I'm a 72-year-old American who served in Vietnam as a naive 19-year-old. From that moment on, I've been studying and re-thinking what US counter-insurgency war means. I live outside of Philadelphia, where I'm a writer, photographer and political activist. I have been a member of Veterans For Peace for 40 years. I think America and Americans are living through a complex cultural and economic reckoning we do not fully understand. I'm convinced we, as Americans, need to re-evaluate who we are and, in the process, ratchet down the imperial world policeman role we too often take for granted. A nation of our size must stay engaged diplomatically in the world and protect ourselves from attack; but for our own good and the good of the world, we need to better look after our own nation's problems. I like good writing, good film, good music and good times. I drink alcohol and, yes, smoke a doobie now and then. I say this publicly because I think the Drug War is an abject and hypocritical failure. Much worse and more corrupting than Prohibition ever was; the gangs that have been spawned are far worse and more dangerous than Al Capone. I taught writing in a Philly prison for 12 years and met too many poor, African American young men stuck in there for some stupid drug crime. I'm a committed pragmatist who actually subscribes to the old right-wing formula: My Country Right Or Wrong. When our government is wrong, which it is a lot of the time, I'm happy to say that. I plan to stick around.