I have to do this(1)

Some things I do for “me”. Other things I do for “not me”. Of course, it’s all for me, one way or the other, if I believe in choice.

Growing up during the Vietnam War, I had a choice put in front of me every day. As I edged towards 18, the day I would be required to register for the draft, I asked myself, “Will I go?” Patriotic duty, civic duty, would I offer to give my life? Was I willing to die for what America was doing in Vietnam?

Even before I had to make my choice, I would watch the news every night with my family. Walter Cronkite was the man back then. He was the anchor for CBS. Reminded me of Captain Kangaroo. A face I could trust. Live footage of the fighting(2) with body counts, like a football score, left me feeling angry. How could a life be reduced to a number? I began studying non-violence and participating in war protests.

By the time I was 18, in August of 1972, I was campaigning for Senator George McGovern. He was the anti-war Democratic candidate running against President Nixon. It was the first election where 18-year-olds were given the right to vote. When I turned 18, I registered to vote. I also registered for the draft, even though I knew I would refuse to serve. My choice would be to move to Canada or go to prison.

Nixon won by a landslide. The Paris peace talks, on and off since 1968, were finally signed in January 1973. On March 8th, my draft lottery number was chosen: 181. But by then, it was unlikely anyone would be called up. The choice was made for me. I would not serve.

I went off to college in late summer of 1973, committed to serving my community in non-violent ways. I became a lacto-ovo vegetarian (which I am still to this day). As fate would have it, my college roommate had the same passion for service as I did. For the past 50 years we have supported each other to follow our dreams of making the world a better place.

This year I turn 71, and I still get value from knowing, at least for some things, “I have to do this”.
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(1) This was today's prompt from Collective Journaling led by Peter Limberg, which I was offered through the Internet Real Life sessions from The Dark Forest Collective on Metalabel:

Welcome to Collective Journaling, a place where we write in silence, together… with music :)

Song of the day: Prisencolinensinainciusol https://open.spotify.com/track/0HQf0bd3oSZei450iKuUFR?si=88ab6e157a564a93

Quote of the day: "There are no strangers here, just friends who haven't met," Ray Oldenburg, Celebrating the Third Place

Prompt of the day: If we define an “existential project” as a project that produces real-world results (personal skill-building, goal accomplishment, etc.), is important to your (and others’) existence, and feels heavy—something easy to avoid but accompanied by an internal whisper that says, “You have to do this”—then what would your existential project be? (Or just write about whatever is alive or bothersome for you today.)

 (2) WARNING! It is hard to watch this newscast of U.S. soldiers burning houses in Vietnam as reported by Morely Safer, and aired by Walter Cronkite, in 1965: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0AmOw06lA0 .