Attack of the Three-Headed Hydras - A Book Review by Pete Warzel

Attack of the Three-Headed Hydras: Confronting Apathy, Envy and Fear on the road to saving humans and the future by Katherine Ortega Courtney, PhD and Dominic Cappello*
Reviewed by Pete Warzel

Self-published
275 pages, paperback
$9.33 from Amazon or through www.tenvitalservices.org

I have a cartoon on my hallway wall at home drawn by Dom Cappello – the Zombie Apocalypse on Canyon Road. It depicts residents of, and tourists visiting this great city, walking entranced by their cell phones and other mobile devices, addicted to the screen and not the beauty of the town around them. Dom was a resident here at El Zaguán, and as you know the apartments set aside for artists and writers front directly on the street, so there is plenty of opportunity to see the people going by, sleepwalking, as Dom would say in this new book by he and Catherine Ortega Cortney.

The purpose of the book is to awake these sleepwalkers to the danger of becoming anaesthetized to the social issues around them, especially during a time of COVID-19 crisis and political angst, and take action for the better health, physical mental and social, of all citizens in our state and nation. It is a fun read, humorous but pointed, in narrative and Dom’s signature cartoons, that calls to action, county by county, the means to ensure ten vital services for all. They delineate the five for survival: shelter, a secure food system, medical care, behavioral health care and transportation to all these vital services. Then five for thriving: parent support, early childhood learning programs, community schools with health services, youth mentoring, and job training. The impediment to these basic human needs is portrayed here as the three-headed hydra, and beware, they are everywhere, especially in big business and government at all levels, “…persons of power who obstruct progress while holding tight to a broken status quo….” The three heads are known to us all as Apathy, Envy, and Fear.

The book is a serious romp, an adult comic book of sorts where you, the potential hero, take on these three-headed hydras in bettering the conditions of our communities through services that are research proven to afford a healthy life for individuals and family. The fight is emphasized repeatedly to be on a “county by county basis,” grassroot politics. In a wonderful aside, the authors interview Mother Earth about “human extinction”, tied to the current pandemic but reaching into the consciousness of our human condition. The humor is biting: “This entire global sh-t show has nothing to do with what I want (Mother Earth). It’s about what you want. And trust me, you really want to be paying attention right now.” And, “Alone, a human is like a leaf in the wind. You’re fragile and prone to Netflix addiction. Collectively you might still have a chance.”

Technology is embraced here, data, analysis, process, and the logic of a plan to take on the issues on a local, county level. The authors believe that their approach through 5 services to survive and the additional 5 services to thrive will solve any number of social and health issues, that may seem totally disparate in their manifestations. In other words, the root causes of social problems are identifiable and quantifiable, and the answer is definable. This is the “100% Community Initiative” propounded by the authors, where 100% of the population has access to the vital services identified. Ktherine and Dom contend that a simple 1% of a county and/or a city budget, annually, can put in place the process for continuous improvement in quality of services.

If you want to engage in the betterment of services provided to 100% of the folks in your community, this book will help illuminate the path. It is well done and so very relevant to our time and place in New Mexico.

*Dominic Capello is a former artist-in-resident at HSFF’s El Zaguán.