 July/August 2003
American Friends Service Committee Peacework Magazine Patrica Watson, Editor Sara Burke, Assistant Editor Pat Farren, Founding Editor 2161 Massachusetts Ave. Telephone number: Fax number:
pwork@igc.org Peacework has been published monthly since 1972, intended to serve as a source of dependable information to those who strive for peace and justice and are committed to furthering the nonviolent social change necessary to achieve them. Rooted in Quaker values and informed by AFSC experience and initiatives, Peacework offers a forum for organizers, fostering coalition-building and teaching the methods and strategies that work in the global and local community. Peacework seeks to serve as an incubator for social transformation, introducing a younger generation to a deeper analysis of problems and issues, reminding and re-inspiring long-term activists, encouraging the generations to listen to each other, and creating space for the voices of the disenfranchised. Views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of the AFSC. |
Face to Face with War Patrol: An American Soldier in Vietnam, Walter Dean Myers, illustrated by Ann Grifalconi (HarperCollins 2002) Eoin Gaj is a 16-year-old dancer who also works as a page at the Cambridge Public Library. He first encountered Patrol shelving it one day.
“My body shakes. I tell my self that I will not die on this bright day... My chest tightens. I wipe my sweaty palms. I bite back my tears.” Patrol follows the emotions of a young soldier in a squad that is sneaking though a forest to secure a Vietnamese village. At first our GI thinks only of his enemy, the land of the enemy, fear of the enemy, needing to kill the enemy. After a few pages they reach their target and storm in, but the enemy turns out to be only farmers, elderly people, and crying babies. He knows though that there are other enemies, enemies that are strong and young. Then crawling through a field of grass he comes face to face with the real enemy. They stare at each other, neither one of them able to shoot. They are both the same, they are both the enemy. Walter Dean Myers is a prolific author for children and young adults. Born into a poor family living in Harlem, he joined the army on his seventeenth birthday during the Vietnam War, but when his brother, also a soldier, died, his thoughts on war changed forever. Written as a free verse poem, the text moves the reader through a series of beautiful yet haunting collages by Ann Grifalconi, words and art working perfectly together to paint a portrait of conflict that will not be forgotten. Though Patrol is an image of war in its true light, it is not a gruesome book, hence it is a suitable read for children of all ages. What I find most powerful is that it does not tell you what to think; it simply takes you inside the thoughts of a young soldier and lets you decide for yourself, is war really worth its price? 
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