The Strawberry Statement (by James Simon Kunen)

[H2O Man]

This 1968 "Notes of a College Revolutionary" should be read by all young people fighting the bush administration's policies, and re-read by the older generation.

"There are those who want an armed Revolution and I am not one of them. Not just now. But I do have a statement to make at this time, gentlemen.

Since the First Republic of the United States is one hundred ninety-two years old, and I am nineteen, I will give it one more chance ....

We need good schools and houses for people to live in and it could be done and we're going to make this country do it. I'm going to stay mad until things change. You change them, or we change them. I don't care. But the choice isn't going to be yours much longer.

I do not want to fight in Vietnam, of course. But I also don't want to have to fight the draft, or fight the law, or fight anything. I'm a nineteen-year-old civilian, and I'm tired of fighting.

One of these days I may fight in earnest and altogether so that I won't have to fight anymore."

[drb]

1. Link?

[H2O Man]

2. it's a book

published in 1968('69,'70) Avon Books in arrangement with Random House Library of Congress Catalog Card # 69-16455