Here's the statement I sent couragetoresist.org in honor of Conscientious Objectors Day:
I was 17 when I traveled by chartered bus with about 40 others from St. Louis to Washington, DC, for the Moratorium Against the War. I must be one of the luckiest people alive, because when we rallied at the Pentagon I wound up in the front row of demonstrators. From that position I got to see a young National Guardsman look at one International Red Cross/Crescent photo after another of toddlers whose faces had been napalmed. I watched his expression change from shock to disbelief to anger to fear to resolve. He stood up, said "My mama didn't bring me up to kill little kids!" unslung his rifle & set it on the ground and quit the National Guard right then and there. Being present for that is one of the most beautiful experiences of my life, and I bless that man every time I think of him. A National Lawyers' Guild member was there in about 30 seconds and got his information before the MP's could take him away.
The flame that lit in my heart has helped to carry me through the past 52 years of leftist activism.