Customer Reviews

Pick a Better Country

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This book, written in a punchy and engaging voice, is part memoir, part political diatribe and all truth.

The American Dream is out there, in reach of every American. You work hard, you take risks, you invest the time, the money, the training, and you make a good life for you and your family. This is the archetypal American Story, it is Ken Hamblin's story, and, as Ken fiercely argues, it is a common story. It can be your story.

Even if you're black, poor, and from a rough neighborhood.

In his explication of the American Dream, Hamblin particularly attacks those that would force black Americans to be victims, from the "black thugs" and the "brood mares" that demand ever-increasing entitlements that can only destroy their own lives and the vitality of their communities, to the "poverty pimps" and the "egg-sucking dog liberals" whose own power depends on telling the black underclass that they are doomed to failure and victimhood, the only salvation lying in voting for the politician who will bring back a bigger bite of the welfare apple.

Hamblin punches hard and talks straight, punctuating each chapter with correspondence -- both supporting and hateful -- he has received in response to his writings and radio show. Entertaining and informative.

Ken Hamblin is a first generation,self-made American. He does not use hyphens or letters to descibe himself. Instead,he calls himself colored or negro. In his book he illustrates the disservice done by liberals to blacks and other minorities in America. He points out the fact that the liberal's patrinization of minorities has done more harm than good because it fails to allow an individual to accept responsibility for their own actions. Ken Hamblin uses examples from his own experiences as a journalist. He also cites personal observations while traveling across America on his Harley-Davidson motorcycle and in his airplane, of what he sees going on around him. Witty and at the same time hardhitting, he exposes the on-going liberal hypocrisy and how it rewards laziness,while simultaneously condemning achievement. He offers simple, easy to adopt solutions to this problem. He also prints comments from listeners of his syndicated radio program. America still works, the dream is still alive. The viewpoints are an American view. Very real, very informative, and very entertaining.

Darktown. Black trash. Brood mares. Ken Hamblin speaks the truth, a truth that is bare and bold and harsh. So harsh, in fact, that some reviewers make claims that he uses no facts and two sentences later cite his use of factual events in an attempt to disparage him.

This book has driven the Left mad because a kid from the ghetto has learned that the American Dream is alive and well, whether you are black, brown, or white, if only you would embrace it. I think this book should be in every poor and rural school in the country. It is an outstanding tome on what it means to be an American.

Growing up on the outskirts of Darktown i.e. Brooklyn, NY, I know all to well what it's really like. I escaped Darktown, the Ashberry's of the world and becoming a Broodmare. I actually utilized and survived (!) the Public School system in NYC and graduated. I never fit in with the mentality of the people in Darktown, yes I think I am better than they are. I did not like being in a town where the epitome of success is how you can milk the system and how much $$ you make selling drugs. I escaped Darktown and I left without looking back! Am I sellout for choosing not to raise my little boy in a revolting Garbage dump of a city? Revering a disgusting rat infested town created by the people who claim to love the "ghetto" is absurd.

Success and a proper education isn't "acting white." Understand that speaking proper English, learning science and arithmetic is one of the only ways to success. Ebonics is ridiculous, we are encouraging baby talk for black people! Would you encourage a baby to continue baby talk or encourage them to speak to be understood?

I am not ashamed of my skin color, I am ashamed of the association people make with my skin color and Darktown! I am pursuing the American dream, I never dream of the "Ghetto." I am educated and successful in my life and there is nothing that Darktown can offer me. I have not turned my back on anyone, I have only looked to the future where everyone should be looking for themselves!

The Dark Town mentality described in Hamblin's book is so accurate and true to life you can change a few minor details and have it fit the Darktown in *your* area! His political ideals and agendas are right on, we have to rid our country of the... liberals for Black people to truly be free from them (our)selves!

Everyone should read this book -- black people so they can see for themselves that it is okay to escape Darktown and join other Americans in perusing the dream, white people and non black people so that they see we are not all like the those in Darktown.
It should be on the reading list of ALL inner-city schools!

