April 15, 2012 (SOAPBOX #128) - Cindy brings us the powerful & moving story of S. Brian Willson (No: not that one, not the Beach Boys vocalist.) This one's the peace activist, with his own web site, S. Brian Willson. After serving in the Vietnam War, S. Brian Willson became a radical, nonviolent peace protester and pacifist, and this memoir details the drastic governmental and social change he has spent his life fighting for. Chronicling his personal struggle with a government he believes to be unjust, Willson sheds light on the various incarnations of his protests of the U.S. government, including the refusal to pay taxes, public fasting, and, most famously, public obstruction. On September 1, 1987, Willson was run over by a U.S. government munitions train during a nonviolent blocking action in which he expected to be removed from the tracks. Providing a full look into the tragic event, Willson, who lost his legs in the incident, discusses how the subsequent publicity propelled his cause toward the national consciousness. Twenty three years later, Willson told his story of social injustice, nonviolent struggle, and the so-called American way of life. He wrote Blood on the Tracks: The Life and Times of S. Brian Willson. He tells an inspiring tale of a "good boy" from New York state who volunteered to "fight Communism," was sent 9,000 miles from his home and ordered to kill Vietnamese civilians, thus creating his own personal "Howard Zinn" moment of profound regret.
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