Which Side Are We On, Anyway?

The publication of Theodosia and the Pirates: The War Against Spain is scheduled for next month, so the time has come to reveal the cover of the new book.

The painting is by Colleen Dick. In case you are wondering what the book is about, here is a video that may give you some idea.

You may be wondering after watching this video, why it is called "The War against Spain" and not "The War against the US." But that's just the point: no matter how bad things got, Jean Laffite never made war on the United States, despite the fact that it constantly made war on him. Instead, he was at  war against Spain, even when the Spaniards gave him money and offered to accept him into their midst.

Why would a man do that? Because ideas are more important than governments. In the end, it was the ideals of the United States that Jean Laffite embraced. He hated Spain despite being good friends with many Spaniards, and despite the fact that Spanish, not French, was his mother tongue, because he would not bend the knee to his Catholic Majesty the King of Spain.  In many ways, the official representatives of the United States were no better. But Jean Laffite could see past the faulty execution to the grand design expressed in the constitution, and it was to this plan that he was loyal.

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http://www.examiner.com/article/interview-with-the-artist-colleen-dick