The Seventh Flag

Before 1986, Texas enjoyed a world-class image. Due to the oil crisis, the Savings and Loan debacle, bank failures, and the real estate market crash, Texas is on the verge of economic collapse. With tragedy striking all around, Sidney Gordon's life is about to change along with the future of her home state. After the death of her husband, Sidney is encouraged by Oliver Eberly, a Texas businessman and former United States congressman, to accept the job of press secretary for the governor of Texas. For the first time, she finds herself compromised by her personal responsibilities as a mother and her own undefined ambitions as a woman. Thrown into a world both foreign to her experience and nature, Sidney must rise to the challenge and tap into her inner reserves with the determination and tenacity of a pumping East Texas oil well. Often stretched beyond her limits with one high-pressure conflict after another, Sidney discovers that the destiny of the state lies in her hands. With the backing of her blue-ribbon committee of scholars and experts, she forms the Austin Agenda and heads to Washington with a solution so controversial it stalks the thin line of treason.

The US and Europe have unraveled since World War II and radicalism has metastasized into every community, tearing away the decency, optimism, and security that shaped those robust democracies for more than eight decades. No place is immune, including the small West Texas town of Dell City, where four generations of an iconic American family and a Syrian Muslim family carve a farming empire out of the unforgiving high desert. These families’ partnership is as unlikely as the idea of a United States, and their powerful friendship can be traced back to a bloody knife fight in a Juarez cantina just after World War II. The bond forged that night between Jack Laws, an Irish American who staked his claim in West Texas after the war, and Ali Zarkan, whose great-grandfather sailed from the Middle East to Texas in the mid-1800s as part of President Franklin Pierce’s attempt to create the US Army Camel Corps, shapes each generation of the families as they come of age and adapt to shifting paradigms of gender, commerce, patriotism, loyalty, religion, and sexuality. From the beaches of the Western Pacific to the battlefields of the Middle East and from the lawless streets of Juarez to the darkest corners of the Internet, the two families fight real and perceived enemies—journeying, as they do, through the football fields of Texas and West Point, the hippie playgrounds of Asia, the music halls of Austin, the terrorist cells of Europe and the political backrooms where fortunes are gained or lost over the rights to Western water. Underlying their experiences is the basic question of what constitutes identity and citizenship in America, or in Texas, a land over which six flags have flown. The seventh flag, ultimately, is not one of a state or a nation, but of a mosaic of cultures, religions, and people from every corner of the world—all struggling to define what it means to be unified under an ambiguous banner.

Little is known about the Indians in North America. At best, they are displayed as ignorant savages whose only purpose was to impede the progress of civilization. Consequently, historians frequently overlook the contributions made by American Indians. The Comanche Indians in Texas had a decided influence in the making of an independent Texas. The Comanches, themselves, were not aware of their contribution. The Comanches, though, were as important to Texas as Stephen Austin and Sam Houston. These three entities when combined made for an independent Texas. If any one of the three defaulted or were absent, there would not have been a Texas as we know it. This book introduces the reader to the Comanche's way of life; their government, and their uniqueness as a people. The reader comes away with the knowledge that the Comanches, although lived in the Stone Age, were human beings with aspirations much like other people. Early in the life of Texas, political forces began to focus on Texas. Spain had claimed Texas for 300 years but never really had an interest in Texas. Nevertheless, Spain feared that its European rivals, Britain and France, coveted Texas. Spain did not have resources to control events without help from outside its system. Through diplomacy, Spain hoped to control Texas and to keep it as its own by inviting Americans to live in Texas as Spanish citizens. A key factor in this decision was Comanche raiders crossing the Rio Grande into Mexico. Might the Comanches then raid nearby American settlements in Texas rather than crossing into Mexico?

Charlie Christmas, Ademar Zarkan, and Prometheus Stone are the best of America—united by war, scarred by displacement, and resolute in the face of the troubles that rip the nation apart over three decades. Christmas, a Somali translator with a split personality, and Zarkan, a Muslim sharpshooter who defies gender and religious constraints to graduate from West Point, are first brought together by Stone, a lapsed Jew and an Army captain, amidst war and famine in East Africa. Their ensuing journey—which takes them from the mean streets of Mogadishu to the high desert of West Texas, from the barren plains of Indian country to the rolling hills of Minnesota—is at turns tragic and uplifting. Charlie’s son, Amir, is the bookmark in their lives, and the struggle to raise him amid the predators of white supremacy and violent radicalism is their life’s work. With the help of Buck, the bomb-sniffing dog with a nose for danger, they prevail over Somali militias, pirates, white supremacists, and ISIS terrorists in a splintering world that has turned on itself like a serpent in the singularly obscene act of devouring its own tail. A sweeping novel that digs deep into the backstories of some of the beloved West Texas characters from Seventh Flag, Balman’s award-winning debut novel, Murmuration is a mesmerizing story of what it means to be American in the twenty-first century.

Learn leadership skills to rise above the status quo and do whatever it takes to achieve your vision with this practical and inspirational guide. Everyone faces challenges on a daily basis. They range from inconveniences and temporary setbacks to major life events that can permanently alter someone’s trajectory. These challenges have the power to define us or even defeat us—but only if we let them. Because no matter what gets in the way, every person gets to decide how their story plays out. Survivor contestant Carolyn J. Rivera knows this first-hand. She’s experienced the discouragement of defeat as well as the realization that everyone has the power within them to overcome life’s greatest challenges. Through personal stories, relatable examples, and specific calls to action, Plant Your Flag breaks down the steps necessary to pick yourself up, get ahead, and lead the charge to VICTORY no matter what path you’re on.

Flags of the Native peoples of the United States proudly display symbols of tribal traditions, art, and culture. In Native American Flags, Donald T. Healy and Peter J. Orenski present an encyclopedic look at the flags and histories of 183 Native American tribes throughout the United States. Listing Indian nations alphabetically, this fully indexed reference includes both federally recognized tribes and other groups, and offers an image of each tribe’s flag and a map of their location within the United States. Each entry includes a brief summary of the tribe’s history, presents information on contemporary Indian peoples, and describes and illustrates in detail the symbolism and imagery of each Native American flag. A gallery of color plates includes full-color representations of 192 historic and contemporary Native flags. The authors visited more than two dozen reservations and surveyed more than 250 tribal governments, working closely with them to produce this authoritative volume. A portion of their original research on Native American flags was published in Raven, the journal of the North American Vexillological Association, an organization devoted to the scientific study of flags. This thoroughly revised and updated edition includes more than fifty new flags and accompanying tribal listings and full-color representations of each flag. Carl Waldman’s foreword places the flags within the context of Indian history, mythology, and art, and shows how Native American flags have become powerful symbols of Native unity and tribal sovereignty.