{"id":4414,"date":"2026-05-25T14:23:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T19:23:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/?p=4414"},"modified":"2026-05-25T14:23:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T19:23:14","slug":"the-decent-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/?p=4414","title":{"rendered":"The Decent Man"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Mirador, who becomes Juan de la Cruz Bardero, appears in all three of the Arthur Stone books. A former special forces officer, Bardero first appears as the \u201cWatcher,\u201d an operative sent into sensitive areas to watch and report. Unfortunately, in Marshland<\/em>, Mirador is betrayed, nearly killed, and must hide from the government he faithfully served. It is the beginning of a new life.[1]<\/a> Mirador grew up on a ranch in South Texas of a family of immigrants who came from Mexico in the 1920\u2019s, when Mexico experienced political and economic unrest. Orphaned in his teenage years, he ended up enlisting in the armed forces and served in Viet Nam. A special forces operative, he was still active in the early 1980\u2019s when Marshland <\/em>takes place.<\/p>\n

At the beginning of Marshland<\/em>, Mirador is betrayed by someone. He was supposed to die during his mission in Mexico but fate saves him. Searching for a safe hiding place, his family in Mexico send him to a monastery outside of San Miguel de Allende, where he becomes an oblate in the Benedictine order while in hiding. \u00a0In Marshland<\/em>, he is part of the uncovering of the connections between events in Mexico and the Texas Savings and Loan Crisis. During this time, he becomes friends with Arthur Stone and Ahn Winchester. After the events of Marshland<\/em>, Mirador, now Juan Bardero, becomes a business man in San Miguel with Arthur, Gwynn, and Ahn as business partners.<\/p>\n

In Peace at Battle Mountain<\/em>, Arthur is forced to investigate a suspicious death in Los Cabos on the Pacific coast of Mexico. Bardero is the person who is responsible for personally undertaking the investigation. In the process, he meets and falls in love with Maria Mendoza, who appears in Marshland<\/em> as well. Maria already has a child by a short-lived relationship. He appears again in Leviathan and the Lambs<\/em>. Now in late middle age, he is called upon to assist Arthur in saving a member of his family.<\/p>\n

The Decent Man<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the series, Bardero represents the decent man. He faithfully serves is country, his family, and his friends, often without being seen and without recognition. He is one of countless people who serve their nation and families in good and bad situations, not always agreeing with what is being done, but doing their own part with honor and strength. Not surprisingly, his life is punctuated with drama that others create while he brings a justice and health to the situations in which he becomes involved.<\/p>\n

I am writing this on Memorial Day 2026. Memorial Day is a day in which we celebrate the many men and women who placed themselves in harm\u2019s way to protect the liberties we enjoy. As I write this there are many, many John Mirador\u2019s quietly going about the business of protecting our freedoms while decently living out their own private lives. Some of them are far from home and loved ones, a few I suspect are in very dangerous and hostile places, watching.<\/p>\n

My Father<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>On Memorial Day and other days, I remember and celebrate the life of my father. Born in 1921, he was of draft age when World War II began. He served first in the Marine Corps and then in the Navy commanding a small ship as a First Lieutenant. After the war, he joined the FBI where he served for another thirty or so years. After retiring from the FBI he was a City Counselman and then Mayor of Springfield, Missouri. If you put it all together, he served our country in one capacity or another for fifty or more years\u2014all of his adult life. He did not get rich in government or politics. He and Mom struggled to put two sons through college and to pay off debts from an accident that nearly ended both their lives. The driver of the car that hit them was uninsured. John Mirador is a fictional character. Dad was the \u201creal deal,\u201d decent man who did his duty to God, family and country and expected little in return.<\/p>\n

Our news today is filled with political stories. One of them that caught my eye is about a candidate for public office who refuses to salute the American flag. I posted a simple reply: \u201cYou cannot lead with wisdom a person or organization you don\u2019t love.\u201d There is plenty to be said for developing a critical attitude towards our government and our culture. However, there is a limit. When people no longer love a country, a culture, a business, a church, or whatever, they cannot possibly heal it. All they can do is destroy\u2014and what they build in its place will likely be a harmful monstrosity born of anger and rage instead of love and care for others.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n

This Memorial Day we are home with one of our children and a grandchild visiting. Soon, it will be June 6. During the seventy fifty anniversary year of D-Day, Kathy and I made a pilgrimage to Normandy. As a student of the battle, I enjoyed seeing the reality of what I had seen on maps and read about in books. But the most moving moment was visiting the cemetery where those who fell that day are buried. Rows upon rows of young men who never had a family, a career, children, or grandchildren. Instead, in terrifying and terrified wave after wave they landed on that beach behind their graves where they died for a nebulous notion of freedom and America\u2019s call to preserve that freedom. My Dad and Grandfather came back from World War II. Today, we celebrate the lives of those who did not.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026, G. Christopher Scruggs, All Rights Reserved\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> This blog, as have three recent blogs deals with what I call the Arthur Stone series, written under the pen name, \u00a0Alystair West, The books are Marshland<\/em> <\/strong>(Westbow, 2023)<\/strong>; <\/strong>Peace at Battle Mountain<\/em> <\/strong>(Quansus, 2024)<\/strong>; <\/strong>Leviathan and the Lambs<\/em> <\/strong>(Quansus & Bookbaby, 2026), <\/strong>all<\/strong> written under the pen name Alystair West and available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and from other vendors.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John Mirador, who becomes Juan de la Cruz Bardero, appears in all three of the Arthur Stone books. A former special forces officer, Bardero first appears as the \u201cWatcher,\u201d an operative sent into sensitive areas to watch and report. Unfortunately, in Marshland, Mirador is betrayed, nearly killed, and must hide from the government he faithfully … Continue reading The Decent Man<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4CzBH-19c","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4414"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4414\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4416,"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4414\/revisions\/4416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}