Symposia Community Events – July 2009

New York City artist and writer Dennis Cieri dramatizes his experiences as a young 19 year old who received a draft notice to volunteer for the Vietnam War in Drafted – his just released book published by PaperSlate Productions. Inspired by true events, Cieri takes his audience back to 1971 – during the rage and controversy of the Vietnam War – and relives the experience of how he stood up for his rights and refused to sign papers that volunteered him for the United States Army. His refusal to sign papers automatically dismissed him from joining the troops in Vietnam. And that made Cieri very happy.

“It was very simple, really,” says Cieri. “When I tell this story, people just cannot believe that I did this and, as a result, did not go to Vietnam. Like millions of Americans, I was strongly opposed to the principles of the Vietnam War and on the day I was at the Army Induction Center in Fort Hamilton, Brooklyn I stood my ground and told them I was not volunteering. I basically refused to sign a form — an actual invitation from President Nixon — that stated I volunteer. The problem is that I did not volunteer. I was being forced to sign the letter and I simply would not do it. It was very spontaneous and very simple. I remember quite vividly feeling very confident in my decision and proud that I stood up for what I truly believe in. He recalls the captain being completely surprised by Cieri’s reaction and not knowing what to do. In the book, I took one day, one experience and emphasized how this truly became a turning point in my life.”

In the book, Cieri humorously details the accounts of his induction process from the moment he received his first draft notice to the day he was taken on a bus with other draftees to the Army Induction Center. He explains how he tore up the first two draft notices in hopes that they would go away. But the third one was his call to action and he had no choice but to go to the Army Induction Center. “There were not a lot of options at the time. Being sent to prison was not an option, so I went with dozens of other young kids from my neighborhood.” The book revisits the Vietnam Era and talks about the draft that was a large part of life in the 1970s and something every young man had to think and worry about. Cieri recalls so many of his friends and neighbors going to Vietnam, and some tragically that never returned. “Looking back, I do not regret what I did. I simply had to stand up for what I wholeheartedly believed in. My big mouth probably saved my life.”

Cieri, now 56, recalls how he partied two weeks before he had to go and resisted the process every step of the way. “It was a difficult time in America. There was uneasiness in the country and it was a vulnerable time for everyone. In the end, I am proud that I was firm in my beliefs.”

Drafted is also a book about lessons that any reader of any age can appreciate. In this entertaining monologue, Cieri reveals a variety of turning points: his right for freedom of speech, his right for self expression and his right to stand up for what he believed in. Cieri’s experience of being drafted taught him many life lessons – lessons that truly transformed him. “That one day as a young teen taught me to believe in myself and to stand by my position, despite opposing views. That changed my life forever.”

Drafted is sold online via DennisCieri.com and Amazon,com for the suggested retail price of $12.00 and available shortly at local and regional bookstores. More information on Dennis Cieri can be found on his Fan Page at FaceBook.

Drafted is also being performed as a one-man show (monologue) at various venues in New York City throughout June and July.

John loves poetry and prose and art and music and films and women and is willing to discuss his love of each of them with anyone who comes around.

Gladis Murphy is a certified Practitioner of The Resonance Repatterning System and also amember of the Board Of Directors of the Association of Resonance Repatterning Practitioners in the US.