Times Herald-Record
August 24, 2005

West's book, 'Dare to Hope,' is a call to arms for change

By Jeremiah Horrigan

New Paltz – He's been lampooned in Mad magazine, drooled over in People, pilloried in the New York Post and taken to court by Jerry Falwell.

Now Jason West, national celebrity and New Paltz mayor, has the podium to himself – no more sound bites, thank you – in his new book, "Dare to Hope," which hit the nation's bookstores a couple of days ago.

It's a slim volume and an ambitious one. Subtitled "How People (Not Politicians) Can Bring Democracy Back to America," the jacket blurb proclaims, "With this book, Jason West plants new hope into the political landscape."

The book is part political manifesto, part how-to manual, part call to arms.
The book will have been worth the effort, he writes, "if just one teenager finds it and understands that having firm beliefs and acting on them need not be 'just a phase.'"

While West's national notoriety rests on his decision to solemnize the marriages of 25 gay couples in the Village Hall parking lot more than a year ago, the book isn't limited to his recollections of those halcyon days in the winter sun, when – much to his surprise – all the world turned up to watch him break precedent, if not the law.

"Dare to Hope" had better hope for a healthier reception than it's received at the independent bookstore just down the street from Village Hall. The book arrived at Ariel Booksellers a couple of days ago to very little internal or external tub-thumping from its publisher, Miramax Books.

Lacking any discernible support from the publishers, "Dare to Hope" had sold a mere two copies at Ariel as of yesterday afternoon.

By contrast, a locally written, heavily promoted book about the gay marriage media circus, "Pride and Politics: The Tale of a Big Story in a Small Town," by Erin Quinn, has sold 150 copies.

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