Occupation

Michael is one of the men camping at College Green Park with me. He lost his brother in the Afghanistan war just over two weeks ago. Michael, who just passed the bar, lives across the street, in one of the homes bordering College Green, and while he could go home any time, he says he's not leaving the park until things start to change. Across from him sits a teacher whose name I did not catch. He is bald and has the slightly sunken features of a chemotherapy recipient. He teaches social studies to middle school students, and tells us he is here because he believes health and the ability to live a life free from illness is a basic human right as opposed to being a business. In other words, health is not a good to be bought and sold and traded.

During a discussion by a gentleman from Veterans for Peace, a young man stands and identifies himself by name and rank as a Marine and veteran of the war. He tells the group of his time in Afghanistan, how they bombed a house on bad intelligence and instead of killing combatants, the Marines mistakenly killed two young children. In response, the people of the village waged an attack on the Marines, who were then ordered to take the village. The young corporal's job was to lead a squad on house-to-house searches, "But I could see how this was just going to keep going," he tells us. "We made a mistake. These people were just protecting themselves and their families from us." He and his squad sat down and had tea with one of the homeowners instead.