The Silver Maple Conspiracy is a very personal, sensual story of a man, born to the mid-20th century, and his startling, mysterious relationship with nature. This relationship serves as a vehicle for deep introspection into the plight of humankind and the planet it inhabits in the early 21st century.The story will take you from the "free-love" era in the streets of New York City during the War in Vietnam, the Woodstock Music and Arts Festival and the first Earth Day, to the back-to-the-land movement in the Pacific Northwest and finally to the Great Smoky Mountains of western North Carolina in the first decade after the millennium. It is a chronicle of the physical changes witnessed in this time-span as well as the evolution in consciousness that has subtly over-taken our species during the past half century. It is both a leap forward suggesting a new destiny and a re-connection to the ancient past.Although the scenery changes as time progresses, the most fascinating aspect of the story is the inner journey experienced by the main protagonist, Allen Goldstein. We witness his metamorphosis from a secure and stable childhood in the 1950s and early 60s, to a state of confusion, rejection, searching and wandering, back to a life of acceptance and normality. Or, so he thinks.
About the Author: Avram Friedman is the current Executive Director of The Canary Coalition, a grassroots, non-profit organization based in western North Carolina that works on policy issues related to climate change, air pollution, energy and transportation. Under his leadership this organization has won prestigious awards from the US Environmental Protection Agency and from the Governor of North Carolina for effective activism on air quality issues. Since the 1960's his life has been devoted to social causes and community organizing in the tradition of Mohandes Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. Along with other dedicated people, his organizational efforts have been instrumental in the creation of an effective ban on the construction of nuclear power plants in Oregon, the prevention of the location of a high-level nuclear waste repository in the Great Smoky Mountains region of North Carolina, the reversal of a plan to locate an eight-state low-level radioactive waste repository in eastern North Carolina, the passage of the milestone Clean Smokestacks Act in North Carolina and much more. He has run for public office four times in an effort to inform the public, the press and political leaders about important under-reported environmental issues. He has been arrested three times for acts of non-violent civil disobedience in an effort to raise public awareness about the dangers of nuclear power and the continued use of fossil fuels to produce electricity. In recognition of his important contribution, he was given one of the four pens used by then Governor Mike Easley to sign into law the NC Clean Smokestack Act, in 2002.