Fallon to Launch Tour of New Book

Press Release from Ed Fallon:

DES MOINES — On Sunday, December 2, 2:00 p.m. at 500 E. Locust Street (third floor) in Des Moines, Ed Fallon will launch his book Marcher, Walker, Pilgrim. The book is Fallon’s memoir from the Great March for Climate Action — the 2014 march from Los Angeles to Washington, DC when a core of 35 marchers walked 3,100 miles in eight months.

“While this book is deeply personal and reveals details of my life few are aware of, my motive in writing Marcher, Walker, Pilgrim was to rouse people to take action against the existential threat of climate change,” said Fallon. “The urgency I felt during the March is now greater than ever. I hope this story inspires people to mobilize to fight climate change immediately, before it’s too late.”

Through candid introspection, Fallon weaves four threads throughout the narrative:

(1) A changing climate regularly threatens the vulnerable, exposed March community,

(2) As the miles unfold, Fallon struggles with his search for love and meaning,

(3) Climate change is already impacting the lives of people marchers meet along the way,

(4) Internal disputes threaten to tear the March apart.

Here are a few excerpts from the book:

“We arrive at our campsite in a park in Gibbon to an almost warlike scene. Large hail stones have broken glass and smashed cars. Siding has been ripped off buildings, paint stripped from houses. In the park, mature trees that normally would provide shade are half naked, their foliage shredded by hail. I try to imagine what would have happened to our tents, vehicles, and bodies had we camped here the previous night when the storm struck.” (from Chapter 25)

“For better or worse, somewhere in the middle of the last century, there occurred a seismic shift in how American males regarded romantic relationships. The love-intoxicated, idealistic man-hero of Victorian times sobered up. He accepted the fact that divine forces weren’t simply going to guide him to his true love, where recognition of their predestined union would be mutual and instantaneous. … He wisely pivoted his strategy, seized the initiative, and began to spend prodigious amounts of time in bars.” (from Chapter 4)

“In my tent along an Arizona highway, two days’ walk from Phoenix, I imagine that when I again fall asleep my dreams will guide me back to that moment with Grace, guide me to a realm of time and space where our waltz never ends, where her head forever rests against my shoulder, her hand fitting perfectly in mine, my other hand around her waist, holding her close, dancing slowly, spinning ever onward beyond turmoil, beyond pain and suffering, beyond eternity itself.” (from Chapter 11)

“The 19-mile march to Gary, Indiana takes us through East Chicago and Whiting, past the most disturbing industrial carnage most of us have ever witnessed. We pass miles of smoke stacks and flaming towers — garish monuments exposing the lie behind modernity’s sanitized facade. Of all the ugliness we’ve seen on the March this is the worst.” (from Chapter 34)

Ed Fallon’s life of public service includes 14 years in Iowa Legislature. Since 2009, Fallon has hosted a weekly talk show, the Fallon Forum. He also directs Bold Iowa, a non-profit organization whose mission is to build rural-urban coalitions to fight climate change. Marcher, Walker, Pilgrim is his first book.