The Throes of War: A Soldier Boy 5/23/88

The Throes of War: A Soldier Boy 5/23/88

By Riche’ Deianne Richardson, Age 16

My American history teacher in eleventh grade, David Langhorst, who’s now in politics, was a great inspiration. He treated my classmates and me as college students, once had us over at his house, and taught us history with passion and energy. From the Vietnam War to civil rights, he brought the sixties to life for us and made me wish that I’d been there. Though I grew up in Montgomery, Alabama, my understanding of civil rights history expanded exponentially when he showed us segments of “Eyes on the Prize.” That’s where I first learned about the Lowndes County Freedom Organization, which I later wrote about in my first book as a scholar, and where I saw and was so impressed by the intelligence of the Little Rock Nine. He was also my advisor as student council vice-president that year. I dreamed of meeting a man someday even half as smart as he was when I grew up. He was a hero to so many of us. He was 29 then. He supported me and encouraged me as I ran for student council president at the end of that year. The day he told me, shortly after I won the election, that he wasn’t going to be coming back to teach there the next year, I cried when I got home, to be losing such a great teacher. I wrote the poem below, attempting to capture the voice and feelings of a young male soldier, I know, because of how my political consciousness expanded in his class on issues such as the Vietnam War and its continuing impact.

Before I had a chance to grow
A chance to be a man
I was held a prisoner
In a foreign land

Before I had a chance to live
A chance to love and grow
I had to face the enemy
War-my dreaded foe

Before I had a chance to learn
A chance to become myself
I had to fight for a worthless cause
A fight for someone else

I hardly had a chance to cry
A remote chance to survive
But all I ever truly wanted
Was to stay alive