KEN HAMBLIN FOR PRESIDENT!!

Ken Hamblin's story of his plight as an inner-city youth, his tour in the Army and the success his "bootstrap" mentality earned him is truly inspring. Pick A Better Country is filled with Hamblin's passion, provacative wit and insight gained by overcoming many obstacles to live the American dream. Hamblin insists that America is the best country in the history of civilization for anyone who is willing to seize this country's opportunities and commit to the traditional values of right and wrong. An educational and entertaining read.

Compared to Ken Hamblin, Rush Limbaugh looks like a liberal, Laura Schlessinger is an advocate of sensitivity training, and Pat Buchanan sounds like a wishy-washy moderate with inchoate opinions. Hamblin is no fan of whiners constantly looking for a target to blame so they can dwell in their perpetual victim status. As a child of a welfare family, he brings strong credence to his condemnation of government handouts that enslave generations. He is not craven about attacking misguided multi-cultural mendacity that creates class warfare and demeans patriotism. Among his other beta noirs--loosened morality, anti-American sentiments, feel good education policies that shortchange students, the worship of self-esteem, and liberal politicians whose dumb policies do widespread harm to those they profess to be trying to help.

Besides his wise social commentary, Ken Hamblin is a captivating raconteur. Reading about his first visit to the isolated village of Atlantic City, Wyoming (NOT New Jersey) I saw the innumerable stars twinkling in the endless sky, and when he relates his solo scuba diving adventure in the eerie murkiness of Lake Powell, I felt myself actually wanting to come up for air.

Ken Hamblin is justified in boasting that he is living the American Dream. To achieve his goals he needed to surmount two kinds of racism. As a young man, many "whites-only" doors slammed in his face, and once he achieved his success he found many rigid liberals unwilling to accept a challenging black voice that did not hew to stereotypical standards.

My only complaint is that the book's subtitle "An Unassuming Colored Guy Speaks His Mind About America" contains a completely inappropriate word. Ken Hamblin is about as "unassuming" as a tsunami/earthquake combination.

Hamblin exposes the condescending, self-congratulating , self-serving liberal establishment that has exploited black Americans for the last 3 decades. The liberals, who claim to be so "tolerant", reveal their true intolerance when Hamblin speaks the truth about their leftist, anti-American agenda. He's a great American!

Ken Hamblin came up the hard way and has little sympathy or patience for anybody who is a practicing member of the cult of victimology. I promise you that your mouth will fall open at least once on each chapter because you will be shocked. Mr. Hamblin says what others only whisper in the privacy of their own homes. The book is harsh, but ultimately hopeful. It's funny in places and tragic in others. It's a well written manifesto of Mr. Hamblin's veiws. He's not trying to convice anyone of anything he simply lays it all out and tells the reader to take it or leave it.

Mr. Hamblin is DEFINITELY making liberals uncomfortable with his hard-hitting book. I only hope that the "open-minded" will give this tome a thoughtful reading and question themeselves that they may just be wrong and Mr. Hamblin is right. A must-read regardless of your political affiliation.

Anyone dealing with such politically explosive subject matter makes an inviting target for many people. When a conservative black man raised in poverty initiates a frontal assualt on black society in America, too many people will refuse to hear him with an open mind. Which is a shame, because Hamblin makes more compelling arguments than most black political leaders on many of the root causes of ongoing social turmoil in black America.
Hamblin obviously believes that his background entitles him to lash out on topics that would be politically incorrect suicide for most commentators. At times he takes it too far and loses focus, and at times the book begins to read like a transcript of his radio show rather than well-organized writing. And, some of the late chapters lose their zip because they are no longer shocking just to be reading, and digging into their arguments they are really just rehashing the earlier stuff.
That said, some of the chapters will shock, outrage, surprise, and gratify you. Hamblin is not afraid to say what a lot of people are really thinking. Even if you disagree with his views, you must accept that they are legitimate and worthy of consideration. Simply dismissing him is counter-productive and does nothing to address the issues he poignantly raises.