft that lands on earth and leaving the planet before we blow the planet to pieces. (all I am saying is give peace a chance?) Sci-Fi never interested me, but with the ever present threat of global destruction exploring futurist galactic concerns is a nice form of escaping today's issues. Some events I read in my brother's Sci-Fi as a kid, came to pass in my lifetime. In "What Next", Mosley clearly shows an understanding of the need for global peace. Published in 2003, "What Next", gave me an eerie feeling that he was somehow taking a peek into the future, which is today.

Mr. Mosley talks about lessons learned from his father. One of those lessons came directly from the 1965 Watts riots. From that lesson comes the basis for Mosley's ideas to combat global terrorism. In his Prefatory Note, Mosley informs readers that anyone is invited to read it, but it was written to speak to the African-American community. He noticed that "the political voices of Black America have been comparatively quiet since the events of September 11." He says that may be seen as "tactic agreement", but is due, he believes, to conditioning and that "Silence is the worst enemy of freedom. We cannot be quiet."Conservatives and warriors need not bother to read this book. Mosley admits in his Conclusion that his ideas might sound too simplistic in face of "staggering problems we have to contend with today". He says that he wrote the book

"to be picked apart and dissected", not as a road map to be followed. I say "What Next: A Memoir Toward World Peace" by Walter Mosley gave voice to citizens of all colors who are hungry for change. Often it takes one person to set a wave in motion or a child to point out the obvious: the emperor has no clothes on. Road map or not, this book could set a wave in motion. I give it 5 stars for excellence.

Quote from the book:

"If the American people today were to shift their fearful and angry hearts toward a desire for peace, the world would change quickly and wonderfully into paradise."

What do you think is Peace on Earth possible or the impossible dream?

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