Iowa Author Publishes New Book
Mike Palecek
Mike Palecek
is an author living in northwest Iowa. He is a former federal prisoner
for peace, Iowa newspaper reporter, and Iowa congressional candidate.
His
newest book will be released in September by New Leaf Books of Chicago.
“The Last Liberal Outlaw” tells the story of an Iowa small-town editor
fighting the construction of a private federal prison.
For more information on Palecek's books: www.iowapeace.com
Mike's Book
“The Last Liberal Outlaw”
depicts the dissidents in a small Iowa town versus the coffee shop
crowd in a life and death struggle that could have been taken from
today's Atlantic News-Telegraph, Diagonal Progress, or Story City
Herald, if one were to read between the lines.
Tom Blue
is a newspaper editor who wants to do the right thing. He is willing to
fight the local establishment to oppose the building of a federal
prison near town, something which he sees as wrong. So often small town
journalists in America, even big town ones, do not care so much about
what is right, but what is profitable.
However, there are still those out there fighting the good fight. One of them is Tom Blue, in little Liberal, Iowa.
Come
along and see Tom face down the Chamber of Commerce, the bank, the city
council and even his own boss, in the middle of Main Street, with a
Macintosh, at noon.
Mike's Story
Mike Palecek lives in northwest Iowa with his family. He works at a group home for mentally-disabled adults and also drives a bus.
During
the 1980s, he served five terms in U.S. federal prisons and county
jails for non-violent civil disobedience against America's military. He
has worked as a reporter, editor and publisher on small newspapers in
Nebraska, Iowa and Minnesota. In 2000, he was the Iowa Democratic
Party's nominee for the U.S. House of Representatives, Fifth District,
garnering 67,500 votes on an anti-prison, anti-military, pro-immigrant
platform in one of the most conservative congressional districts in the
nation.
Palecek
was a seminary student in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1979 when he met Fr.
Daniel Berrigan. On Berrigan's invitation, Palecek attended a protest
at the White House and Pentagon during Holy Week, where he saw Fr. Carl
Kabat pour blood on a White House pillar. [Kabat has since served over
16 years in U.S. prisons for his resistance to the American military.]
He describes this as a seminal event in his move toward activism.
Mike
says he had a breakdown during his last jail stint, six months in the
Council Bluffs, Iowa, county jail, requiring anti-depression medication
to make it through. A psychiatrist diagnosed it as clinical depression,
post-traumatic stress disorder.
“It was
the first time I had been in jail when we had a son,” said Palecek. “I
think that had a lot to do with it. It also could have been
post-traumatic stress syndrome from an earlier time in the Chicago,
Leavenworth, Terre Haute, El Reno and El Paso federal prisons. When I
was sentenced to Council Bluffs, the judge gave me a choice of whether
to stay close or go to the federal medical center in Springfield,
Missouri. I had heard stories about Springfield and chose to stay close
to my family and friends.
“And my
troubles could also have been due to me not being tough enough. A lot
of people do a lot more time than I did and come out in better shape,
or at least, that's what they say. However, the truth remains that
America's prisons are horrific warehouses of human beings. And
Americans generally do not care one way or the other, thinking it has
nothing to do with them.”
For more information on Palecek's books: www.iowapeace.com
Blog For Iowa 