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I was born on what is called the ‘Northend’ of Detroit in one of the city’s toughest neighborhoods. I was drafted into the Army the year they had the biggest call up of the Vietnam War. The unit I was a part of trained to go to Vietnam, however half went to the jungles of Southeast Asia while the other half deployed to the ‘asphalt’ jungle on the Southside of Chicago. I came to realize, this was really two wars that our government was waging, and how horribly insane the entire conflict was. Here I was a young black kid from Detroit with relatives living on the Southside told to do what it took to stop the rebelling, shooting, and looting. One of the reasons American soldiers were seen as the enemy back then is because on both fronts, we fought against people who were fighting for their freedom over here and over there. I came home disappointed, angry, lost, and confused. I sought companionship in what we called ‘street life’. Thus, I am a graduate of the school of hard knocks along with later becoming a graduate of a four-year college university. I feel it is my duty to help plan a better life for ourselves, our children, and our children’s children.

The tale begins during the Vietnam War with Uncle Sam drafting so many very young men into the military right after high school. My main character’s only desire is to marry his high school sweetheart and raise a family. Enters the war completely disrupting his life like so many countless other young men. The 1960’s offered its own problems with the civil rights movement throughout the south, student protest on college campuses, along with more conflicts happening in the U.S. cities than any other time since the Civil War. The story takes us on a path of uncertainty in lives that become a part of this roller coaster ride through thirty years of a host of personal loves, loss, dramas, tragedies, triumphs, and many life lessons. It tells about every-day people and the impact the times has on their lives, that will unexpectedly follow those involved. It points out the killing or murder of love and innocence. Followed by the birth of violence, death, and destruction that enters into our whole society continuing to this very day.

Newspaper  
United States, Los Angeles, California 
Tuesday, January 3, 2023

Headline: I.G.  “A Tell of Two Wars,” by Ishmael Graham, Takes Readers Back to an America in Turmoil Unlike Any Other Since the Civil War

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