Status Updates From Battle Fatigue

I like the way this is written, fairly literary. Yayyy literary YA!

Next on deck!

its really good so far

The day before Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed, he talked about how people who didn't stand up for anything were dead although they didn't know it.

I got turned down for conscientious objector status and then turned down again on my appeal. All this took so long that by the time I am leaving for Canada, I hear Tony Scaratini is already done with boot camp and has been deployed to Vietnam.

When I think about the reality that in a year or two I could be in Vietnam, I find it hard to believe that I would actually kill people. I can imagine being in the military, being in a war. I have imagined it all my life. But I can't imagine killing Vietnamese people. More to the point, I can't imagine how I will live with myself after I do.

It will be Sam's first demonstration and it will change him and help him to not be so straight. A good whiff of tear gas gives a kid perspective. I only have to convince him later not to give our parents all the details.

I am fifteen. I still have two and a half years before registering for the draft, but Vietnam will be there waiting. I am going to be asked to support freedom and protect peace in Southeast Asia - at any price.

I know that because I am a boy I will go to war. Boys in Haley go to war. I don't know who I am going to fight. Possibly the Germans or the Russians. It will come, probably when I turn eighteen. I am only seven now so I have a lot of time. I'm not worried. It's just what happens.