WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING: 
Appearance Schedule
Dear Jack,
I just read your new book and wanted to say you
got it right in many ways. We met once when I was
helping David Miller and geting some compaign tapes
dubbed at Video Post. I wrote this little piece
last night and thought I would share it with you:
I read Jack Cashill's book “What’s the Matter with
California?” It’s impossible to sum up the good and
bad of 38 million people without making some broad
generalizations, but Jack is a good story teller and
makes a convincing case.
When I was there for 30+ years, I don’t think I
always realized how much personal face to face
exposure I had to the cultural cutting edge.
Looking back, through Jack’s writing, much of what
he recounts is not just information, but revives
many memories of my own personal experiences: like
the White night riots in 1978. (Or the Halloween
night I spent on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.) I
attended the Mayor Moscone's funeral at Saint Mary’s
Cathedral which was literally next door to my San
Francisco apartment—the view out my window. The
Pope and Mother Teresa also held meetings there next
to my apartment. That was my home when, as a
college student, I first met Francis Schaeffer and
traveled across Europe with him and members of his
family. It was also where I met my wife.
Dan White who murdered the Mayor of San Francisco,
and the first openly gay country supervisor: Harvey
Milk, lived in a little row house a short walk from
where we had Wednesday night bible studies in a
home. In jail, our friend Jan (my wife’s roommate
before we married) went to see Dan White to give him
a bible and a copy of Chuck Colson’s book Born
Again. Dan later committed suicide with car exhaust
in a garage after writing letters to us from jail
about what he was learning from his Bible reading
and Chuck Colson’s testimony. I have a Lutheran
Pastor friend in Southern California who used to be
on our San Francisco staff. Scott gave him a Bible,
a hug, and shared the Gospel with Harvey Milk before
Dan Shot him to death in his City Hall office. How
do we know how different the view may be from
eternity?
Jack Cashill got it right when he wrote about
Harvey—in fact I recommend Jack’s book highly. It’s
similar to the Horowitz book: Left Illusions. It’s
the kind of writing that saddens the soul and tells
us things we would rather not know in a way that
awakens moral conviction and stirs us to want make a
difference. Read the books.
Doug Robinson
Lawrence, KS
Jack Cashill is a national treasure. His latest book, What’s the Matter with California: Cultural Rumbles From the Golden State and Why the Rest of Us Should Be Shaking, is a highly informative and an important commentary. -- Larry Kelley
Cashill's columns on (What's the Matter with) California
Buy the book - signed by Jack Cashill