Russell Jones' engrossing memoir, Honorable Intentions, is a story of adventure and heroism that becomes a personal journey of enlightenment as he breaks the bonds of supreme religious authority embedded at childhood and becomes immersed in public service as a police officer, soldier and spy, all with aspirations to contribute to the betterment of his fellow man. But along with the excitement and satisfaction of public service he comes to understand the dark corrupting influences imposed by those in leadership positions who depend upon men of his caliber to strip themselves of their individuality and become part of the collective though obedience, discipline, dedication, and pride, while they are exploited and used as the hunter/gatherers to feed the quota-based propaganda machines— traffic tickets, drug arrests and seizures, battlefield body counts— used to justify the tyrannical enforcement of failed public policy while the institutions they lead, once established to protect and serve, erode from the inside-out from the corruption of totalitarian ideology that always accompanies the perversions of coerced morality. This journey of enlightenment has served Russell Jones well as his voice today is an experienced, credible weapon used effectively in this book to expose and counter the failed 40-year ideology of totalitarian paternalism that we call the War on Drugs.
